Direct perception in the Saha world is unreliable

In the Sahā world, people take the common sense of daily life as valid direct cognition, yet by the time one cultivates to the eighth bhūmi bodhisattva, all of these direct cognitions may have changed and no longer apply. Only then does one discover that nothing is really as it seemed—there is nothing immutable, no unchanging things or principles. Mountains may not be mountains, water may not be water. The illusory nature of all material form determines the instability and unreliability of material form.

We believe fire has the nature of burning and can burn up all material form; at the stage of the eighth bhūmi bodhisattva, one knows this is not necessarily so. The nature of fire can change—perhaps it cannot even burn a single sheet of paper, let alone a bodhisattva's body of form.

We believe water has the nature of submerging things; at the stage of the eighth bhūmi bodhisattva, one knows this is not necessarily so—perhaps it cannot even soak a single sheet of paper, let alone a bodhisattva's body of form.

We believe stones cannot be eaten—not necessarily so. A great practitioner can perfectly well boil stones and eat them as if they were taro, potatoes, or sweet potatoes.

Therefore, all those so-called direct cognitions of ordinary sentient beings are wrong; they are all erroneous cognition (non-valid cognition). It is right for sentient beings not to be too self-confident. Clay figures are all molded from clay, but without meditative concentration (samādhi), one can only be molded—what can you mold? You can only mold birth, death, and the suffering of saṃsāra. Modern people delight in learning words, love to memorize, love to acquire knowledge, love to be learned and erudite, and do not like to realize truth through actual practice within meditative concentration.