Intellectual Understanding Is Not Realization

Permanence, bliss, self, and purity are the four virtues of nirvāṇa. Permanence means that the Buddha's undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna) no longer undergoes seed mutation, forever remaining constant and unchanging. Bliss means that all of the Buddha's karmic obstructions have been exhausted without remainder; there are no seeds of suffering feeling left in His undefiled consciousness, and all that remains are wholesome karmic seeds of blissful feeling and neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling, with retributive feeling being the bliss of quiescence. Self means that in the Buddha's undefiled consciousness all karmic seeds of arising and ceasing have been extinguished, no longer burdened by karmic obstructions; it is the complete nature of self, and can thus be called "self." Purity means that the Buddha's undefiled consciousness has extinguished all defiled seeds, being thoroughly pure and without defilement.

The eighth consciousness is also obscured by karmic obstructions. If there are no seeds of karmic obstruction stored within the mind-essence, the eighth consciousness will manifest its inexhaustible merits, its light illuminating the great thousand worlds—no different from the Buddha's undefiled consciousness, with no dharma it does not pervade, no dharma it does not encompass, no dharma it does not manifest. But because sentient beings' eighth consciousness is limited by karmic obstructions, it cannot manifest extremely many sublime and wondrous states, cannot transform and create emanated bodies of sentient beings, cannot transform and create Buddha-lands, and cannot pervasively cognize all objects. What is meant by the eighth consciousness being limited is that it has endless meritorious functions that cannot be brought forth—not that it lacks sublime meritorious functions. At the Buddha-stage, the eighth consciousness is no longer subject to any limitation, and all its meritorious functions are brought forth in full.

Do you understand and know all the principles above? Could you explain them to others? In the study of the Dharma, all understanding and knowing falls upon the mind consciousness, not into the mind of the manas. Even though one has understood and known, one is still a hundred thousand miles away from realization—indeed perhaps far more than a hundred thousand miles. Even if one could expound it to others and write a hundred books, one would still be a hundred thousand miles from realization. Regarding the non-self of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha), even if one can understand it all and know it all, and one's understanding may be very deep and thorough, it is still not realization; perhaps one is still extremely far from realization. Regarding the eighth consciousness, no matter how one understands and knows it—and one's understanding may even be quite deep, such that one can even infer and work out the functions of the eighth consciousness—it still belongs to understanding, not realization; perhaps one is still extremely, extremely far from realization.

Many people take this kind of understanding to be realization. Those with good eloquence go around expounding the sutras and speaking the Dharma everywhere in the capacity of good teachers, with words flowing like a cascade. But no matter what, a dharma that enters by the ear and exits by the mouth is not realization. Take, for example, Su Dongpo's understanding of the Buddha-dharma: "The eight winds cannot blow me; I sit upright on the purple-gold lotus." The result was the Chan master's assessment: "Fart!" When Su Dongpo saw this, he immediately became displeased: I wrote something so good, and you call it a fart? So he at once crossed the river to find the Chan master and have it out with him. The Chan master said: "Aren't you the one whom the eight winds cannot blow? How is it that a single word, 'fart,' brought you running across the river to settle accounts with me?"

Therefore, knowing and understanding are of no use; only realization works. Some people say they have seen their true mind and attained enlightenment, yet as soon as they encounter a challenging state, they get carried away by it. Then they use their mind consciousness to admonish themselves, and they are fine for a while; when the state comes again, they get carried away by it again. Repeating like this for years, they cannot master themselves—have such people really realized the fruit and seen their true mind? If one cannot subdue even the coarsest afflictions, if upon meeting an attractive member of the opposite sex one cannot disregard them or remain unmoved, with one's thoughts soaring and unable to hold oneself in check—can such a person be one who has seen the true mind and realized the fruit? Whoever constantly uses the mind consciousness to suppress and persuade themselves has not realized. With true realization, one accomplishes precisely the degree to which one has realized.

Quite a few people also claim to have leaped the Dragon Gate like the carp. But they set the threshold of the Dragon Gate very, very low, or even dismantled the threshold altogether, and thus passed over with ease. In reality, they swam across rather than leaped across. Is this the carp leaping the Dragon Gate? Having swum across such a Dragon Gate, one is still a carp, not a dragon.