Theoretical Enlightenment Is Merely Armchair Strategy

Question: Why is it said that if all Buddhist study and practice remain at the level of theoretical understanding, the true Dharma will gradually decline and perish?

Answer: Let me give an analogy. Suppose everyone buys a book to learn driving techniques, or attends lectures on driving. Everyone masters the theoretical knowledge and believes they can drive. Yet, none have ever actually driven a car or touched a steering wheel. Then, these people write books and teach others how to drive. In such a scenario, what would driving techniques become over time? Would such skills still hold practical value? Would anyone still drive in the future? Would there still be people who know how to drive? Eventually, wouldn’t driving skills be lost, reduced to mere theoretical games?

The same applies to the Dharma. If everyone only engages in theoretical understanding without practical realization, passing it on one to another, eventually even those with theoretical understanding will disappear, and the Dharma itself will become distorted. The true Dharma will then be lost. This is a situation the Buddha cannot bear to see, and it would deeply grieve any true disciple of the Buddha.

There is an essential difference between comprehension and theoretical understanding. Theoretical understanding is akin to speculating about the general functioning of Tathāgatagarbha — it is not observed through direct experiential insight, nor is it as clear as seeing an object before one’s eyes. Speculative understanding remains unclear to the mental faculty (manas), leaving one unsettled, ungrounded, and easily swayed. Thus, one cannot observe the specific workings of Tathāgatagarbha and cannot give rise to genuine great wisdom.

Ordinary comprehension involves learning and mastering knowledge but has not yet entered the stage of practical contemplation and investigative meditation (guanxing). It lacks even the slightest experiential awareness of the functioning of Tathāgatagarbha, falling far short of theoretical understanding and even further from genuine realization (zhengwu).