Reasoning can never replace direct perception/valid direct cognition

Reasoning can never replace direct perception/valid direct cognition. If it could replace the direct perception of personal realization, then the Buddha could have told us everything about the realization He attained within His own mind, bit by bit; afterwards we would spend decades understanding, memorizing, and elaborating on it, until it was thoroughly engrained in our hearts—wouldn't that make us Buddhas? To become fully equal to the Buddha's wisdom in just a few decades—what a convenient path of practice that would be! Why did the Buddha not teach us to practice in this way? Why still cultivate precepts, meditation, and wisdom, with such hardship? Attaining buddhahood within one lifetime through such practice would not be difficult at all—so why did all the Buddhas still cultivate for three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas, so long and distant? Memorizing the Buddha's words is surely countless times easier than cultivating the precepts, meditation, and wisdom, or the bodhisattvas' six perfections. If the Buddha had told us all the secrets of cultivating and realizing the Buddhadharma, could we all then realize the wisdom of all aspects (sarvākārajñatā) and quickly attain buddhahood?

A true principle that is merely passed on by word of mouth, not drawn out from one's own inner being, is forever a counterfeit, unable to withstand the wind and waves. When the mind consciousness engages in too much reasoning, the manas loses its capacity to exert force. What the Chan patriarchs most detested and opposed was precisely what they called "divining beneath the words"—emotional speculation and intellectual interpretation—which is not genuine skill. When the mind consciousness is used too much, the manas cannot apply itself to practice, and realization becomes impossible. As one waxes, the other wanes: whose knowing, seeing, and realization of verification is best to rely upon?

The manas's leading role is the foundation of realization. If realization did not depend on the manas, then the whole world could be filled with sages steeped in deep afflictions. Realization through the manas can only be attained by those of great wholesome roots and great merit who have long undergone cultivation, and such people are extremely few in number. Each person eats and each person is filled; what the mind consciousness knows and realizes cannot substitute for the manas. The manas must itself know and itself realize in order to sever doubt and resolve the problem of birth and death. If you want the manas to realize, you cannot do without meditative concentration (samādhi), because realization is itself meditative absorption (samādhi), and all samādhi cannot be separated from meditative concentration. Without meditative concentration, there is no samādhi; without samādhi, there is no realization. Such is the principle. No matter how many hidden meanings you come to know, it is useless—you cannot sever doubt.

In my own case, I can very clearly perceive what kind of wisdom there is when there is meditative concentration, and what state the body and mind are in; and what kind of wisdom there is when there is no concentration, and what state the body and mind are in then—it is extremely evident. Therefore, without meditative concentration the manas cannot exert force, there is no actual realization of verification, and afflictions cannot be subdued.

The prerequisite for realization is meditative concentration, together with contemplation in accord with the truth; only then can wisdom arise. For the birth of wisdom, meditative concentration is one necessary condition, but not the whole. Yet without meditative concentration, there is certainly no true wisdom—there can only be dry wisdom, wisdom that solves no actual problems. Take the meditative concentration of the non-Buddhists and add to it our contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) wisdom; when the two are combined, one can realize very profound Buddhadharma. If the two are separated, there is no realization. This also includes the bodhisattvas' six perfections and the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment—all must be cultivated and none may be bypassed. Only when these conditions are fulfilled can realization occur.