A Guide to the Cultivation and Realization of the Mind: Part Two

Chapter Four: The Relationship Between the Manas and Attaining the Fruits

I. Attaining the Fruits with the Mind Consciousness Is a Wrong Path of Practice in the Dharma-Ending Age

In the Sahā world there are very, very many wrong paths of practice. Without considerable good roots and merit, it is truly difficult to discern the direction, especially in subtle matters. If one has never walked a certain path, one can truly go astray; even a small wrong path is enough to waste a great deal of practice time, and extricating oneself from it is not easy—let alone a major wrong path, which is even harder to discern and exit. As for realizing the fruits and seeing the mind, does it count if only the mind consciousness attains the fruit and sees the mind, or must the manas together with the mind consciousness attain the fruit and see the mind for it to count—is this a small wrong path or a big one? Attaining bodhi without eradicating afflictions—is that a big wrong path or a small one?

The question of realizing the Dharma is the most weighty issue for individual sentient beings and for Buddhism as a whole; it is the crucial issue and turning point of survival or demise. Therefore any other dharma may be wrong, but this question absolutely cannot be wrong. If this question is wrong, then a fundamental, principled error of the greatest magnitude has been made, an error concerning the destiny of sentient beings and Buddhism. The closer one gets to the Dharma-ending age, the more wrong paths there are in the practice and realization of the Buddha-dharma. Ancient people studying Buddhism called it cultivation and practice; for most modern people studying Buddhism it can only be called studying, rarely involving cultivation and practice. Yet among the ancients who cultivated and practiced, those who became enlightened were slow and few, whereas in the Dharma-ending age those who merely study become enlightened quickly and in great numbers—is this not highly abnormal? Of course it is highly abnormal. The future demise of the Buddha-dharma will occur precisely here; it perishes from the very root of practice and realization. Without genuine realization, the Buddha-dharma will be hard to sustain. That is why for many years I have been teaching about the manas attaining the fruits and the manas seeing the mind, and have written several books on the manas, for fear that the Buddha-dharma will quickly be destroyed.

I have explained the manas attaining the fruits from every angle, 360 degrees with no blind spots, yet there are still dull-facultied scholarly masters who refuse to accept this principle no matter what, and dare not accept it, because once they accept it, their fruits of the Great and Small Vehicles would be ruined and vanish, and they would become mere ordinary beings—how unwilling they are! But such people are highly irrational, not people who regard the Path as paramount, nor people who take the Dharma and truth as their refuge. Evading facts is not the conduct of a great man; it is a manifestation of heavy self-attachment.

If sentient beings have deep good roots and merit, even if they encounter a wrong path, they will rely on their own good roots and merit to eventually walk out of it and return to the correct road. Therefore every Buddhist practitioner should cultivate more merit and plant more good roots, so as to ensure not entering wrong paths in this life and future lives, having the eye of Dharma-selection and the power of discernment, not being misled, and not entering evil destinies. The closer to the Dharma-ending age, the more opportunities there are to cultivate merit and plant good roots. Those who truly wish to attain the Way and those who make great aspirations must grasp every opportunity well, planting more good roots and merit; thus they will not only benefit endlessly life after life, but also accelerate the progress of their cultivation of the Buddha Way, sooner attaining liberation through wisdom, benefiting themselves and others.

II. One Who Attains the Fruits with the Mind Consciousness Is Still an Ordinary Being Bound by All Fetters

Attaining the fruits with the mind consciousness is very quick and convenient, requiring little price, no need to rack one's brain or exert effort in investigating Chan, and above all no need to cultivate meditative concentration—how extremely convenient. The hurdle of meditative concentration is the hardest to pass, especially arduous, consuming time and requiring painful leg-sitting, delaying many worldly affairs. Attaining the fruits with the mind consciousness requires hardly any keeping of precepts; even the three refuges and five precepts can be waived; the most troublesome thirty-seven aids to enlightenment need not be cultivated, saving enormous time and energy; merit need not be particularly good; the first five of the bodhisattva's six perfections can all be waived—how extremely convenient. One only uses the mind consciousness to learn some theoretical knowledge, then deliberates, understands, analyzes, speculates, infers, integrates, and summarizes. These operations require no great concentration, not too much mental strain; these tasks are like the daily work of a junior secretary—someone of average intelligence can manage them.

