The Purpose of Learning Buddhism

The ultimate purpose of studying the Buddha-dharma is to exhaustively eradicate ignorance and afflictions. When afflictions are exhausted, one is beyond training (aśaikṣa), and there is no longer any need to study the Buddha-dharma. In the Small Vehicle, those beyond training are the arhats of the fourth fruit, the great arhats, and the pratyekabuddhas; in the Great Vehicle, the one beyond training is the World-Honored Buddha. Those beyond training in the Small Vehicle have only exhausted one thought of ignorance with respect to liberation from birth-and-death within the three realms, and thus are beyond training; they have not yet exhausted all ignorance and afflictions, so they are still in training. The Great Vehicle requires not only the exhaustion of one thought of ignorance, but the complete exhaustion of beginningless ignorance before one is truly beyond training. As long as there is ignorance, one must study; when there is no ignorance, there is nothing left to learn—everything is understood, everything has been realized, and study comes to an end.

The Small Vehicle venerable, the fourth-fruit arhat Cūḍapanthaka, due to karmic obstructions from past lives, although he had attained the fourth fruit of arhatship, could not expound the Dharma. Yet even though he could not expound the Dharma, with one thought of ignorance exhausted and afflictions exhausted, he could transcend the three realms and attain liberation; he was a noble one beyond training, no longer needing to study the principle of liberation through the Four Noble Truths. But the Great Vehicle one beyond training, the World-Honored Buddha, has exhausted all ignorance; all the Buddha-dharmas flow forth the moment He opens His mouth, and He can expound them all. Bodhisattvas can also expound the Dharma, because bodhisattvas never separate from sentient beings; being together with sentient beings, they must necessarily expound the Dharma. Because expounding the Dharma gathers immense merit, bodhisattvas are more skilled at expounding the Dharma than arhats and possess greater merit. Even bodhisattvas who have just begun studying Buddhism, even if they do not understand the Buddha-dharma, must still expound the Dharma—speaking in a muddled, neither-fish-nor-fowl way, not even knowing what they themselves are saying.

Once the purpose of studying Buddhism and the Dharma is clear, then in studying Buddhism we should not flaunt our knowledge of the Buddha-dharma everywhere. Acquiring and mastering knowledge is not the goal; it is a means for eradicating afflictions. Once afflictions are eradicated, all knowledge becomes useless—except when it is needed to deliver sentient beings by expounding the Dharma. Therefore, in the process of studying Buddhism, observing one's own ignorance and afflictions, subduing afflictions, and eradicating afflictions is extremely important, while knowledge of Buddhist studies becomes relatively less important. We must not put the cart before the horse, ignoring our own afflictions while running everywhere to acquire knowledge. Even if one learns knowledge by the five cartloads, once one creates an unwholesome karma due to afflictions—the severe case leading to the Avīci hell, the milder case to the animal realm—can Buddhist knowledge save oneself? Carrying a wealth of knowledge into the three evil realms, would there still be the opportunity or the state of mind to flaunt it?