What Does Knowledge by Direct Perception Refer To?

Knowledge by direct perception/valid direct cognition is an intuitive presentation: the moment a dharma appears, it is known at once, extremely swiftly—known without deliberation, and not known only after being expressed through language and thought. For example, the Heart Sutra says: 观自在菩萨，行深般若波罗蜜多时，照见五蕴皆空。Here, "illuminatingly seeing" is knowing by direct perception. If one only used the mind consciousness to see that the five aggregates are empty, then it would not be knowing the emptiness of the five aggregates instantly and immediately; rather, one would first go through deliberation and analysis by the mind consciousness, and only then know the emptiness of the five aggregates—that would not be "illuminatingly seeing." The term "illuminatingly seeing" means present, immediate manifestation by direct perception: no logical deliberation, analysis, or organization is used—whatever is there in the moment is exactly what it is. This is the knowing of the manas, the realization of the manas.

The Sūtra of the Brahmā Heavenly King's Questions to the Buddha on Resolving Doubts says: 诸佛密意者，以言辞而不可测度。何以故？是法非思量、非思量分能解，即是唯佛与佛究尽法。This means that the supremely profound Buddha-dharma cannot be fathomed through the initial application and sustained examination (vitarka-vicāra) and deliberation of the mind consciousness, because the Buddha-dharma is not something that the mind consciousness can resolve through deliberation; it is the dharma that only a Buddha together with a Buddha can fully comprehend. Whenever there is true knowing by direct perception, there is no language and no deliberation—it is known very directly and very swiftly, with no intermediate process. Without passing through a bone-chilling cold, merely using the mind consciousness to give a shallow, crude explanation, one cannot obtain the Buddha-dharma. Therefore, the final realization of the Buddha-dharma must be a realization clear to the manas—a knowing by direct perception.

The patriarchs of the Chan school often said: if you are to know, know at once; if you are to understand, understand at once—what is there to deliberate about? Deliberation misses the mark. In the past, when Chan masters probed their disciples' wisdom to see whether they had seen the Path, they did not allow the disciples to deliberate any further, nor to keep turning things over and over in their minds. For instance, when the Fifth Patriarch pressed the monk Shenxiu to compose a verse showing that he had seen the Path, Shenxiu paced back and forth in his room.

That so many people take the mind consciousness as foremost, and take the discriminating and analyzing of the mind consciousness as the method of practice and realization of the Buddha-dharma—this indeed goes against the intent of the Buddha and the patriarchs, goes against direct perception, and goes against the truth.