The Difference Between Buddhist Practitioners of Ancient and Modern Times

People in ancient times had better spiritual faculties (indriya); their minds were simple and practical, willing to pay the price for cultivation, truly cultivating and truly practicing without regard for personal gain, able to let go and put things down, with mild afflictions, few desires, and strong renunciation. Modern people are restless and ungrounded, aiming high while lacking ability, empty-bellied yet lofty-minded, mouths sharper than their brains, relying entirely on the mind consciousness for broad learning and abundant interpretation, unable to investigate deeply within meditative concentration, floating on the surface of consciousness, unable to penetrate into the depths. The investigation by the manas and the interpretation by the mind consciousness are worlds apart; because there is so much interpretation, arrogance blazes fiercely and becomes the heaviest obstruction. 

People in ancient times had a solid foundation in the Buddha-dharma and cultivated well even in the subtle details. Modern people today ignore the foundational Buddha-dharma, considering the Four Noble Truths dispensable, aiming too high while craving the great and abandoning the small. Because they lack foundational practice, their afflictions cannot be subdued and their mental actions cannot be transformed; their bodily, verbal, and mental actions carry heavy afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, causing karmic obstructions to grow ever heavier rather than ever lighter, and their study of Buddhism makes no progress. Modern people all look down on non-Buddhist paths, yet apart from knowledge and views of the Buddha-dharma, in every other respect they cannot match even half of what the non-Buddhists achieve. Those non-Buddhists have renunciation, pure and simple minds, profound meditative concentration (samādhi), extremely mild afflictions, strict self-discipline, and moral character—in all these respects they surpass modern Buddhist practitioners. 

The non-Buddhists merely had not encountered the true dharma of liberation; once they encountered it, many could immediately realize the first fruit up to the fourth fruit. Modern people are exposed to the Buddha-dharma their whole lives yet cannot even see the shadow of the first fruit—except for those with false realization of the fruits—so how can they compare with the non-Buddhists? The non-Buddhists simply lacked wisdom and had not encountered the corresponding dharma; they were just one step short of realizing the fruits and liberation. Many non-Buddhists, upon encountering the Buddha-dharma, the moment they heard the Buddha's voice of dharma, their hair fell away, robes draped over their bodies, and their afflictions were severed completely. In those past eras, despite such harsh living conditions, the non-Buddhists did not care; they sat in meditation and entered samādhi deep in remote mountains and old forests. When they encountered the Buddha teaching the dharma, tens of thousands or even more would follow the Buddha to leave home and cultivate the path, and extremely many realized the fruits. 

Yet we, in contact with the Buddha-dharma year after year, after decades still cannot cultivate the Eightfold Path, do not even possess the most basic desire-realm concentration (kāmadhātu-samādhi); our minds are full of afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion; conflicts and gossip over self and others never cease day after day; we refuse to endure the slightest hardship and refuse to give up the slightest enjoyment, grasping at wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep in every way. The theories in our mouths could ascend to heaven, while what our bodies practice verges on the evil destinies. If so-called Mahāyāna Buddhists are all like this, they are disgracing the Mahāyāna dharma and destroying the Mahāyāna dharma, and hardly anyone can awaken to this fact.