How cheap it is to attain the fruits this way—paying little price, having a pile of theoretical knowledge, able to attract attention and be admired, no need to abandon wife and children to leave home and cultivate the Way, no need to part from kin and sever affection, no harm to worldly career, able to receive the offerings of the assembly, able to be a Dharma master bodhisattva, or even be a sangha member of ultimate meaning overshadowing the monastics, reaping both the benefits of the monastic and the lay life, maximizing worldly benefits. With so many advantages to attaining the fruits with the mind consciousness, who could bear to give it up?

But after attaining the fruits this way, one cannot eradicate even a shred of afflictions, no different whatsoever from an ordinary being bound by all fetters. Some people make excuses for themselves, saying only third-fruit and fourth-fruit practitioners eradicate afflictions, that first-fruit and second-fruit practitioners still have afflictions, which is nothing surprising; that first-fruit people have afflictions as many and as heavy as ordinary beings is also nothing surprising. But if the first fruit is said to be the same as an ordinary being bound by all fetters, then it shows the first-fruit person is essentially an ordinary being replete with all afflictions; the first fruit is a name without substance—how could that be a first-fruit person who has eradicated the view of self? If the Buddha-dharma continues like this, how can Buddhism not perish?

Although there are many worldly wrong dharmas and wrong teachers, those wrong dharmas are all very shallow and cannot destroy the foundation of Buddhism or shake its roots. For example, what a certain Dharma master teaches about the tathāgatagarbha is utter nonsense, but he can never affect the mainstream development of Buddhism; the beings he delivers have extremely shallow faculties, and even if painstakingly pulled out, they accomplish nothing and pose no threat to Buddhism. Another example is the dual-cultivation method—that is fundamentally a non-Buddhist teaching of an extremely low level; anyone with a bit of wisdom can discern it and will not enter it; those who enter are mostly people of heavy karmic obstructions and shallow good roots; even if one painstakingly rescues them out, they cannot amount to anything and cannot become the mainstay of Buddhism. What can destroy Buddhism will never be non-Buddhists and non-Buddhist teachings; it is always destroyed from within Buddhism—as the saying goes, the worms within the lion's body devour the flesh of the lion's own body.

The foundation and focal point of Buddhism across the three periods lies in the extremely crucial link of attaining the fruits and seeing the mind and seeing the nature. As long as nothing serious goes wrong at this link, the future development of Buddhism will be smooth and untroubled. Therefore the fundamental dharma of eradicating the view of self and of seeing the mind and seeing the nature cannot be transmitted by just anyone; it absolutely must not be handled recklessly. If one recklessly harms the dharmakāya and wisdom-life of sentient beings, in the future even wishing to be a wild fox for five hundred lifetimes would be wishful thinking—the evil retribution incurred will be countless times more severe than that. Protecting and supporting those who recklessly transmit the Dharma is tantamount to abetting a tyrant, and the evil retribution is also considerable. Therefore I earnestly ask everyone to ponder cause and effect deeply, to treat the Buddha-dharma with seriousness, and to maintain a highly responsible attitude toward sentient beings and Buddhism.

III. Can One Attain Bodhi Without Eradicating Afflictions?

Some people say that in seeing the mind and attaining the first fruit, without eradicating afflictions, there is no change in body and mind, no transformation—that this is normal. But this is in fact extremely abnormal. Such a great matter of birth and death, overturning one's former major wrong views, transforming one's cognition of the world of the five aggregates from existence to emptiness—how could body and mind undergo no change whatsoever? With proper practice of the four right efforts, how could body and mind not change? With proper practice of the seven factors of enlightenment, how could body and mind not change? If the mind does not change, how can it be attaining the fruit and seeing the mind? Even in worldly matters, when the manas truly learns of something, one becomes extraordinarily excited, with great bodily changes—thrilled to the utmost, or moved to tears, or body and mind trembling, or expression solemn, or unable to sleep for days, and so on.

In the course of cultivating the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment before attaining the fruit, body and mind will change bit by bit, greatly different from before. If the difference is obvious and the five grades of afflictions of the desire realm have been eradicated, that is being a first-fruit aspirant. If body and mind never change at all, then one has not practiced properly; the direction of practice is wrong, or one is simply not diligent, or one remains at broad learning and emotional sentiment and intellectual understanding, or one applies the mind mostly to worldly matters, and the Dharma principle has not truly entered the mind.

