The Danger of Understanding the Dharma Through Intellectual Comprehension of the Mind Consciousness

If merely having the mind consciousness attain realization counted as attaining the fruits, then in our group, if not half, at least a third of the members would have attained the fruits through their mind consciousness. If I gave some face-to-face guidance, then three-quarters or even four-fifths would attain the fruits through their mind consciousness. Adding in the members of the Yogācāra group, there would be at least one or two thousand people attaining the fruits through their mind consciousness—it would not be surprising if five or six thousand did so.

If merely having the mind consciousness awaken to the true mind counted as awakening to the true mind, then I could hold a big assembly and announce how the tathāgatagarbha operates in concrete detail. Once everyone's mind consciousness came to know it, all who did not deny it would become bodhisattvas awakened to the true mind and enlightened. Then this world would be nearly as magnificent as the Buddha's era, if not quite.

Nowadays quite a few people in the group can discern the teachings concerning the manas, and their wisdom regarding Yogācāra is not low either. If attaining the fruits through the mind consciousness were sufficient, then our group would already have many bhūmi-attained bodhisattvas possessing the seed-wisdom of the varieties of paths in Yogācāra. Twenty-some years from now, we could cultivate a thousand or eighteen hundred bhūmi-attained bodhisattvas—that would not be a difficult thing. But is the cultivation and realization of the Buddha's Dharma really like this? Is it really that easy? Can realization be attained merely through word of mouth?

Why is the Buddhist community undergoing rectification now? People with wisdom should understand: on the surface it appears to be an action of the secular world, but in fact the Buddha long ago knew the current state of the Buddhist community. Could the Buddha fail to think of a way to deal with it? The Buddha's protection and support from behind the scenes—sentient beings remain unaware of it; they only know how to look at surface phenomena and do not know the true reasons behind them. Every turmoil in the Buddhist community is in fact caused by great problems arising internally, which then draw in external upheaval. All the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and Dharma-protecting dragons and devas all know this.