The Reason Why Buddhist Practice Cannot Be Rushed

The path of bodhisattva practice is long; why be concerned with momentary speed or slowness before your eyes? The goal is achieved over three incalculable eons. As long as one completes the Buddha Way in the fastest time within those three incalculable eons, that one is the winner. It is like a ten-thousand-meter long-distance race: what wise person cares about being ahead or behind within the first hundred meters? Setting up a long-term plan and arrangement according to one's physical capacity, and ensuring priority arrival at the finish line, is what is fundamental; everything else is unimportant.

When a person lacks long-term consideration, they will inevitably have near-term worries. The more long-term the goal, the vaster the wisdom, the broader the breadth of mind, the grander the magnanimity, the loftier the aspiration, the stronger the stamina, and the more abundant the confidence. Do not be concerned with momentary speed or slowness, or with winning and losing.

Now, in the Dharma-ending age, there are not so many people of bodhisattva disposition, not so many suitable vessels for the Path, so absolutely no crash courses for swift attainment of fruition and seeing the mind may be conducted. These past two years I have observed some phenomena and have become somewhat alerted: crash courses do people great harm; what they produce are all shoddy, counterfeit products, harming the normal and orderly development of Buddhism.

Many people cannot find the true point of entry for genuine practice and realization; this is a normal phenomenon, showing that their karmic conditions for practice and realization are not yet mature. As they bump about here and there, they gradually mature themselves, gradually grow their roots of goodness and merit, as well as meditative concentration and wisdom, perfect their bodhisattva qualifications, and cultivate the bodhisattva disposition and virtue. At the very least, one must have the moral cultivation of being a proper human being, a human personality—otherwise, how could one serve as a bodhisattva leading sentient beings? If sentient beings are all led into the mire without anyone being aware of it—near vermillion one becomes red, near ink one becomes black—sentient beings unknowingly become steeped in bad habits, yet believe it to be bodhisattva conduct; such consequences are also very frightening. I have observed some seekers of enlightenment whose character is extremely vile, who simply do not know how to be a proper person and do not even wish to be good people. If all such people came to know the point of entry for practice and realization, came to know the final result, and all became so-called bodhisattvas in name only, then what would Buddhism develop into in the future? It is truly frightening to think about.

The more one wishes to quickly see the mind, become enlightened, and attain fruition, the less one should attain enlightenment, because such an urgent mind always has impure motives; the bodhisattva disposition is still insufficient, and the disposition of seeking nothing has not yet been cultivated. Once such a person attains enlightenment, they will seek even more, and the mind craving fame and gain will become uncontrollable. Therefore, matters of practice should be like water flowing and a channel forming—natural and spontaneous. For a person whose karmic conditions are mature, it cannot be held back even if one tries; they will certainly become enlightened naturally, and will naturally be a bodhisattva.

With swift attainment of fruition and seeing the mind, the accumulation of merit is insufficient, karmic obstructions have not yet been eliminated, and afflictions have not yet been subdued. Once one approaches the attainment of fruition and seeing the mind, karmic obstructions will emerge to obstruct, and afflictions will arise to hinder; with obstacles upon obstacles, it is extremely easy to regress in bodhi and the mind for the Path, leaving no strength for subsequent practice. Therefore, when karmic conditions are not mature, one absolutely must not take action to guide them, absolutely must not pluck unripe melons, lest one harm others, harm oneself, and harm Buddhism. If Buddhism conducts crash courses, one may only run crash courses in disposition, crash courses in the mind for the Path, crash courses in human character, and crash courses in meditative concentration—absolutely no crash courses in attaining fruition or in seeing the mind. If disposition cannot be achieved quickly, human character cannot be achieved quickly, the mind for the Path cannot be achieved quickly, and meditative concentration cannot be achieved quickly, how could the attainment of fruition and seeing the mind be achieved quickly?

So many people have come to me pouring out their troubles, saying that in their practice they have no point of entry, do not know how to investigate Chan and see the mind, and do not know how to engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) to attain fruition. Thinking about it now, that is exactly right—not knowing is normal, and having no point of entry is normal. After a period of arduous tempering, when karmic conditions mature, one will come to know and understand everything.