The Abhidharmakośa-śāstra says that as long as one truly cultivates the path, cultivating it in accordance with principle, one will inevitably subdue afflictive delusions and then eradicate them; it is so in the process of cultivating the path, and even more so in its result; only then can one become a first-fruit aspirant, and subsequently attain the first fruit. Without eradicating a shred of afflictive delusion, with no transformation of body and mind, one is still an ordinary being bound by fetters, tied up hand and foot by afflictive delusions, unable to move—how could one advance on the path of bodhi and transform one's status? If one forcibly claims such status, it can only be a name without substance, a misnomer, called deceiving the world and stealing a reputation.

Many people think that as long as one can expound the Dharma, one has already realized it. But the facts are not so. If one expounds the Dharma without having realized it, there is no genuine guiding significance; having never walked that stretch of road oneself, one cannot guide others on how specifically to walk it. If one's own mind is ablaze with the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, with leaks everywhere, there is no way to guide others in subduing and eradicating afflictions.

There is a koan of One-Finger Chan: when a bhikṣuṇī who was guiding him raised her index finger, the master awakened on the spot. The little novice saw it and thought: "So this is enlightenment!" So when the master was away, whenever people asked him about the Dharma, the little novice would likewise raise his index finger, telling them that this is that suchness, imitating the parrot quite convincingly. People's enlightenment nowadays is no different from this little novice's: although they can gesture about, quite resembling the maneuvers of the patriarchs, as if it were zen repartee, and seem able to guide people, outsiders watch the spectacle while insiders see the craft—these tricks can only deceive some laypeople. All zen repartee involves the harmonious cooperation of the eight consciousnesses, containing both the true and the false; if one cannot distinguish true from false and takes the false as true, then no matter how one gestures, it is not zen repartee.

One hundred years after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, Ānanda heard a little novice misrecite the verse on conditioned dharmas, reciting it as "water old crane," and corrected him. But when the little novice asked his teacher which was right, the teacher said: "Don't listen to Ānanda; he has become senile with age. Recite it as I taught you." So the little novice continued reciting as before. Hearing this, Ānanda thought: barely a hundred years after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, the Buddha-dharma has already been mis-transmitted like this; in future ages, further from the Buddha, what will the Buddha-dharma evolve into? Sentient beings are truly too foolish. Grieved, Ānanda resolved to enter parinirvāṇa immediately and depart, not wishing to witness the miserable scene of the Buddha-dharma being gradually destroyed. Even then the Buddha-dharma had already degenerated—how much more so today, thousands of years later! Today's age is by no means an age of sages filling the streets; many people have severely misunderstood the practice and realization of the Buddha-dharma.

Nowadays neither the Great Vehicle nor the Small Vehicle dharmas are so precious, no longer rare dharmas. Just by hearing the Dharma and deliberating a bit, the fruit is obtained; no precepts, concentration, and wisdom needed, no six perfections and myriad practices needed; those who keep precepts and cultivate concentration are fools. Now any fruit can be easily obtained—for instance, the contemplations of things being like a dream and like an illusion, and the fruit of the tenth dedication stage, are no difficult matters; the method of contemplative practice on the tathāgatagarbha, once passed on by word of mouth, lets one take the fruit home. The foolishness and perversity of sentient beings has left one speechless.

IV. What Is Uninterrupted Seeing of the Path?

After truly seeing the path, mind after mind will be uninterrupted within the path. What does "mind after mind uninterrupted" mean? Which mind is the uninterrupted mind? Which mind is the intermittent mind? Why can it be interrupted? The eighth consciousness and the manas are uninterrupted minds; the first six consciousnesses are intermittent minds. For seeing the path to be uninterrupted, the manas and mind consciousness must see the path simultaneously; the mind consciousness alone seeing the path will not do. With true seeing of the path, even when the mind consciousness ceases, the path-fruit remains; with false seeing of the path, once the mind consciousness ceases or becomes weak and inferior, the path-fruit is gone.

True seeing of the path is the manas seeing the path. After the manas sees the path, the mind forever abides in the path and will no longer regress. But the mind consciousness seeing the path is not like this: the mind consciousness is an intermittent mind, a mind that cannot act as master. If the manas has not seen the path, the mind consciousness will obey the manas's arrangements and directives, not acknowledging the so-called path, and is then no longer in the path. If the mind consciousness then gives rise to doubt, regression occurs. Even if the mind consciousness does not regress, because the manas acts as master everywhere, bodily, verbal, and mental actions will not change—one remains as before.

