Inference Can Never Replace Direct Perception

Inference can never substitute for direct perception and observation. If it could substitute for the direct perception of realized observation, then the Buddha could have told us everything about the realization He attained within His own mind, bit by bit, and after that we would spend decades understanding, memorizing, and elaborating upon it until it was thoroughly engrained in our hearts—wouldn't we then become Buddhas? If spending a few decades made one's wisdom completely identical to the Buddha's, what a convenient path of practice that would be! Why did the Buddha not teach us to practice in this way? Why still cultivate precepts, meditation, and wisdom, with such hardship? Becoming a Buddha within one lifetime through such practice would be no difficult task—so why did all the Buddhas still have to cultivate for three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas, so vastly long? Memorizing the Buddha's words is countless times easier than cultivating the precepts, meditation, and wisdom, or the bodhisattva's six perfections. If the Buddha had told us all the secrets of Buddhist practice and realization, could we all then realize omniscience (sarvākārajñatā) and quickly become Buddhas?

A truth that is merely passed down by word of mouth, not drawn out from one's own inner being, is forever a counterfeit, unable to withstand the wind and waves. When the mind consciousness does too much reasoning, the manas loses its capacity to exert force. What the Chan patriarchs most detested and opposed was precisely what they called "divining beneath the concepts"—emotional thinking and intellectual understanding—which is not genuine skill. When the mind consciousness is used too much, the manas cannot apply effort, and then realization is impossible. As one waxes, the other wanes—whose knowledge, witnessing, and realization is best to rely on, then?

The manas's leading role is the foundation of realization. If realization were not done through the manas, then everyone under heaven could be a sage burdened with deep afflictions. Realization through the manas can only be attained by those of great wholesome roots and great merit who have long undergone cultivation; such people are extremely few in number. Each person eating is the one who gets full—what the mind consciousness knows and realizes cannot substitute for the manas. The manas must itself know and itself realize before doubt can be severed and the problem of birth and death can be resolved. If you want the manas to realize, you cannot do without meditative concentration (samādhi), because realization is meditative absorption (samādhi), and all meditative absorption is inseparable from meditative concentration. Without meditative concentration, there is no meditative absorption; without meditative absorption, there is no realization. Such is the principle. No matter how many hidden meanings you know, it is useless—doubt cannot be severed.

In my own case, I can very clearly perceive what kind of wisdom there is when there is meditative concentration, and what state body and mind are in; and what kind of wisdom there is when there is no concentration, and what state body and mind are in then—it is extremely obvious. Therefore, without meditative concentration, the manas cannot exert force, there is no actual realization, and afflictions cannot be subdued either.

The prerequisite for realization is having meditative concentration, along with contemplation in accordance with the Dharma; only then can there be wisdom. For wisdom to arise, meditative concentration is one of the necessary conditions, but not the whole of it. Yet without meditative concentration, there is certainly no true wisdom—there can only be "dry wisdom," a wisdom that solves no actual problems. Take the meditative concentration of the non-Buddhists and add our contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) wisdom; combining the two, one can realize very profound Buddhadharma. If the two are separated, there is no realization. This also includes the bodhisattva's six perfections and the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment—all must be cultivated and none can be bypassed. Only when these conditions are fulfilled can realization occur.