What Is the Knowledge of Pratyakṣa?

Direct perception is an intuitive manifestation, where the dharmas are known instantly upon their appearance, with extreme swiftness, without discrimination, and without requiring expression through language or thought before being known. For example, the Heart Sutra states: "When Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva was practicing the profound Prajñāpāramitā, he illuminated the five aggregates and saw that they were all empty." The "illuminating insight" mentioned here is the knowing of direct perception. If one merely uses the conscious mind to see the emptiness of the five aggregates, it is not an immediate realization of their emptiness; rather, it involves the conscious mind analyzing and contemplating before knowing their emptiness, which is not "illuminating insight." The term "illuminating insight" signifies the immediate manifestation of direct perception, without logical thought, analysis, or organization—what is present is simply known as it is. This is the knowing of the manas (the seventh consciousness), the realization of the manas.

The Sutra of the Questions of Brahma Devaraja to the Buddha states: The secret intentions of all Buddhas cannot be fathomed by words and expressions. Why? This Dharma cannot be comprehended by discursive thought or the realm of discursive thought. Only Buddhas together with Buddhas can exhaustively realize this Dharma. This means that the supreme and profound Buddhadharma cannot be fathomed through the deliberative cognition and thought of the conscious mind, because the Buddhadharma is not something that can be understood by the conscious mind’s pondering and speculation. It is a Dharma that only Buddhas together with Buddhas can fully comprehend. Whenever there is genuine knowing through direct perception, it occurs without language, without thought, very intuitively and very swiftly, with no intermediate process. Without enduring the bitter cold to the bone, merely understanding superficially and coarsely through the conscious mind, one cannot attain the Buddhadharma. Therefore, the ultimate realization of the Buddhadharma must be the realization understood by the manas, the knowing of direct perception.

Zen patriarchs often say: "To know is to know immediately; to understand is to understand immediately. What is there to ponder? Pondering misses the mark." When ancient Zen masters tested their disciples' wisdom to see if they had realized the Way, they did not permit their disciples to ponder further or to deliberate back and forth. For example, when the Fifth Patriarch tested Venerable Shenxiu by asking him to compose a verse demonstrating his realization of the Way, Shenxiu paced back and forth in his room for a day and a night, thinking, yet could not write it. The Fifth Patriarch thus knew he had not realized the Way but had merely cultivated the blessings of humans and devas. If a Zen master asked a disciple a question and the disciple hesitated even slightly, the master would know there was no awakening and would strike him with a stick—first as punishment, second as a means of pointing and awakening. When one person asks a question to understand another’s attitude, if the other hesitates before answering, it reveals insincerity in the response. Any knowing that occurs after conscious thought is not true knowing.

The knowing of direct perception is like this: when a car approaches rapidly, speeding toward you, you immediately know it is dangerous and dodge aside. This knowing is direct perception—there is no linguistic thought or analysis, no deliberative cognition. At that moment, the manas instantly knows it is dangerous and takes charge to swiftly avoid it, without delay or hesitation. There is no need for the conscious mind to think and analyze that it is dangerous and then convey this analysis to the manas; doing so would certainly make it too late to dodge. Of course, once the conscious mind encounters this phenomenon, it too knows it is dangerous, but it contacts the phenomenon later than the manas and realizes it a step later—often, one only feels fear afterward upon remembering, realizing the danger then.

The Buddha knows events from countless kalpas in the past and events countless kalpas in the future—all through direct perception. There is no comparison, conjecture, fanciful thinking, thought, analysis, inference, or deduction—none of these functions of conscious discrimination are present. Therefore, no person or matter can deceive the Buddha, for the Buddha knows all dharmas entirely through direct perception. The deeper the wisdom, the greater the degree of direct perception, the less the conscious mind is used, and the more direct and swift the response.

Yet so many people prioritize the conscious mind, treating conscious discrimination and analysis as the method for verifying and realizing the Buddhadharma. This indeed appears to contradict the intent of the Buddha and the patriarchs, contradict direct perception, and contradict the truth.