Only Actual Realization Can Resolve the Great Problem of Birth and Death

If everyone could practice according to the method of the Great Mindfulness Sūtra (Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sūtra), the Hīnayāna path could be accomplished quickly, and meditative concentration (samādhi) would certainly be achieved. But nowadays people's minds are too scattered to complete these contemplative practices (vipaśyanā-caryā). When the Buddha was in the world, the bhikṣus all practiced in this way.

Looking at it now, the theoretical portions of the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna teachings that we need for practice are already more or less sufficient; what is lacking is only the actual practice. Actual practice requires cultivating precepts, meditative concentration, and wisdom, and completing the bodhisattva's six perfections, especially the cultivation of merit and meditative concentration. If individual practice is difficult, then group practice is needed. When the Buddha was in the world, he never led group practice; each person sat cross-legged in meditation, contemplating and reflecting upon the Dharma the Buddha had taught, and then attained realization of the fruits.

Modern people are too busy with life and work and have no time to sit in meditation, yet meditative concentration truly cannot be cultivated without it; one's reflection remains shallow and lacks subtlety, making it impossible to realize the Dharma—this is also a fact. The meditative concentration achieved after sitting quietly, compared with the concentration that exists only while walking, standing, sitting, and lying down—the vast gap between them can only be appreciated by those who have actually sat in meditation. You must find your own way; you must take responsibility for yourself. It is not the case that understanding a pile of theory means one has the Path, or that being able to talk eloquently means one has the Path. After genuine realization, even if one is not eloquent, one still has the Path; being eloquent without genuine realization is not the Path either.

Only genuine realization can resolve the great problem of birth and death. No dharma is more important than the enterprise of the Path. Even at the cost of death, one must accomplish the Path; otherwise, no matter how successful one is in worldly affairs while alive, what use is it?