The Direct Perception of Ordinary Beings Is Not Reliable

From the perspective of ultimate meaning, all dharmas are direct perception for the Buddha, but non-valid cognition for ordinary beings, because the Buddha completely and truly knows things as they are, while sentient beings know them erroneously. Since beginningless kalpas, the six consciousnesses of sentient beings have been deceiving their own manas, whether intentionally or unintentionally, transmitting only realms of non-valid cognition to the manas; as a result, the defilement of the manas has become increasingly severe, and ignorance has grown ever deeper. If the mind consciousness, through contact with the correct scriptural authority (āgama), through attention in accordance with reality (yoniśo-manaskāra) and correct deliberation, can bring the six consciousnesses and the manas into contact with realms of direct perception that accord with reality and with the Dharma, then one can come to know the true facts of all dharmas. Ordinary beings, in their direct perception of all dharmas, believe everything to be real, but in fact the results are all false and illusory; ordinary beings have never arrived at a single correct conclusion—what they arrive at are almost always erroneous conclusions. The direct perception of ordinary beings is unreliable, because they lack the genuine wisdom of the Buddha-Dharma; relying on this so-called direct perception, life after life they consequently suffer the misery of saṃsāra and karma on account of these erroneous conclusions.