Only After the Thirty-Seven Factors of Enlightenment Are Accomplished Can One Attain Realization

Chapter 5  Only After the Thirty-Seven Factors of the Path Are Accomplished Can One Realize Awakening

1. The sequence of cultivating the thirty-seven factors of the path is roughly as follows: one begins cultivation from the faith faculty among the five faculties; when the five faculties grow, the five powers are fulfilled; afterward one enters the Eightfold Noble Path and initiates deliberative cultivation, cultivating the seven factors of enlightenment; within the factor of mindfulness one cultivates the contemplation of the four foundations of mindfulness, obtaining the flavor of wholesome dharmas, arousing the four right efforts, and finally, as the result, through diligent and arduous cultivation one obtains the fruit-bliss of the four bases of supernatural power, and the mind attains freedom and liberation.

Each of the thirty-seven factors of the path requires not only diligent cultivation by the mind consciousness, but also the immersion and training of the manas, so that the manas and the mind consciousness cultivate together, fulfilling each factor of the path completely, and finally accomplishing the four bases of supernatural power. The mind consciousness uses the power of mindfulness to immerse and train the manas, so that the manas' power of mindfulness is fulfilled and the power of mindfulness is accomplished. Each dharma is first guided by the mind consciousness' immersion and training, and is fulfilled by the manas; only afterward can that dharma be actually realized.

Only when the manas realizes that body and mind are not truly existent can liberation be attained; if the mind consciousness merely believes that body and mind are not truly existent, liberation cannot be attained. The distance between believing and realizing can be far or near, depending entirely on the person's level of cultivation; without cultivation, the gap may span many kalpas.

2. The key to attaining the fruits of the Small Vehicle is the cultivation of the seven factors of enlightenment. The seven factors have already been discussed in outline. The process of cultivation is also the process of the four aids to penetration—warmth, summit, patience, and the foremost worldly dharma. These four stages are the process of further inner processing upon the foundation of textual theory. During this processing, the mind will inevitably undergo corresponding gradual changes; this is the process by which the contemplated dharma-meaning gradually resonates with the manas within, and the manas gradually receives and accepts it. Of course, first the mind consciousness receives and accepts it, giving rise to determination (adhimokṣa), and then transmits it to the manas, letting the manas receive and accept it. After the manas receives and accepts it, body and mind will gradually transform, and the seven factors of enlightenment will appear one by one. Only after the factor of meditative concentration appears can great wisdom discard the dharma-marks of the five aggregates of body and mind, and then realize the Dharma, becoming a stream-enterer, foremost in the world. If body and mind have not changed or transformed, and the seven factors of enlightenment have not been accomplished, it is impossible to eliminate self-view and realize the fruit.

The sign of warmth: in the initial stage of study, through textual theory and one's own personal deliberation and contemplative practice, a sign of warmth appears in the mind, like sparks being struck; the mind somewhat assents to the correct theory being contemplated, gains an initial cognition of and interest in the dharma being cultivated, and wishes to continue probing its content more deeply.

The sign of the summit: at this stage, one's cognition of the theory has reached a certain degree and a certain height; one has understood and comprehended the emptiness and selflessness of the five aggregates of body and mind, reaching the pinnacle of cognition of the five aggregates. At this point one is still in the stage of the mind consciousness' cognition and determination; the manas has not yet been brought to full cognition and determination, so the mind still has restlessness and cannot completely assent to and abide in the cognition that the five aggregates are empty and selfless; one is at a stage where one may advance or regress.

At this stage, some people's minds will fiercely resist, with restless, unsettled thoughts and fluctuating emotions. Some will be extremely distressed, perhaps inexplicably irritable and low-spirited. After passing through this stage, the manas becomes somewhat accustomed, the emotions return to normal, and one enters the next stage: not only does the mind consciousness patiently endure emptiness, but the manas also patiently endures. One will then continue to probe deeply into why exactly the five aggregates are empty and unreal.

