Only with Complete Morality, Concentration, and Wisdom Can One Attain Enlightenment and Avoid Mere Intellectual Understanding.

The Buddha said: meditation arises from precepts, and wisdom arises from meditation. The precepts, meditation, and wisdom must be complete not only in the mind consciousness but also in the manas. If the manas is to have the wisdom of eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) and the wisdom of seeing the mind, it must also have meditative concentration (samādhi), investigating and deliberating (manasikāra/manana) upon the dharma of non-self within meditative concentration, investigating and deliberating upon true suchness and buddha-nature; only then can it eradicate the view of self and attain seeing the mind and seeing the nature.

If the manas cannot personally investigate and deliberate, then it cannot accept the principles that the mind consciousness instills into it, and in the end it will still be an intellectual understanding by the mind consciousness. And for the manas to investigate and deliberate upon the principle of non-self, it likewise must have meditative concentration; otherwise it will become distracted and scattered. If the manas lacks meditative concentration, it will lead the six consciousnesses into distraction and scatteredness; when the six consciousnesses are scattered, they constantly discriminate and always report the contents of their discrimination to the manas, so the manas must constantly divide its attention, unable to concentrate on investigation, and cannot arrive at an ideal result through investigation.

No method can substitute for meditative concentration. Be very careful with methods of practice based on intellectual understanding. Practicing according to the methods taught by the World-Honored One will surely not go wrong. All of the Buddha's disciples during the Buddha's time practiced meditation to cultivate concentration, so that in their daily walking, standing, sitting, and lying down their minds were always contemplating the Buddha-dharma within concentration. Practitioners from the Tang and Song dynasties, before the Ming and Qing, and before the Republican era all took sitting meditation and cultivating concentration as their main practice; afterwards, even while walking, standing, sitting, and lying down they could remain in meditative concentration, with their minds constantly in concentration. In this way their thinking was fine and precise, the opportunities for breaking through the barrier of doubt could easily ripen, and they would realize realization upon encountering conditions. When we look back today, their realization of the Buddha-dharma seems to have been so easy, yet little do we know that their foundational practice was quite excellent: their roots of goodness and merit were complete, the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment were complete—of course including complete meditative concentration—and their thinking was sharp and clear; upon hearing some corresponding dharma, they could realize enlightenment immediately.

Among all who teach the dharma, what the Buddha taught is the most perfect and most ultimate; no one can surpass the Buddha's wisdom. Trusting the Buddha's words is absolutely without error. In whatever era, the Buddha-dharma never changes or mutates; the Buddha-dharma is forever applicable to all eras. Reading more Buddhist sutras will increase wisdom, so that one will not take detours and will not easily be deceived by others. The teachings of all bodhisattvas, compared with the Buddha's, have deficiencies and leaks, and have aspects that are not perfect and not ultimate; therefore, in our study and practice of the Buddha-dharma, we should still take the Buddhist sutras as the primary basis.