Those of Great Wisdom Necessarily View Problems from the Perspective of the Whole

For those who have not yet set foot on the proper track of cultivation, the mind is scattered. They pay a great deal of attention to novel things in the external world, frequently turning along with sense objects in a disordered, chaotic way, without even noticing their own inner mind. Regarding the minds of sentient beings, I once gave an analogy before: the mind of sentient beings is like a dog—whenever someone casually throws out anything, it rushes toward that thing barking loudly; when the wind blows the grass and a slight sound arises, it takes it for something extraordinary and barks wildly toward the source of the sound. The dog is simply idle with nothing to do, having no great matter of its own to pursue. Many sentient beings are just like this: whatever happens in the world is a big matter to them, and they stretch out their necks and rush toward it, accomplishing nothing life after life.

Paying attention to sense objects is fine in itself—if one can see clearly, within those objects, their substance and essence, that is wisdom. In the video mentioned above, why did many people at first see the image as protruding, but later perceive it as recessed? It is because ordinary people attend to details while discarding the whole picture; when the mind is bewitched by details, they no longer have the energy or wisdom to contemplate the whole and the totality—a classic case of dropping the watermelon to pick up sesame seeds. One who can survey the whole picture is a person of great wisdom; one who can look far ahead is a person of great wisdom, and no person or affair can delude him. As for one who can attend to and observe both the whole and the details, such a person is no longer merely an ordinary person of wisdom.

Ordinary people look at worldly dharmas and see only worldly dharmas, deluded and sunk into the sense objects; but one who has realized awakening sees all worldly dharmas as the tathāgatagarbha and the functions and attributes of the tathāgatagarbha, or sees worldly dharmas as aggregates of the seeds of the seven great elements. The seeds of the seven great elements are without marks—how could worldly dharmas have marks? Whether the mind is settled on details or settled on the whole picture, although both are meditative concentration (samādhi), the results are vastly different. Therefore one must not settle the mind carelessly and at random; if you fix it on the wrong target, that is wrong samādhi.

In examining an issue, one should first grasp it from the whole, viewing it from the overall picture, and only then look at the details, using them to supplement and illustrate the whole. If you look at it in reverse, the result may well be the opposite. For example, in observing a person speaking and acting, if you look only at the surface of the affairs, you will feel that this person is very kind and very wise. But if you look at this person's overall character and intentions from beginning to end, at this person's plans and designs, you will see from the totality that this person harbors a great sinister scheme, and the various small good deeds he performs are all for the sake of realizing his great evil. If sentient beings all approve of and comply with him, letting his scheme succeed, it will gravely harm the interests of a great many people. Sentient beings without wisdom see this person as good; those with wisdom see this person as a greatly evil person. What the wise and the unwise see yields completely opposite results—and it is precisely because there are so very many people without wisdom, and few with wisdom, or none at all, that the evil of evil people gets carried out.