What Does It Take to Truly Realize Electricity?

Personally realizing electricity means that one of the five sense faculties, together with the manas, has contacted electricity, discerned electricity, and clearly known electricity. Discernment means clear, unambiguous discrimination and perception in direct perception (pratyakṣa); clearly knowing means knowing with direct perception and without doubt, having severed doubt. Regarding the meaning of severing doubt and being without doubt, many people still do not understand; in the future I will have to write another post to elaborate on this specifically, otherwise some people will again claim that they have severed doubt and are without doubt. The meanings of the terms "direct perception" (pratyakṣa) and "manifestly present" also need to be explained in more detail, with specifics and examples; otherwise some people still will not understand and will casually claim that they have had such-and-such direct, manifestly present experiences. Even when the meaning of every concept and term has been explained clearly, some people, as soon as their own interests are involved, will still quibble and claim how good and how correct they are. The obstacle posed by language is already considerable, and the obstacle posed by the human mind is even greater—such is the current condition of sentient beings in the Sahā world.

Personally realizing electricity means directly realizing electricity: either the eyes have seen electricity and truly discerned the state and appearance of electricity; or the ears have heard electricity and truly discerned the sound of electric current flowing; or the nose has smelled electricity and truly discerned its scent; or the tongue has tasted electricity and truly discerned its flavor; or the body has touched electricity and truly discerned its tactile sensation, with feeling arising. Knowing is not the same as realizing. To realize it, the manas and one of the five sense faculties must contact it, with a sensation of tingling and numbness, feeling the flow of the electric current and its distinctive characteristics. Knowing is something the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) infers by association—there is no sensation or feeling at all, and the nature and characteristics of the electric current are also unclear.

The difference between knowing and realizing is very great. For example, you may know where the endpoint of the ten-thousand-li Long March is, but what use is that knowledge? After all, you have never seen what the endpoint looks like, nor have your feet ever arrived there. Knowing is not realizing; you must walk step by step to the endpoint, and only when you have seen the scenery of the endpoint can it be said that you have realized it. For example, all Buddhist practitioners know that the land of bliss (Sukhāvatī) exists, but to realize the land of bliss you must personally arrive there. You have heard that Amitābha Buddha receives those who seek rebirth, but since you have not yet seen Amitābha Buddha, you have not realized this matter. For anything that has been realized, one can describe it in detail—one, two, three, four, five; but one who merely knows cannot say anything at all. If you have not seen it, you cannot describe it.

What does it feel like to be shocked by electricity? Only a person who has actually been shocked by electricity can experience it firsthand; hearsay does not count. So who, exactly, has personally realized electricity? Seeing electric wires does not count as seeing electricity—wires are not electricity. Seeing a washing machine wash clothes does not count as seeing electricity—the spinning of the washing machine is not electricity. Seeing a rice cooker cooking rice does not count as seeing electricity—the state of the rice cooker cooking rice is not electricity. Seeing various electrical appliances at work and having knowledge of electricity arise in your mind, thinking that there is electricity at this moment—this is conjecture and speculation; even if your inference and thinking are correct, it still does not count as having seen electricity or electric current with your own eyes. Some say that when encountering an electric eel one has personally realized electricity—but that is the eel realizing electricity, not you. Regarding the principle of personal realization, after ten years of wrangling, many people still have not understood. The sentient beings of this world are truly difficult to deal with.

After personally realizing electricity, one almost certainly dies or is injured, so only those who have been electrocuted to death or harmed by electricity are qualified to say they have personally realized electricity. Moreover, no matter which faculty contacts its sense object, the manas must first make contact and continue to be in contact throughout; therefore personal realization must be the realization of the manas. When the body faculty contacts electricity, the manas knows and has feeling; the manas senses that it is bad, and upon being shocked, it will make the body instantly spring away, instantly leaving the electricity. Because the manas knows that being shocked is no fun, from then on it is highly vigilant about electricity and tries to stay far away from it—the mind consciousness is incapable of doing these things. Therefore all personal realization is the realization of the manas, within which there is the realization of the mind consciousness, and perhaps also that of one of the five sense consciousnesses.

Only after personally realizing electricity can one observe electricity in an all-around, targeted way, understanding it ever more deeply and comprehensively, becoming ever more versed in the correct methods of using electricity, able to develop more applications, with wisdom growing ever deeper and inventions and innovations ever more numerous. But a person who merely knows there is electricity upon seeing an electrical appliance remains the same their whole life, still knowing nothing about electricity; even their knowledge may not increase, let alone their contemplative wisdom.

It is the same with personally realizing the tathāgatagarbha. Those who have genuinely realized it have the ability and the standing to observe the tathāgatagarbha as manifestly present; their understanding of the tathāgatagarbha grows ever deeper, their mind becomes ever more empty, their virtue ever more perfect, their contemplative wisdom continually increases, the wisdom of specific characteristics and the wisdom of the varieties of paths gradually arise, and the Dharma they teach becomes ever more profound. But those with false or spurious realization remain at the same level of understanding and wisdom as before, without increase; whatever they teach is the same old thing, repeated in a uniform, formulaic way—quantity without quality.