The Reason Why Those Who Slander the Buddha-Dharma Cannot Attain Liberation

In a certain faction of the Buddhist world, they exclusively believe in the Small Vehicle dharma and exclusively cultivate the path of liberation, yet do not believe in the Mahāyāna dharma, do not believe in the tathāgatagarbha, and do not believe in the manas. In fact, they are six-consciousness theorists who acknowledge only the six consciousnesses. They slander the Mahāyāna dharma as not spoken by the Buddha and deny the Mahāyāna patriarchs and bodhisattvas. This not only slanders the Buddha and the Dharma, but also slanders the Saṅgha—slandering all Three Jewels. Those who slander the Three Jewels are offenders within the Buddha-dharma, and offenders incur karmic retribution; cause and effect are manifest and clear, failing not in the slightest. If they do not repent and eliminate their karmic offenses, they cannot obtain the supreme benefits of the Buddha-dharma, that is, they cannot attain liberation. If slandering the Three Jewels could enable one to eliminate self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) and attain liberation, then it would show that in the world there is no cause and no effect, or there is cause but no effect. Yet cause and effect have never been absent, and the retribution of wholesome and unwholesome karma has never failed to operate.

If one does not acknowledge the existence of the tathāgatagarbha, then when an arhat enters nirvāṇa it becomes annihilatory emptiness (uccheda-śūnyatā), no different from the non-Buddhist paths. As for those arhats who turn from the small vehicle to the great vehicle, who, while in nirvāṇa without remainder (anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa), are to take rebirth in the human world to continue studying and cultivating the Mahāyāna when their Mahāyāna conditions ripen—how would they obtain a body of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha)? If they cannot obtain a body of the five aggregates, then all arhats would become fixed-lineage arhats; there would be no indeterminate-lineage arhats, and no arhats who turn from the small vehicle to the great vehicle. Would not the Mahāyāna dharma that the World-Honored One specially expounded to arhats before they entered nirvāṇa then have been effort in vain? Yet the World-Honored One's immeasurable great wisdom has never made efforts for nothing; whatever He spoke and whatever He aspired to would surely come to fruition.

If one does not acknowledge the existence of the manas, claiming that the manas is just the mind consciousness and that there is no manas, then when contemplating the five aggregates and the eighteen elements (dhātus) in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), among the six faculties one cannot contemplate the manas but only the five faculties; the twelve sense bases (ṣaḍāyatana) cannot be fully contemplated—only eleven; the eighteen elements cannot be fully contemplated—only seventeen. Such an incomplete and fragmentary contemplative practice cannot eliminate the view that the manas is the self. How then could one eliminate self-view? The manas is one of the six faculties: it has the function of a faculty as well as the function of a consciousness. If one does not acknowledge the existence of the manas, the contemplative practice is abandoned halfway, and liberation cannot be attained.

As for those who readily claim to have cultivated the fourth dhyāna, and those who readily claim to have realized the fourth fruit—how great must the misunderstanding among them be? Because sentient beings' pride is too heavy, they always like to exalt themselves and elevate themselves, never willing to examine themselves in a truthful and practical manner, never willing to evaluate themselves truthfully and realistically. As a result, the world is full of so-called sages, leaving Buddhism fragmented and its order thrown into chaos, leaving sentient beings with nothing to rely on and no way to truly discern what is right and what is wrong in the Buddha-dharma! In the Dharma-ending age, sentient beings' karmic obstructions are so heavy—how could there be so many sages dwelling in the world? I hope the wise will think it over carefully, deliberate prudently, and make good choices, rather than drifting with the current!