Practice Is the Supreme Way After Hearing the Dharma

Extensive learning and wide knowledge are like counting others' treasures, without possessing even half a coin oneself. After beholding others' treasures, one must seek a way to obtain their own. What should be the state of mind when counting one's own treasure? Rather than gazing enviously at fish in the deep pool, it is better to turn back and weave a net. No matter how many fish are seen in the depths, they are not one's own. The wise should turn back to weave a net; only by catching fish with the net can one enjoy them. Yet in this world, truly wise and discerning people seem few. They only admire others' treasures, never desiring to possess their own, enduring hunger without concern. Some people daily delight in discussing the Dharma they have heard, yet never exert themselves to attain it. After observing others, one should turn back to cultivate their own. How substantial would it be to possess it oneself? Only what one possesses oneself truly counts as possession. How can what others possess be credited to you?

The ancients said: "Learning without thinking leads to confusion." We should say: "Learning without practicing leads to confusion." For many people also think, but their thinking is superficial, lacking samadhi. Their thoughts merely skim the surface of the Dharma, unable to penetrate deeply. Knowing only superficial aspects, they proclaim they have attained realization—pitiful in their shallowness and arrogance. Such thinking cannot be called practice at all. Practice means cultivation—cultivating one's own body and mind. Only when body and mind undergo transformation to a corresponding degree after this cultivation can it be called practice. If a person remains the same as before, the mind remains the same as before, and afflictions persist unchanged, it cannot be called practice, let alone yielding any fruit of practice. How could there be any fruit? Self-proclaimed fruits easily rot and decay.