Some people, because of the mind consciousness seeing the path, or taking meditative absorption states as the path, in order not to regress, frequently sit in meditation cultivating concentration, maintaining the absorption state to preserve the state they realized. Others strive to use the mind consciousness to pull the manas along to comply with themselves, but this is ultimately not a lasting affair—paper can never wrap up fire, and the matter will in the end be exposed completely. After the manas sees the path, the attraction of sense objects to the manas and mind consciousness diminishes; the mind consciousness is easily turned around, but once the manas acknowledges a principle, it is very hard to turn it away from the truth—ten oxen cannot pull it.

Precisely because the manas is so stubborn—its wrong views rooted deeply since beginningless kalpas—pulling the manas toward the correct Dharma is not so easy; the manas is not easily perfumed. That is why attaining the fruits is so difficult. Some people have heavy afflictions; explaining principles to them lightly is of no use at all. Only after suffering great evil retribution, hitting walls severely, being battered bloody, will they somewhat know to reflect on themselves. Such people are of poor indriya—ten oxen cannot pull them; they cling to fixed ideas, are inflexible, and love to contend.

V. How to Examine Whether It Is Understanding-Enlightenment or Realization-Enlightenment

Master Dongshan crossed a river, saw his reflection in the water, and suddenly awakened, composing the verse: 渠今正是我，我今不是渠。Question: Who does "he" refer to? Who does "I" refer to? What is the relationship between the two? Master Dongshan pointed at the reflection in the river and said: "Right now you are precisely me, yet I am not you." The reflection is the five aggregates manifested by the eighth consciousness, coming from the eighth consciousness, the shadow of the eighth consciousness. In terms of the ultimate meaning of Consciousness-Only, the five aggregates can be said to be the eighth consciousness, but the eighth consciousness is by no means the five aggregates.

These dharmas can be understood by thinking them over and pondering—nothing remarkable. You may call it understanding-enlightenment, or say it is not even understanding-enlightenment; but to call it realization-enlightenment requires a thorough examination from inside out, top to bottom. Examine what? Examine whether his inner mind has changed, whether wisdom has arisen. Because upon realizing that the five aggregates are merely a shadow, one is surely greatly startled, with inner waves surging—everything previously believed and grasped was wrong. What is the state of the mind at that moment? Without having witnessed realization many times, without the superknowledge of knowing others' minds, how could one know whether this person has realized or merely understood? Ordinary people absolutely cannot detect it—one could say 100 percent cannot—and will only echo what others say.

Realization-enlightenment is great wisdom; being able to accurately examine whether someone has realized is even greater wisdom, far greater than the wisdom of realization itself. In realization-enlightenment one can directly observe the relatively simple and coarse functioning of the eighth consciousness, which understanding-enlightenment cannot compare with. In understanding-enlightenment there is only a hazy shadow in the mind, indescribable, not knowing how the eighth consciousness actually operates or how the five aggregates are born. No matter how much theory he expounds, there is not a shred of accurate, detailed content—like floating on the water's surface, unable to enter the water, not knowing the situation beneath.

Some people claim to be great bodhisattvas enlightened to the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha, yet this "great bodhisattva" for years has never expounded even slightly detailed functioning of the eighth consciousness tathāgatagarbha—only broad, vague, general theoretical frameworks. Those theories could mostly be figured out by reading the sūtras and the treatises of the bodhisattvas—nothing remarkable. As for Chan koans, watching the patriarchs gesturing when ascending the hall to receive students, one can roughly glean something; imitating the example, many people can do it too—nothing remarkable. Even the little disciple of the One-Finger Chan master could gesture with one finger, outwardly just like his master, yet it was not Chan. Modern people's capacity for fakery is unparalleled—from the secular world to Buddhism—caused by heavy karma, heavy afflictions, and heavy self.

Those who imitate the maneuvers of the Chan patriarchs, gesturing about, may be said to have understanding-enlightenment, or may be said not even to touch its edge. Taking the function of the mind consciousness as the function of the eighth consciousness—that is a non-Buddhist path. Taking the combined function of the eight consciousnesses as the sole function of the eighth consciousness—that is inference and speculation. Laypeople absolutely cannot see through it and are often dumbfounded, intimidated. This trick can fool everyone undetected, because sentient beings' insight is too shallow—truly foolish and easily intimidated. So when you are deceived, you should turn back and examine yourself: why could you be deceived? Why are others clear-eyed and sharp-minded, not deceived? When you accidentally bump into someone on the street and that person glares at you saying: "I am a sage who has attained the fruits—how dare you bump into me?" you just laugh heartily, say "sorry," and be done with it—no need to be surprised, no need to say anything.

