All Samadhi Are Realized Through Manas

Understanding through consciousness is not realization, for consciousness is not the master of the five aggregates; it cannot take charge of any dharmas, including comprehending principles or attaining enlightenment—its insights do not count. However, in practice, understanding through consciousness comes first, followed later by realization through the mental faculty. Realization fundamentally relies on understanding; as long as one does not remain stuck at the level of understanding, subsequent realization will inevitably follow in due course.

The Shurangama Sutra states: "Bodhi and Nirvana are still far distant. Without passing through kalpas of diligent cultivation and realization, even if you memorize and uphold the pure, wondrous principles of the Tathagatas of the ten directions and the twelve divisions of the sutras—as numerous as the sands of the Ganges—it will only add to idle discourse. Though you may expound upon conditioned arising and naturalness with decisive clarity, and though people praise you as foremost in learnedness, this accumulated kalpa of learnedness and habituation cannot free you from Maudgalyayana’s dilemma."

Has the World-Honored One not clearly stated here that the realization of Bodhi is not so simple? Reciting and repeating sutras, all such learnedness, is but idle discourse? Therefore, I say: all those so-called decisive realizations severing the view of self and realizing the mind are merely understanding, merely idle discourse. If you remain unawakened even now, what else are you waiting for?

If realization of samadhi or realization of the mind were attained through consciousness, then when conditions matured, we could organize Dharma assemblies for tens of thousands, explaining the various functions of Tathagatagarbha within the five aggregates to the assembly. After hearing this, most people would understand. Then, if I asked how many had comprehended the functioning process of Tathagatagarbha and realized it, and you all raised your hands, I would congratulate everyone on their enlightenment. In that case, 20,000 Bodhisattva certificates would absolutely not suffice—we’d need to print 100,000 more, and even that might not be enough. Would such an approach be valid? If understanding through consciousness counts as realization, then I tell you plainly: has your consciousness not already understood everything? If understanding equals realization, then why should everyone practice concentration, engage in Chan investigation, and tread such arduous paths?

If intellectual understanding counted as realization, then as long as one person in the world attained it, they could tell everyone else, spreading it from ten to a hundred, until all people in the world attained it. What need would there be for concentration? What need for investigation? Why would the Buddha instruct disciples to cultivate precepts, concentration, and wisdom? There would be no need to uphold precepts—merely having an intelligent consciousness would suffice to realize the Dharma and transcend birth and death. What of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Thirty-Seven Aids to Enlightenment? None of these would require cultivation. The Buddha would have been utterly superfluous, so verbose, troubling sentient beings needlessly. How simple the Dharma would be—why make it so complicated?

If intellectual understanding counted as realization, then we could sit down, recall a dream, contemplate how the real world is just like a dream, and thereby realize the Insight of Like a Dream, accomplishing the Ten Grounds of Dedication and nearing entry into the Bhūmis. Then, sitting again, we could contemplate all dharmas as reflections in a mirror, compare them to shadows in a mirror, reflect on how they truly resemble mirror images, and thereby realize the Insight of Mirror Images, reaching the fullness of the First Ground and becoming a Second Ground Bodhisattva. Wouldn’t this make learning Buddhism exceedingly effortless and joyful?

Why is realizing the Dharma and attaining Buddhahood not so easy, requiring three asamkhyeya kalpas? Precisely because the mental faculty is dull, ignorance is profound, and comprehending the Dharma’s meaning is difficult. If realization did not involve the mental faculty’s awakening, practice would indeed be exceedingly easy. Then, attaining Buddhahood would certainly not require three asamkhyeya kalpas of such vast time—the entire path could be traversed very quickly.