Only When the Foundation Is Firmly Laid Can One Achieve Realization.

After everyone studying the Dharma has mastered the theoretical knowledge needed for practice to a certain degree, they should not spend more time and energy on theory, because no matter how much theory one learns, it remains theory in the end; it cannot become one's most genuine wisdom to withstand birth-and-death and attain liberation. Only by personally realizing the Buddha's teachings can great wisdom arise, and only then can one attain liberation. And in order to realize it, one must begin practicing step by step from the foundational teaching of the Four Noble Truths, realizing it bit by bit; one cannot practice in a leapfrog manner. 

We should now start by laying the foundation; the foundation is very important, and we must build it well. Because if the foundation is not well laid, no matter how profound the Dharma one studies, one cannot study it to ultimate completion; one can only form a kind of view and reach the level of intellectual understanding, but cannot actually realize it. If the theory one has learned cannot be realized, true wisdom will not arise; only wisdom that has been personally realized and awakened to can lead us out of the mire of birth-and-death. 

Therefore, we should now begin practicing from the contemplation of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, first attaining the liberation of the Small Vehicle, and then, using this method, devote ourselves earnestly to the Chan investigation of the Great Vehicle, whereby one can awaken to the tathāgatagarbha. Afterwards, one observes the functions and roles of the tathāgatagarbha and thereby obtains the wisdom of specific characteristics; as wisdom further grows, after passing the final barrier one then investigates Consciousness-Only, immersing oneself in the functions and roles of the seeds of the tathāgatagarbha, and possessing a portion of the Consciousness-Only seed-wisdom and the wisdom of the varieties of paths—such wisdom is truly extraordinary. But wisdom as great as this cannot be obtained in one or a few lifetimes; it is accomplished through the accumulation of wholesome roots and merit over life after life, even over countless kalpas, and is realized step by step upon the very solid foundation of the initial fundamentals of the Buddha's teachings.