VI. Can One See the Mind by the Method of Elimination?

What is the method of elimination? For example, one establishes a target in one's mind, and within a range one has chosen, eliminates the objects that differ from the target; the remaining one is then established as the target in one's mind. Regardless of whether the chosen range is comprehensive, as long as one self-confirms, one takes oneself to be right—the method of seeing the mind and attaining the fruit is extremely simple.

Even a dog, once trained, can use the method of elimination to find the object its master designates; other animals can learn it with training, because this does not require much brainpower, is effortless, requires no good roots or merit, no meditative concentration, no precepts, no diligent cultivation of the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment; even an illiterate person, with hints from others, can "see the mind and attain the fruit." For example, the master spreads out three cards A, B, C before the dog and asks it to point out which is C. The dog first points at A; the master shakes his head saying no; so the dog points at B; the master shakes his head again saying no; finally one card remains—without thinking one knows the remainder is C, so the dog naturally points at C, and the master says this time it is right. The dog is delighted, feels itself quite capable, and receives a bone as a reward from the master.

Using the method of elimination to find the eighth consciousness is the same. There are only eight consciousnesses in total; the six consciousnesses that know the six sense objects are certainly not the eighth consciousness—six eliminated at once, leaving the manas and the eighth consciousness. The manas ordinary people truly cannot observe, not knowing what it is; even if you tell them it is the one that acts as master everywhere at all times, they still cannot find the manas; finding the manas is extremely difficult, let alone observing the manas's cognitive nature. So they eliminate the manas and stop looking for it, seeking only the eighth consciousness.

What is the eighth consciousness like? Many people know the eighth consciousness does not cognize the six sense objects, so they search and search and finally find a "thing" that seems not to cognize the six sense objects; they imagine that this thing seems to have cognitive nature, and what it cognizes seems not to be the six sense objects; as for what exactly it cognizes, they really cannot observe it, because only after enlightenment, those with the wisdom of specific characteristics and the wisdom of the varieties of paths can observe the cognitive nature of the eighth consciousness and know what the eighth consciousness can actually cognize; ordinary beings simply have no way to observe the cognitive nature of the eighth consciousness, except by guessing and imagining based on theory. Finally, thinking it over, the eighth consciousness seems to cognize the faculties-body and the material world, because the sūtras and treatises all say so—then it must be it, no mistake. So they hurriedly and happily go to confirm it, feeling as if beyond doubt, having eradicated the three fetters.

If such intelligence is not innate, then water must have gotten into the brain at some point—inferior even to a somewhat brighter child. How could such a person be a bodhisattva single-mindedly cultivating the bodhisattva path? Simple-minded to the extreme. If they had met the patriarchs of old, with the patriarchs' straightforward minds, they would not say a single word to them, but would strike them directly with a big stick until their heads burst open—how dare they harm the Chan school? Kindergarten-level intelligence cannot be educated. Were it not for my concern for the rise and fall of the Chan school, I would not deign even to glance at such people. Yet seeing the mind in the Chan school is the most crucial point of Buddhist practice, the life-and-death gate of sentient beings, the refuge and liberation of countless sentient beings in this and future lives. If someone destroys this gate, sentient beings will never again be able to leap like the carp over the dragon gate.

Even a follower of the school of mere intellectual understanding is far nobler than this method of elimination. The elimination method requires hardly any intellectual understanding, hardly any intelligence—like picking beans: just pick out the bad beans and the rest are all good beans. How simple. Why cultivate the four foundations of mindfulness, the seven factors of enlightenment, the eightfold noble path, the four right efforts, the four bases of supernatural power, the five faculties and five powers? No need to receive or keep precepts, no need to cultivate meditative concentration, no concentration power of any kind needed—a bean-picking job does not require such trouble; all those conditions the Buddha spoke of are superfluous; those of the highest faculties need not obey what the Buddha said.

