Studying Buddhism Must Never Involve Personality Cults

The unconditioned dharma refers to the eighth consciousness. It is not a provisionally established dharma posited in opposition to conditioned dharmas; it is a true dharma, originally existent, neither arising nor ceasing, not a false dharma. The eighth consciousness, in contrast to the false self of the five aggregates and the seven consciousnesses, is called the true self. At the stages of ordinary beings and bodhisattvas, there are still arising-and-ceasing seeds, so it is not yet a complete and perfect self. When the Buddha-stage is reached, the defiled, arising-and-ceasing, mutable seeds are eliminated, and it becomes the true and genuine self that is permanent, blissful, self, and pure.

When the fundamental aspect is gravely mistaken, whether the branches and leaves are right or wrong no longer matters. Teaching Yogācāra without enlightenment is a laughingstock; even the wisdom of one who is enlightened cannot fully expound Yogācāra well. Without contemplative realization of Yogācāra, how can one teach it? If the Yogācāra of today's world is passed down to later generations—if such a person has fame and authority—people of later ages will prostrate themselves in worship, and who knows how many vast numbers of genuinely practicing Buddhist sons will be misled. Worldly people often mistakenly assume that the works of famous and respected masters are all correct and error-free, and that anyone who can teach Yogācāra must be a person of realization. The ignorance of sentient beings lies precisely here—it is beyond remedy.

If one promotes and studies this kind of Yogācāra, the more one promotes it, the greater the culpability; the more one studies it, the further one is from liberation. Each of you had better take heed! The path of practice is perilous, and all kinds of traps will be encountered. Cultivating merit abundantly and growing in wisdom is of the utmost importance. In later generations, these teachings will all become classical texts. People tend to venerate the ancient, and if they worship such erroneous classical texts, will that not harm people? How many people in this world have opened their eyes and can discern the right and wrong, the true and false, of classical texts?