Only by Cultivating According to the Path Guided by the Buddha Can One Succeed

Question: Nowadays many people talk about emptiness and existence in lofty discourse, saying that emptiness is a state of realization that can only be experienced after seeing one's true mind and attaining enlightenment. But I feel that before enlightenment, one still needs to use the sixth consciousness (manovijñāna) to constantly contemplate the Buddha's teachings, cultivate the six pāramitās, and continually immerse and subdue the seventh consciousness (manas). At the stage of an ordinary being, one has no ability to realize emptiness; merely hearing others speak of emptiness and then speculating about it with one's own deluded mind—is that of any use?

Answer: At the stage of an ordinary being, all states of experience are merely speculation and conjecture. Moreover, because the view of grasping at views (dṛṣṭi-parāmarśa) has not been eliminated, one clings to the views one has speculated out for oneself as correct, holding that everyone else's are wrong, and so people argue and debate with one another. When the view of grasping at views is severe, it obstructs the Path, and there is no way to eliminate the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi).

The emptiness that ordinary people talk about is often just the notion of emptying out one's own deluded mind—when facing various states of experience, one tries to cut off one's thoughts; some also rely on sitting in meditation to cultivate samādhi, seeking a mind without thoughts, believing that this is how one becomes empty. They can never actually experience the inherent emptiness of the tathāgatagarbha. No matter how others explain the emptiness of the tathāgatagarbha, because one has not actually realized it, one still cannot understand it. No matter how one cultivates this method of "emptiness," one can never reach emptiness. It is like someone who shouts all day long about "letting go," practices for a whole lifetime, yet never lets go of anything, and at the time of death is still dragged by karma into the three evil destinies. The method of practice must follow the route pointed out to us by the Buddha: one must practice according to the principle of the Four Noble Truths and the contemplation of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, cultivate to the emptiness of the Small Vehicle, eliminate the self-view, and only then can one truly let go; and only by following the Mahāyāna principle taught by the Buddha can one realize the inherent emptiness of the tathāgatagarbha.

These phenomena are merely one stage in the process of sentient beings' cultivation. When merit is complete, they will quickly pass; great wisdom requires great merit as its foundation. With meager merit (alpa-puṇya) and heavy obstructions, there is no way to escape the entanglement of various wrong views. In the past, there was a Chan master who was about to pass away and wished to select a disciple to succeed him and continue his Dharma lineage. He posed a question to test his disciples' level of wisdom. As soon as a disciple voiced his own views and opinions, the Chan master spoke up: "Your merit is meager; you cannot sustain my lineage." The meaning was: your merit is thin and your wisdom insufficient, so you cannot carry forward my Chan Dharma lineage. This merit involves not only worldly merit, but even more the merit of the supra-worldly Dharma—that is, the great merit cultivated in precepts, samādhi, and wisdom. Therefore, to realize the emptiness of prajñā, one must have merit, and all six pāramitās of the bodhisattva must be well cultivated.