Shenhui, the little monk of thirteen under the Sixth Patriarch's seat, was clever, intelligent, with deep good roots, eager for the Dharma; climbing mountains and crossing ridges, he traveled a thousand li to find the Sixth Patriarch and seek the Way. The Sixth Patriarch only certified him as a follower of the school of mere intellectual understanding. At that time the Chan style flourished so greatly, and there were so many enlightened patriarchs and good spiritual friends, yet Master Shenhui lived to ninety-six and was still a follower of mere intellectual understanding; he wrote many works and spent his whole life contending with Master Shenxiu's Northern School of gradual cultivation for supremacy of the school. Which person today has Shenhui's spirit of seeking the Dharma and his good roots and merit? Yet they fantasize about using the method of elimination to find the eighth consciousness and surpass Master Shenhui. The eighth consciousness will not let you find it this way; by the method of conjecture you may indeed conjecture it out, but that is drawing a cake to satisfy hunger—it will never fill the belly. In short, please recognize one fact: the Dharma-ending age is, after all, the Dharma-ending age. Do not indulge in fantasies; seeking truth from facts is good, fantasizing is evil.

VII. Is the Dharma Confirmed in Sentient Beings' Minds Necessarily Correct?

No. If it were so, the Buddha would not have told sentient beings: your mind is not to be believed; only upon attaining arhatship may you trust your mind. Here arhatship refers to the ultimate fruit of the Small Vehicle, the fourth fruit; the third fruit still falls a bit short. Confirmation is the manas's affirmation and acknowledgment, forming uninterrupted attention, penetrating to the marrow, unshakable, and unfathomably deep. For example, the view of self: sentient beings' manas confirms this, deeply rooted, unshakable—called self-grasping.

Trusting one's own mind without doubt, being extremely certain of oneself—that is the manas's confirmation. But ordinary beings' confirmations have great faults and great perils of birth and death. For example, ordinary beings all confirm that the five aggregates are the self; such confirmation is a wrong view, not right view. Since beginningless kalpas, ordinary beings have always confirmed their own views as correct and infallible, yet for beginningless kalpas they have transmigrated through birth and death because of erroneous, inverted views, receiving all manner of evil and bitter retribution.

"Your mind is not to be believed"—the Buddha used this not only to admonish ordinary beings, but also to admonish first-fruit, second-fruit, up to third-fruit practitioners, because before the fourth fruit, one's cognition of the emptiness of the world of the five aggregates is still not in place, not ultimate; the view of self in one's mental framework is not fully eradicated, and there is still self-grasping. The fourth-fruit arhat has fully eradicated the view of self, is thoroughly empty, has eliminated self-grasping and self-conceit; only then is the mental framework of emptiness pure, and only then may one trust one's mind. This mental framework of emptiness is thorough and ultimate within the scope of the Small Vehicle dharma; compared with the Great Vehicle dharma, it is still very incomplete and non-ultimate.

Therefore, whether an ordinary being has attained the fruit or not, generally speaking, their wisdom is insufficient for self-examination: first, their practice spans short kalpas and experience is insufficient; second, they have seen and heard little, with nothing to compare against, easily misjudging; moreover, because there is a self in the mind, unable to transcend partiality, they will favor and overestimate themselves, easily producing false enlightenment and false speech, and in the end cause and effect never fails.

VIII. Does Being Certain Mean Truly Being Without Doubt?

It is said that scientists using instruments determined that the earth is ellipsoidal, and almost everyone believed it—and seemingly with that kind of unwavering certainty, as if such belief were deeply rooted and unalterable. If someone disbelieved, they would even debate with them, even mock and ridicule them. But this is still not true faith, true absence of doubt. Faith has many levels; some even firmly believe without doubt, absolutely certain, without the slightest suspicion. But without personal verification, all such faith belongs to blind faith and credulous faith, not faith through realization; so doubt still exists, only very deep and hidden, not easily observed.

Knowing the earth is ellipsoidal is merely hearsay, not personally seen; that is the mind consciousness's knowledge from hearsay. The manas has not personally seen it, so doubt is not eradicated. Even what many people see with their own eyes may not be true and real; cases of seeing wrongly are extremely many; even eyewitness may not be truth, so the manas's doubt cannot be eradicated. Once some other condition appears, saying the earth is actually not ellipsoidal but rhombic or triangular, many people's former faith wavers and turns to disbelief.

Why can faith change? Because there is no personal realization. The mind consciousness's certainty, no matter to what degree, is unreliable; when conditions change, the mind consciousness's doubt appears. Why? Because the manas never believed in the first place; the manas has not eradicated doubt; when conditions change, without the support of the manas's realization, the mind consciousness is fickle, without a backbone—or rather, the mind consciousness's backbone has always been the manas; at critical moments it certainly turns with the manas. Only by truly seeing the earth, genuinely witnessing the earth's shape from the whole and the macro perspective, can the manas eradicate doubt and give rise to faith. In the future, even if conditions change, the manas still firmly believes without doubt; then the mind consciousness, following the manas, firmly believes without doubt; even if the mind consciousness has doubt, it does not take effect, and will still trust the manas.

