The mind consciousness attaining realization of the fruit is a wrong path for practice in the Dharma-ending age

There are so, so many wrong paths in practicing the Dharma in the Saha world. Without great roots of goodness and merit, it is truly difficult to discern the right direction—especially in subtle matters. If you have never walked a certain path, you can really go astray. Even one small wrong path is enough to waste an enormous amount of practice time, and it is not easy to retreat from it, let alone a major wrong path, which is even harder to discern and exit. As for attaining the fruits and awakening to the true mind—is it enough for only the mind consciousness to attain realization and awakening, or must the manas together with the mind consciousness attain the fruits and awaken to the true mind? Is this question a small wrong path or a major wrong path? Attaining bodhi without having to eliminate afflictions—is that a major wrong path or a small one?

The question of realizing the Dharma is the most momentous issue for individual sentient beings and for Buddhism as a whole; it is the crucial issue and turning point of life and death, of survival or extinction. Therefore, any other dharma may be mistaken, but on this question alone there must be absolutely no error. If one errs on this question, it is a fundamental problem of principle, a great issue concerning the destiny of sentient beings and of Buddhism itself.

The closer we come to the Dharma-ending age, the more wrong paths there are in the practice and realization of the Buddha's teachings. In ancient times, studying Buddhism was called cultivating and practicing; for most modern people studying Buddhism, it can only be called studying, rarely involving cultivation and practice. Yet among the ancients who cultivated and practiced, awakening was slow and rare, whereas among those in the Dharma-ending age who merely study, awakening is fast and plentiful. Is this not highly abnormal? Of course it is highly abnormal. The future extinction of the Buddha's teachings will occur precisely here—it is an extinction from the very root of practice and realization. Without genuine realization, the Buddha's teachings will be hard to sustain. That is why for many years I have been teaching that the manas attains the fruits and the manas awakens to the true mind, and I have written several books on the manas, for fear that the Buddha's teachings might quickly be fiddled into extinction. 

I have taught about the manas attaining the fruits from every angle, with no blind spots whatsoever, yet there are still dull-facultied scholars—venerables—who refuse, come what may, to accept this principle, and dare not accept it. Because once they accept it, their fruits of the Great and Small Vehicles would be ruined, vanish, disappear, and they would become an ordinary worldling. How unwilling they are to accept this! But to act this way is extremely irrational; such a person does not regard the Path as paramount, does not take the Dharma and truth as their refuge. Evading facts is not the conduct of a great man; it is a manifestation of a heavy self-centered mind.

If sentient beings have deep roots of goodness and abundant merit, then even if they encounter a wrong path, they will ultimately, by means of their own roots of goodness and merit, walk out of it and return to the right path. Therefore, every student of Buddhism should cultivate more merit and plant more roots of goodness, so as to ensure that in this life and future lives they do not enter wrong paths, that they possess the Dharma-selecting eye and discernment, are not misled, and do not fall into evil destinies. The closer we come to the Dharma-ending age, the more opportunities there are to cultivate merit and to plant roots of goodness. Those who truly wish to attain the Way and those who make great aspirations and vows must seize every opportunity well, planting many roots of goodness and merit—not only will they benefit endlessly, life after life, but they will also accelerate the process of cultivating and realizing the Buddha's Way, sooner attaining liberation through wisdom, benefiting themselves and benefiting others.