Cultivating Both Merit and Wisdom to Attain the Path

If one does not diligently cultivate blessings and wisdom, lacks sufficient faith roots, and lacks sufficient virtuous roots, demons will possess them during their practice without their realization. The ninth volume of the Shurangama Sutra describes many instances of demonic possession; one should examine them carefully. When demons first possess someone, they bestow many worldly benefits—bringing physical and mental joy, granting meditative concentration, bestowing wealth, curing illnesses to restore health, and creating the illusion of supernatural powers—making one feel extraordinary. Yet all these are demonic powers, not one’s own spiritual attainment. Once the demon has exhausted its use for you and you lose your value, the demon grows weary and abandons you. What then remains of you? Your true nature is exposed, and after death, you fall into hell.

The Buddha said that those who attain human rebirth are as few as the soil beneath a fingernail, while those who fail to attain it are as abundant as the soil of the earth. Is this statement of the Buddha completely true? Observing sentient beings today, those with virtuous roots and blessings are exceedingly rare. Even among those who study Buddhism, countless afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion cling to their minds. Thus, innumerable practitioners still fall into the three evil realms upon death. Only those who have genuinely severed the view of self can avoid the three evil realms. Yet how many can truly sever the view of self? Extremely few. If one slanders the Buddha or the Dharma, the consequence is not merely the three evil realms but the Avīci Hell, where one endures torment for immensely long kalpas without hope of release. Sentient beings are indeed pitiable, but their pitiable state stems from their own faults.