The Aftereffects of Intellectual Awakening

Intellectual understanding knows that something is so but not why it is so; realization through awakening knows both that it is so and why it is so.

The trouble with intellectual understanding is that once one knows that something is so, one believes one has arrived at the destination, and it becomes very difficult to want to know why it is so. Even if one does want to know why, due to insufficient meditative concentration (samādhi) together with a proud mind, one can no longer come to know why it is so; thus it is very difficult to transform intellectual understanding into realization through awakening. Moreover, what ordinary people call intellectual understanding merely refers to having understood some Buddhist doctrines, which does not even amount to knowing that something is so—they do not know what the ultimate aim of the Buddha's teachings is, and are still very far from intellectual understanding itself.