Some people say that as long as you yourself are certain you have eradicated the view of self, without doubt, you have attained the first fruit. How childish and laughable such a claim is. Is the ordinary being's certainty without doubt reliable? If reliable, why are sentient beings so fickle, changing at the slightest stir, disbelieving? If ordinary beings' certainty and absence of doubt were all reliable, why did the Buddha say: Take heed not to believe your mind; your mind is not to be believed; only upon attaining arhatship may you trust your mind?

Historically, those recorded as certifying others' eradication of the view of self and attainment of the fruits: first, the Buddha himself in the Buddha's era; second, the Fourth Patriarch Prajñāgupta after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa. The Buddha goes without saying—immeasurable wisdom, unlimited superknowledges, omniscient, with the superknowledge of knowing others' minds and the recollection of past lives, able to truthfully know and see all sentient beings' thoughts; whether disciples had attained the fruits, the Buddha could know immediately without meeting them. The Fourth Patriarch Prajñāgupta not only attained arhatship but also had great superknowledges, even personally subduing the various disturbances of Māra Pāpīyas, restoring purity to Buddhism.

By the Fourth Patriarch's realization of liberation and his recollection of past lives and knowing others' minds, whether disciples had attained the fruits could of course also be known immediately, without error. Others without realization, with insufficient wisdom and realization, and without superknowledges and spiritual powers, presumably cannot truthfully observe others' mental states, and therefore cannot certify others' attainment of fruits. Those with extremely deep wisdom, who have attained fruits countless times life after life, with rich experience, can truthfully certify others' attainment of fruits even without superknowledges; apart from these, others lack the ability and qualification to certify. How much less ordinary beings' self-certification—lacking experience, misjudgment is simply unavoidable, and the consequences are unimaginable.

Practicing the Buddha-dharma should be even more pragmatic and rigorous than worldly matters; one must not treat the Buddha-dharma as child's play, thinking it simple. In fact nothing is harder than the Buddha-dharma, because sentient beings have been engaged in worldly matters since beginningless kalpas and are too unfamiliar, too unpracticed in the Buddha-dharma, compounded by layer upon layer of karmic obstructions—the obstruction is often beyond our imagination. Therefore studying and practicing the Buddha-dharma in a down-to-earth manner is our duty; only thus will we not further increase karmic obstructions and afflictions, sinking deeper into the abyss of birth and death.

IX. The Dull Can Attain Arhatship While the Clever Cannot Avoid the Three Evil Destinies

Cūḍapanthaka's mind consciousness was extremely dull, unable to retain even a single sentence of Buddhist theory; his power of deliberation was even weaker, incapable of inference, organizing, summarizing, generalizing, analyzing, or comparing. Merely contemplating the breath at the nose, why could he attain the fourth fruit of arhatship? Literary scholars ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, have exhaustively combed the Tripiṭaka, written numerous works, with poems, verses, and witty phrases in profusion—why is there no shadow of attaining the fruit? The Buddha-dharma does not lie in speaking, nor in interpreting, nor in how beautiful and moving the words are; only what can be put to use is the Buddha Way. Like an apple eaten into the mouth, swallowed into the stomach, filling the belly—that is the greatest benefit, far more practical than researching apples and writing apple papers to win awards.

Cūḍapanthaka, so dull and ignorant of theory, in contemplating the breath at the nose, could hardly use the various faculties of the mind consciousness; in contemplative practice there was no possibility of opportunism; he could not analyze the momentary arising and ceasing of the breath and other formations, their suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self, nor infer the non-self of all formations and the non-self of the five aggregates. This conveniently spared the mind consciousness's emotional sentiment and intellectual understanding, and the manas's functions were able to be brought into full play. As a result, he not only eradicated the view of self but directly attained the fourth fruit of arhatship. This shows that the final realization of the Buddha-dharma is not a matter of exerting effort on the mind consciousness; not knowing theory does not matter—as long as the method and direction of practice are correct and one can practice diligently, one can still awaken to the Way.

