The Process of Cultivation

When we hear someone tell us about something, we know it immediately. But knowing does not mean believing right away; we need to verify, examine, and validate it before we can believe. Only those who are simple-minded and lacking in wisdom would enjoy it and react to it immediately without verification. This process of verifying information is analogous to the process of realization and awakening. Hearing someone talk about something at the beginning corresponds to the mind consciousness's discernment; the knowing in the middle corresponds to the mind consciousness's understanding; the subsequent verification corresponds to the mind consciousness and the manas investigating together; the final believing corresponds to the mind consciousness and the manas realizing, and the manas believing. And after that comes putting it into practice, which corresponds to the manas changing the course of action it has adopted.

The entire process of investigating Chan and cultivating practice can be summarized in six words: knowing, understanding, investigating, realizing, believing, and practicing. These six words represent six stages of cultivation, among which the mind consciousness's believing corresponds to the first and second stages, and is therefore omitted here.

Quite a few people take the mind consciousness's knowing and understanding as the ultimate goal of cultivation, thinking that their practice has reached its end and is complete, and so they become arrogant. In fact, this is merely the beginning; they have not yet reached the middle stage. Only when the mind consciousness's knowing and understanding are correct and in accord with the truth can one arrive at the middle stage of investigation. It is clear that correct knowing and understanding on the part of the mind consciousness is also very important, and not easy to attain. The vast majority of people remain stuck at this stage, unable to get past it, and thus cannot continue on to investigating Chan. This is because the foundation has not been laid well, and their views are not yet fully in accord with the truth and have not been properly established. If one stops at this stage and takes it as the ultimate, how shallow one's wisdom must be—no wonder arrogance arises.

The believing that comes after the six stages is the true believing, called realized believing or genuine believing, not believing based on faith from afar or blind believing. The mind consciousness's believing is a kind of believing from afar, blind believing, and reverent believing; it is not correct believing, genuine believing, or realized believing.

For those who have not cultivated to the stage of correct believing, genuine believing, and realized believing, there is always the possibility of regression with regard to the dharma they believe in, because their foundation is not solid, their views have not been fully established, and they have not verified the dharma for themselves. The shallower one's faculties, the longer the verification takes; those with exceptionally good faculties can verify it very quickly. A person's cultivation truly cannot be judged by this single lifetime; one must look at the foundation laid in past lives. The better one cultivated in past lives, the sharper one's faculties, and the faster one's progress. When the manas believes, there is action; only when the manas realizes can it believe. Only when the manas sees direct perception can it realize. Why do so many practitioners still regress? Because theirs is not true believing, and they lack genuine realization.