How Can One Realize the Dharma?

Studying the Dharma is for the sake of realizing the Dharma. If one wishes to realize the Dharma, one must not allow the mind consciousness to become overly familiar with the Buddha's teachings to the point of rote mastery. Why is this so? Because when the mind consciousness has the teachings down pat, it will feel that it already understands them, and will disdain and lose interest in carefully contemplating and investigating them further. In this way, one will degenerate into mere lip-service Chan—seeming to understand but not truly understanding—which greatly obstructs the Path. Only when the teachings are not fully understood will the mind consciousness be interested in probing them deeply, and the manas will thereby become involved, making the realization of the Dharma possible.

Because many people are unable to cultivate meditative concentration (samādhi) and cannot contemplate and practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) deeply and minutely, they have no choice but to repeatedly and ceaselessly recite the meaning of the Dharma, to the point that they know it by heart and can recite it backwards, yet are unable to profoundly comprehend its inner meaning, much less realize it, and thus cannot use it to eliminate their heavy karmic obstructions. This is truly a pity.

Those who constantly bury themselves in old books and texts have wisdom far inferior to those who read little but love to think deeply. The latter speak in their own words, never parroting others; the former, whenever they open their mouths, merely repeat the voices and words of others.