How Can One Truly Cultivate and Realize the Wisdom of Direct Perception?

Many people take their own understanding of the Dharma as realization, and even their understanding is quite shallow; some of their views of the Dharma are merely guesses, inferences, and conjectures. They cannot distinguish the boundaries and differences between intellectual understanding, awakening through understanding (jie-wu), and awakening through realization (zheng-wu). This great misunderstanding leads to the grave false speech of claiming realization one does not have. Many answers and conclusions in the Buddha-Dharma were given by the Buddha himself, and some were expounded by the great bodhisattvas and good spiritual friends. In the course of one's practice, understanding these conclusions and answers is not realization; it does not even count as awakening through understanding—it is still very far from it.

What, then, is realization? For example, the Buddha said that all dharmas are like a dream, like an illusion. This is a conclusion the Buddhas arrived at through practice and realization; it is the Buddha's realization-attainment. When others understand it, it is merely understanding—not even awakening through understanding. To truly realize that all dharmas are like a dream, like an illusion, one reaches the tenth dedication-stage bodhisattva (daśa-pariṇāma), and soon becomes qualified to enter the first bhūmi. Can ordinary sentient beings, merely by reading and understanding that all dharmas are like a dream, like an illusion, directly become great bodhisattvas of the tenth dedication stage? Obviously not. They lack the precepts, meditation, and wisdom, and the bodhisattva's six perfections are incomplete—nothing has been cultivated to perfection. Not even having attained initial enlightenment, how could they leap over nearly one great asaṃkhyeya kalpa of time to become great bodhisattvas of the tenth dedication stage?

To realize that the world of the five aggregates is like a dream, like an illusion, one must, on the foundation of fully cultivating the precepts, meditation, and wisdom and the bodhisattva's six perfections, engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and investigation from shallow to deep, sequentially realizing the dharmas at each level—from the first and second barriers of the Chan school all the way to the third barrier—before one can finally realize the contemplation that all is like a dream. This takes many kalpas of time, approaching one great asaṃkhyeya kalpa of cultivation. Understanding of "like a dream, like an illusion" itself has many levels, and even a complete, utterly thorough understanding does not equal realization, because there has been no actual process of investigation, no proof; the conclusion was not arrived at by oneself.

It is like a geometry proof problem: the final conclusion is given by the teacher, ready-made, not derived by oneself. One must prove it step by step, with a process and steps, and only then can one prove the final conclusion given by the teacher. If the process is incomplete or untrue, even if one arrives at a conclusion consistent with the teacher's, it is wrong—not directly perceived realization (pratyakṣa). The Buddha-Dharma follows the same principle: everyone can state the final conclusion that all is like a dream, like an illusion. Though what they state is correct truth, it is still not their own direct-perception realization.

In the Buddha-Dharma, the Buddha has given us countless final answers and conclusions, all contained in the Tripiṭaka and the twelve divisions of the scriptures. Even if we memorized the entire Tripiṭaka and twelve divisions, even if we expounded them eloquently and fluently, it would still not be our own realization-attainment—it would merely represent our understanding, still far from awakening through understanding, let alone awakening through realization. Every dharma the Buddha taught, even every single sentence, requires us to deliberate and investigate within profound meditative concentration (samādhi), engaging in contemplative practice in accordance with reality and principle, before we can possibly realize them one by one. Only the wisdom after realization is one's own wisdom of direct perception; otherwise, no statement is one's own realization, and true wisdom does not correspond to what is said.

To truly realize and achieve accomplishment, one must even forget the finer details of contemplating the five aggregates, casting them behind. Just devote oneself to contemplative practice and investigation; the details need to be clarified by oneself during contemplation, and only then can wisdom arise. Many people cannot apply their effort to the manas; that is because their meditative concentration is severely insufficient, and they can never experience how to let the manas alone deliberate (manasikāra). With insufficient power of concentration, how could there be any such experience? When one lacks meditative concentration, it is best not to investigate anything at all. If the mind consciousness is clever, it will "understand" quite a lot, but it has no real use—it may serve for verbal display, but has no practical value. For the mind consciousness, understanding the Dharma in this way is worse than not understanding it; it is best to save it for investigation when meditative concentration improves and conditions are complete.