Enlightenment Is the Fruit of Accumulated Cultivation Through Lifetimes

Some people believe that the consciousness and the mental faculty (manas) fundamentally lack any inherent self and are merely tricks played by the Tathagatagarbha itself. They think that neither consciousness nor the mental faculty is the self, that both are the Tathagatagarbha. This is a superficial understanding and unreliable. This perception is too shallow, lacking any evidence whatsoever. Even consciousness is not taken as real, let alone the mental faculty, which is even less so. Only upon genuine realization does one know that neither consciousness nor the mental faculty is the self. Only after realizing the eighth consciousness and directly perceiving how the sixth and seventh consciousnesses are born from the eighth consciousness does one truly know that the sixth and seventh consciousnesses are also fundamentally the eighth consciousness. This direct perception is extremely difficult, not easy to achieve; it requires great realization power and excellent meditative concentration. Otherwise, it remains mostly intellectual understanding.

Some Dharma principles may be understood for ten thousand years without the conditions for realization necessarily arising. Genuine realization requires the accumulation of virtuous roots, merit, and all the provisions for realizing the path over many lifetimes. It is not something easily attained just by talking about it.

Some insist that people during the Buddha's time attained realization very easily. In reality, when they attained that fruit, they had already accumulated merit and provisions for a considerable length of time. Their precepts, concentration, and wisdom were already complete. Encountering the great condition of a Buddha, they realized it instantly. Their identities in previous lives were quite special; they practiced diligently life after life. Many among them were manifestations, coming from the ten directions to cooperate with the Buddha in spreading the Dharma. Within a group, there were all kinds of identities, all present to play their parts alongside the Buddha.

Why say this? For example, Buddhists know that animals are sentient beings within one of the six realms of rebirth. We have all been animals in past lives. Eating animal meat is unkind to sentient beings; it is incurring debt to animals, which must be repaid manifold in the future. But what use is this knowledge? Because it lacks experiential verification, relying only on faith in the principle of cause and effect taught by the Buddha, and having forgotten personal experiences, the mind remains half-doubting. This makes abstaining from meat and pungent foods so difficult. Believing is one thing, doing is another. Faith without experiential verification is hard to put into practice. It is the same with all the theoretical knowledge learned now. Although the consciousness understands and accepts it intellectually, without experiential verification, this understanding still lacks practical effect. In the great matter of life and death, an easy realization is impossible. Having cycled through countless kalpas and unspeakable kalpas, with ignorance deep beyond description, how could one possibly attain realization just by reading books, studying, or learning about it? Many harbor wishful thinking, essentially a mentality of seeking shortcuts, which precisely proves that most people are still very ignorant, profoundly enveloped in ignorance.

When one genuinely severs the view of self, one becomes honest upon severing it. Whoever severs it becomes honest. Because they have truly realized selflessness, truly knowing selflessness, the mind immediately becomes humble. They will no longer flaunt or boast about the self; they will not boast about having attained the fruit. If there is a heart that boasts, then the view of self has not been severed. Moreover, another "I" who has attained the fruit appears. With two "I"s now present, afflictions will inevitably be heavier than before, becoming utterly arrogant, with intense self-conceit.

I have met quite a few people who have realized the fruit and understood the mind. Almost all were somewhat domineering and arrogant, feeling themselves higher than the heavens. The two "I"s in their hearts, one more obvious than the other, remain unknown to themselves. This is precisely because they are harmed by the fruit.