But the theorists and researchers who exhaustively comb the Tripiṭaka and are learned can only exert effort on the mind consciousness. Despite eloquent rhetoric, ornate language, being pursued and admired, enjoying boundless glory and illustrious fame, they ultimately gain nothing—the place where one gains advantage is precisely the place where one loses it. For example, Su Dongpo, no matter how well he could interpret the Buddha-dharma and how many insights he had, achieved nothing in realization. The habits of literati are severe obstructions to the Path, not easily overcome; the zither, chess, calligraphy, painting—all worldly arts—are obstructions to the Path, yet worldly people take pride in them—truly inverted. Should not those learners who love theory and like to have attainments reflect on this?

X. The Unreliability of the Mind Consciousness

Question: I have heard people say that after enlightenment one will forget the content of the enlightenment; then one who has forgotten the enlightenment no longer counts as enlightened, right? How can enlightenment be forgotten?

Answer: Theoretical knowledge learned by the mind consciousness will be forgotten; what the mind consciousness has understood and memorized will be forgotten; the parrot's mimicry will be forgotten—once forgotten, it cannot be recalled. But enlightenment is a realization of one's own mind's wisdom, wisdom developed simultaneously by the manas and the mind consciousness, not obtained from elsewhere, so the question of memory and forgetting does not arise at all.

Recollection and forgetting are functions of the mind consciousness, and the mind consciousness is of dependent nature (paratantra), arising and ceasing, changing; when conditions are incomplete, the mind consciousness weakens and disappears. For example, if the brain has a lesion, or is stimulated, or the mind is traumatized, or with age the brain atrophies, the mind consciousness's functions weaken and cannot function normally, and one cannot recall many past people, events, and principles—this is called forgetting. When the mind consciousness disappears, even less can one recall any past people and events: for example, when asleep, unconscious, dead, or after conception, the mind consciousness has disappeared, and past experiences are temporarily or permanently extinguished. In the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava) there is a faint mind consciousness, but its functions are limited, controlled by karmic power, able to exercise no mastery at all.

If it is only the mind consciousness that is enlightened and understands certain principles, without the manas being enlightened, there is no guarantee at all: once the mind consciousness disappears, everything is forgotten completely. Because the mind consciousness arises from conditions and changes extremely fast; under some influence it changes at the drop of a hat, turns hostile in an instant, forgets things and cannot recall them; in the time of a doze the mind becomes a blank. So if one has not gone through the arduous process of investigating Chan, has never investigated, yet fantasizes about reaching heaven in one step, letting the mind consciousness directly know the rough result, without perfuming the manas, this result vanishes in no time, with almost no beneficial function.

Without going through the concrete stages of cultivating the path, without painstakingly investigating Chan, the manas is not perfumed; one can only rely on the mind consciousness's inference, imagination, guessing, and conjecture, without a shred of direct perception, all being non-valid cognition. Conjectured content, of course, will be unrecallable at any time, ineffective, unable to guide bodily, verbal, and mental actions, unable to become an uninterrupted, continuous state of mind—unable even to last a few minutes; its demise is only a matter of time.

But through the arduous process of investigating Chan, with the manas participating, awakening to the true mind and self-nature is a state of wisdom of direct perception; meditative concentration (samādhi) manifests, becoming uninterrupted seeing of the path, with bodily, verbal, and mental actions purified. In that case, even if the mind consciousness wants to forget, it cannot; wants to lose it, cannot; wants to regress, cannot—because this matter is governed by the manas. Once the manas is enlightened, the mind consciousness must comply with the manas, directed and dominated by it; even if forgotten, it cannot help but recall it. In fact it does not depend on whether the mind consciousness wants to recall or not; even if the mind consciousness ceases, it does not matter: if the manas is enlightened, it is enlightened forever. Whether asleep, unconscious, dead, or in the neutrino-body, one is enlightened, and will conceive taking the identity of an enlightened one, receiving the good fruit of realization-enlightenment.

In studying and practicing Buddhism, using only the mind consciousness incurs great loss. Relying on the arising-ceasing, changing, impermanent mind consciousness to resolve the great matter of birth and death shows one has absolutely not thought through what practice is. One eats one's own meal and one is oneself full; always relying on external conditions—the conditions will cease; one cannot rely on them until immeasurable kalpas hence. Therefore a person of wisdom must not place the weight on the unreliable mind consciousness that constantly arises and ceases and changes—the same applies to everything worldly or transcendent. To summarize once more: the fruits attained by the mind consciousness are all paper-pasted fruits; paper is the easiest to rot and decay.