How Can One Genuinely Cultivate Practice and Realization to Attain Direct Perception Wisdom

Many people take the dharma they have understood as if it were direct realization; moreover, their understanding is often quite shallow, and some of it is merely guesswork, inference, and speculation about the dharma. They cannot distinguish the boundaries and differences between understanding, interpretive awakening, and direct realization, and this great misunderstanding leads to grave false speech. Many answers and conclusions in the Buddha-dharma were given by the Buddha himself, and some were expounded by the great bodhisattvas and good teachers. In the course of one's own practice, understanding these conclusions and answers is not direct realization; it does not even count as interpretive awakening—one is still very far from it.

What is direct realization? For example, the Buddha said that all dharmas are like a dream, like an illusion. This is a conclusion reached by all Buddhas through cultivation and realization; it is the Buddha's realization. When others understand it, it is merely understanding—not even interpretive awakening. To truly realize that all dharmas are like a dream, like an illusion, one must reach the tenth dedication stage of a bodhisattva, soon qualifying to enter the first bhūmi. So can ordinary sentient beings, merely by reading and understanding that all dharmas are like a dream, like an illusion, directly become great bodhisattvas of the tenth dedication stage? Obviously impossible. They lack the precepts, meditation, and wisdom, and the bodhisattva's six perfections are incomplete—nothing has been cultivated to perfection. They have not even attained initial enlightenment, so how could they leap over nearly one great asaṃkhyeya kalpa to become great bodhisattvas of the tenth dedication stage?

If one wants to directly realize that the world of the five aggregates is like a dream, like an illusion, then on the foundation of fully cultivating the precepts, meditation, and wisdom, and the bodhisattva's six perfections, one must engage in contemplative practice and investigation from shallow to deep, sequentially realizing the dharma at each level—from the first gate and second gate of Chan all the way to the third gate—before one can finally realize the illusion-like contemplation. This takes many kalpas of time, cultivation approaching one great asaṃkhyeya kalpa. Understanding of "like a dream, like an illusion" itself has many levels, and even a complete, thorough, exhaustive understanding is not the same as direct realization, because there has been no actual process of investigation, no proof; the conclusion was not arrived at by oneself.

It is like a geometry proof problem: the final conclusion is given by the teacher, ready-made, not derived by oneself. One must prove it step by step oneself, with a process and steps, and only then can one prove the final conclusion given by the teacher. If the process is incomplete or untrue, even if one arrives at a conclusion consistent with the teacher's, it is still wrong—not realized through direct perception. The Buddha-dharma follows the same principle: everyone can state the final conclusion that all dharmas are like a dream, like an illusion. Though what they say is correct principle, it is still not their own realization through direct perception.

In the Buddha-dharma, the Buddha has given us countless final answers and conclusions, all contained in the Tripitaka and the twelve divisions of the scriptures. Even if we memorize the entire Tripitaka and the twelve divisions, even if we expound them eloquently, it is still not our own realization—it merely represents our understanding, and there is still a great gap from interpretive awakening, let alone direct realization. Every dharma the Buddha taught, even every single sentence, requires us to deliberate and investigate within profound meditative concentration, and to engage in contemplative practice in accordance with reality and principle, before we can possibly realize them one by one. Only the wisdom after direct realization is one's own wisdom of direct perception; otherwise, no teaching is one's own realization, and true wisdom does not correspond to what is said.

If one truly wants direct realization and to achieve something, one must even forget the relatively detailed aspects of contemplating the five aggregates, casting them behind. Just engage in contemplative practice and investigation; the details need to be clarified by oneself during contemplative practice, and only then can wisdom arise. Many people cannot apply their effort to the manas, because their meditative concentration is severely insufficient, and they can never grasp how to let the manas alone deliberate. With insufficient power of concentration, how could there be any such grasp? When one lacks meditative concentration, it is best not to investigate anything at all. If the mind consciousness is clever, it will "understand" quite a lot, but it has no real use—it is fine for playing with words, but of no practical value. For the mind consciousness, understanding the dharma in this way is worse than not understanding it; it is best to save it for investigation when meditative concentration improves and conditions are complete.