The Relationship between Ascetic Practice and Cultivating the Path

Modern people cannot endure hardship, so they make excuses, saying that ascetic practice is not the Path. Although ascetic practice is not the Path itself, cultivating the Path cannot be separated from ascetic practice, for it represents a person's ability to break free from all kinds of greed and craving. Without a mind and conduct of greed and craving, the mind is pure, and cultivating the Path proceeds quickly. Reading the accounts of Śākyamuni Buddha's ascetic practices in his past lives, one can know that for countless lifetimes Śākyamuni Buddha practiced austerities, even sacrificing his body to feed a rākṣasa in order to obtain half a verse. When the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas cultivated on the causal ground, they all took ascetic practice as their mainstay and did not indulge in greed and craving. Yet in today's world, the trend of cultivation has been reversed: it is now said that ascetic practice is not the Path, and everyone wants to indulge in greed and craving while simultaneously pursuing the reputation and fruits of a sage. Can one really have both the fish and the bear's paw?

Some people, because their greed and craving are heavy and they cannot let go of them, still try to conceal this mentality, so they make excuses, saying that Bodhisattvas are people of great merit and should display their merit to sentient beings in order to gather and guide them. Therefore, these people constantly and everywhere emphasize enjoyment, as if they had already attained accomplishment. If that were so, was Śākyamuni Buddha back then a person without merit, unable to enjoy his merit after leaving home? Were all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions people without merit when they cultivated, unable to enjoy blessings during their cultivation, and that is why they cherished merit so dearly? Were the twenty-eight patriarchs of the Western Heaven and the six patriarchs of the Eastern Land, along with all the Chan masters and venerable adepts of past eras, all people without merit, unable to enjoy blessings?