Why Do I Feel That Delusive Thoughts Increase When Practicing Contemplative Visualization?

Delusive thoughts are inherently false and illusory; if you then go and apply antidotes to these illusory dharmas, the mind that applies the antidote is itself still illusory. When you apply the antidote, the mind is no longer pure, and then if you want to eliminate the mind that applies the antidote, you add another layer of illusion. Thus illusion upon illusion—when will it ever end?

Visualizing the Buddha's image—this is the object of the mind, the primary practice. Just keep your eyes fixed on the object and pay no attention to anything other than the object. It is like setting out for Beijing but becoming enchanted by the scenery along the way, constantly admiring the roadside views—when will you ever arrive in Beijing?

When there is no meditative concentration (samādhi), the mind is scattered; and because the mind is scattered, one cannot detect that one's own mind is scattered. Only once you have gathered the mind back a little and calmed it down a little can you discover that your mind is actually scattered and impure. Only when there is such a discovery does it show that your mind has awakened; if you cannot detect your own delusive thoughts, that mind has not awakened. Which is better—to detect delusive thoughts, or to be unable to detect them?

It is like a foolish person who never knows that he is foolish. When others point out his foolishness, not only does he refuse to admit it, he even gives rise to anger and opens his mouth to curse—does this not make him even more foolish? Once a foolish person awakens, he will discover how foolish he has been all along. Only by knowing his own foolishness will he seek a way to remedy it and thereby become wiser. If a person does not even know that he is foolish, when will he ever become a little wiser?

Only when a person is willing to admit his various faults and shortcomings can he be someone who has awakened. Once awakened, he will gradually correct his defects and faults, and only then can he begin to make progress. If he will not even admit his faults, how can you expect him to correct them? Then he will simply have to carry his faults along with him and go wrong all the way to the end.