The Mark of Cultivation Is the Transformation of Mental Activities and Mental Factors

The mental factors (caittas) of ordinary beings also differ from one another, and it is best that one's mental factors before studying Buddhism and after studying Buddhism become more and more different. If someone has studied Buddhism for ten or twenty years, yet their mind-ground, mental conduct, and mental factors remain the same as before, then what has this person been doing all those decades? If after studying for many, many years, their mental conduct and mental factors have not changed at all, their afflictions have not been subdued to a certain degree, and the difference between their mental factors and mental conduct and those of a person of the first fruit remains very great, how could they advance toward the direction of the first fruit and then realize and enter the first fruit? If the mind does not change, yet one claims a sage's fruit, then virtue does not match the position, and calamity is sure to follow.

As long as cultivation gives rise to the seven factors of enlightenment (sattva-bojyaṅga), the mental factors must change; if they do not change, then the seven factors of enlightenment are not complete, and if the seven factors of enlightenment are not complete, one can in no way realize the fruit. How many people have not even come close to the edge of the seven factors of enlightenment, yet have obtained a great sage's fruit and gone home to enjoy it—this is the Dharma-ending age.