The mind consciousness attaining realization of the fruit is a wrong path for practice in the Dharma-ending age

There are many, many wrong paths in spiritual practice in the Saha world. Without considerable wholesome roots and merit, it is truly difficult to discern the right direction, especially in subtle matters. If you have never walked a certain path, you can really go astray; even a small wrong path is enough to waste an enormous amount of practice time, and extricating oneself from it is not easy—let alone a major wrong path, which is even harder to recognize and exit. As for the realization of fruits and awakening to the true mind—is it enough for only the mind consciousness to realize the fruits and awaken to the true mind, or must the manas realize the fruits and awaken to the true mind together with the mind consciousness for it to count? Is this question a small wrong path or a major one? Is "attaining bodhi without having to eliminate afflictions" a major wrong path or a small one?

The question of realizing the Dharma is the most weighty issue for individual sentient beings and for Buddhism as a whole; it is the crucial issue and turning point of survival or extinction. Therefore, any other dharma may be mistaken, but on this question alone, one absolutely cannot be wrong. If one is wrong on this question, it is a fundamental error of principle, a major error concerning the destiny of sentient beings and Buddhism. The closer we get to the Dharma-ending age, the more wrong paths there are in the cultivation and realization of the Buddha's teachings. In ancient times, learning Buddhism was called cultivation and practice; for most modern people learning Buddhism, it can only be called "studying," rarely involving cultivation and practice. Yet among the ancients who cultivated and practiced, those who awakened were slow and few, whereas in the Dharma-ending age, among those who merely study, awakening is fast and plentiful—is this not highly abnormal? Of course it is highly abnormal. The future extinction of the Buddha's teachings will occur precisely here: it will be an extinction at the very root of cultivation and realization. Without genuine realization, the Buddha's teachings will be hard to sustain. This is why for many years I have been teaching about the manas realizing the fruits and the manas awakening to the true mind, and have written several books on the manas, out of fear that the Buddha's teachings might quickly be destroyed.

I have taught about the manas realizing the fruits from every possible angle, with no blind spots, yet there are still dull-facultied scholars and venerables who refuse to accept this principle no matter what, and dare not accept it—because once they accept it, their fruits of the Great and Small Vehicles would come to nothing, vanish, and they would become ordinary worldlings. How unwilling they are to accept this! But such people are acting very irrationally; they are not people who prioritize the Path, nor people who take the Dharma and truth as their refuge. Evading facts is not the conduct of a great man; it is a manifestation of a heavy self-centered mind.

If sentient beings have deep wholesome roots and abundant merit, then even if they encounter a wrong path, they will eventually be able to walk out of it by virtue of their own wholesome roots and merit, and return to the right path. Therefore, every Buddhist practitioner should cultivate more merit and plant more wholesome roots, so as to ensure that in this life and future lives they do not go astray, that they possess the Dharma-selecting eye and discernment, are not misled, and do not fall into evil destinies. The closer we get to the Dharma-ending age, the more opportunities there are to cultivate merit and plant wholesome roots. Those who truly wish to attain the Way and those who make great aspirations and vows must seize every opportunity well, planting more wholesome roots and merit. In this way, one will not only benefit endlessly, life after life, but also accelerate the process of cultivating and realizing the Buddha's Way, sooner attaining liberation through wisdom, benefiting both oneself and others.