Realization, Understanding, and Intellectual Comprehension Are Essentially Different.

Intellectual understanding (jie wu) is like guessing the general functioning of the tathāgatagarbha; it is not observed through direct perception, and is not as clear as seeing an object right before one's eyes. When it is merely guessed at, the manas remains unclear, the mind feels unsteady and lacks groundedness, and it is easily overturned. In such a case, one cannot observe the specific operations of the eighth consciousness, and genuine great wisdom cannot arise. Ordinary conceptual understanding and comprehension are far removed from the level of intellectual understanding, and the gap between intellectual understanding and realization may be quite large—it mainly depends on how well one has cultivated the conditions of the six pāramitās in daily life.