The third stage is patience. Patience means abiding—abiding in the meaning of emptiness, assenting to the impermanence of the five aggregates—but it is not yet true realization. Because the evidence is not yet sufficient and the mind's deliberation is still inadequate, one cannot truly confirm this principle; the mind is merely no longer restless and has become relatively settled. One is also striving to find evidence, striving to directly observe the substance of the five aggregates of body and mind. At this time, the feelings of body and mind become increasingly tranquil and light, increasingly joyful; meditative concentration becomes better and better, wisdom becomes deeper, subtler, and more acute; the thought of emptiness grows ever firmer, but one cannot yet abide in relinquishment, for there is no factor of relinquishment in the mind.

When the factor of relinquishment is accomplished, the notions and thoughts of "self" within the mind are relinquished; the mind is empty; the concept that the five aggregates are empty and impermanent has been firmly established; the evidence is sufficient; the mind completely assents to and confirms that the five aggregates are empty and selfless. The fourth stage, the foremost worldly dharma, is accomplished; self-view is eliminated and the stream-enterer fruit is realized.

During contemplative practice, body and mind must constantly undergo changes. Why must they change? Because through the mind consciousness' determination, the manas gradually gains a certain understanding that contradicts previous notions, gradually overturning prior cognition. When the manas discovers a new continent, it will prompt corresponding changes and reactions in body and mind. Therefore, eliminating self-view and realizing the non-self of the five aggregates must be realized by the manas.

The phenomena of awakened clarity that appear after eliminating self-view, and the respective phenomena of tranquility and joy arising in body and mind, are brought about by the manas; they are the manas' reactions upon body and mind. The mind consciousness cannot make body and mind react, cannot make body and mind experience tranquility and joy. Therefore, eliminating self-view must be the manas eliminating self-view, not merely the mind consciousness; the mind consciousness' self-view, of course, was eliminated long before.

If no phenomena of tranquility, joy, or awakened clarity appear, yet one still believes the five aggregates are non-self, this is the mind consciousness eliminating self-view, which has not yet penetrated into the depths of the manas' mind. When the manas first cognizes this principle, phenomena of resistance and irritability will appear, varying in degree. Those with good faculties from past lives, who have contemplated the five aggregates before, will not have these irritable emotions, will not resist, and will directly experience a joyful state of mind.

What is called actual practice? This is actual practice. Without these stages and processes, one cannot claim to have truly eliminated self-view. After truly eliminating self-view, body and mind must transform, mental conduct must change, noble nature must appear, and the mind must be empty. How could there still be such severe afflictions? How could so many chaotic phenomena still appear? Impossible. When the mind is empty, one no longer wishes to engage in superfluous activities; there is an initial resonance with non-action. How could so many chaotic affairs occur? Moreover, so many evil deeds could not possibly appear.

If meditative concentration is insufficient, contemplative practice is truly laborious, and the absorption and understanding of the dharma-meaning will fall short. Some profound and very profound dharmas cannot then be understood and accepted with faith, so doubt will arise; if view-doubt is not severed, the mind will not be at peace.

3. On the Small Vehicle side, to eliminate self-view, the thirty-seven factors of the path must be fully cultivated; the seven factors of enlightenment must be complete, and the Eightfold Noble Path must be complete. When the phenomena of the factor of joy and the factor of tranquility appear, and next the factor of meditative concentration manifests—these are inseparable from meditative concentration, being its prelude and sequel, belonging to the domain of meditative concentration.

In the process of contemplating the Buddha's Dharma, there should arise phenomena of tranquility of body and mind and joy in the heart; this is one of the contents of realizing the seven factors of enlightenment, indicating that the Dharma has entered the manas' mind and gained a certain degree of the manas' assent, though not yet complete. This can also be called the manifestation of the sign of warmth among the four aids to penetration.

The realization of any dharma is indeed related to the manas and to concentration. The realization of the seven factors of enlightenment demonstrates this fact; thus the relationship between the manas and realization and cultivation has scriptural basis. Samādhi and prajñā and the manas are inseparable even for an instant. Only when the manas realizes is there true wisdom; only when the manas has meditative concentration can wisdom arise. The mind consciousness' solitary intellectual understanding lacks great wisdom; it is merely a learner's words, called a disciple of the school of intellectual understanding. Regarding the importance of the manas in realization, the seven factors of enlightenment are excellent evidence. The Eightfold Noble Path also speaks of eight "right" factors, all referring to cultivating the manas; "right" mainly means rectifying the manas' thoughts and notions, letting it take charge and decide that all bodily, verbal, and mental actions are right conduct. If the manas is not rectified, the Eightfold Noble Path is not accomplished.

Feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are all empty and non-self; then who is feeling, perceiving, forming, and cognizing? That which can feel, perceive, form, and cognize is the mind of the seven consciousnesses, which are also empty and non-self. The mind consciousness that can observe feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness as empty is empty and non-self; knowing that the observer is the empty mind consciousness is empty and non-self; the sixth and seventh consciousnesses that know all dharmas are empty and non-self are empty and non-self. Whatever in the mind has knowing, mindfulness, or thought is empty and non-self. In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra's chapter on Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva's perfect penetration through the ear faculty, all dharmas are emptied; the dharmas that empty and are emptied are all emptied; finally what remains is the one that truly cannot be emptied—that is the tathāgatagarbha of one's own mind. And not even abiding in the tathāgatagarbha of one's own mind—then cultivation has reached its destination.

4. The Four Noble Truths, the four right efforts, the four bases of supernatural power, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven factors of enlightenment, the Eightfold Noble Path—these contents of the thirty-seven factors of the path are all the process of cultivation before and after seeing the Path; the Great and Small Vehicles are broadly similar, their cultivation processes alike. If without being steeped in these processes a fruit suddenly appears and one becomes a noble one, that fruit is very suspicious and extremely unreliable. Fruits and conclusions can be plagiarized; all views can be memorized—just read a few more books and one can recite and imagine them.

But these processes cannot be plagiarized by anyone. They are processes that everyone who sees the Path and realizes the fruit must undergo; each person's process may differ somewhat depending on their faculties from past lives. Those who realized the fruit in past lives may pass through these processes very quickly in this life; others cannot—they must practice and realize each one, passing through each checkpoint; the same applies to the Great Vehicle fruits. Only after undergoing all these processes can body and mind transform, and at the time of realizing the fruit there will be the merit and benefit of liberation. For those who have not undergone these processes, their attained fruit is like flowers in the sky—merely to be admired, without practical value, without the merit and benefit of liberation.

So-called actual practice is the cultivation content of the thirty-seven factors of the path of the Great and Small Vehicles. Apart from these concrete and specific cultivation contents, it is not actual practice. Cultivation with only conclusions and no process is not actual practice; studying only theory is not actual practice. Theory can be learned up to the theory of bodhisattvas at the second through tenth bhūmis; even if one understands those principles, one is still one or two incalculable kalpas away from actual realization. Studying now the theory of one or two incalculable kalpas hence and thinking one has mastered it, that one is a noble one, that the road ahead need not be walked and the actual cultivation process need not be experienced and practiced—such cultivation is a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, yielding only sky-flowers and bearing an empty fruit.

5. The Four Noble Truths—suffering, arising, cessation, and the path—are also divided into inner and outer mental sense-objects. The Eightfold Noble Path within the cultivation of the truth of the path is also divided into outer and inner dharmas. Only when the Eightfold Noble Path is fully cultivated and the Small Vehicle's thirty-seven factors of the path are fully cultivated are the conditions for eliminating self-view satisfied, and only afterward can the fruit be realized. If one's mental conduct does not accord with the Eightfold Noble Path, then one's mental conduct is insufficient to be that of a sage, and the fruit cannot be realized. Within the Eightfold Noble Path there is right concentration, divided into the mind consciousness' outer concentration-dharma and the manas' inner concentration-dharma. Therefore the manas must necessarily accord with concentration; only when the manas is perfected in concentration can right wisdom arise, self-view be eliminated, and the stream-enterer fruit be realized. Otherwise it is all fake fruit, plastic fruit—only for viewing, without practical use.

6. The Satipaṭṭhāna Sūtra is the sutra in which the Buddha taught us the methods of contemplative practice. For those who do not know how to contemplate, following the line of thought the Buddha leads, deliberating within concentration, is contemplative practice; at the end of contemplation there will be a decisive mind, a final conclusion emerging. If this conclusion accords with the facts and truths the Buddha pointed out to us, that is realization.

In the correct process of contemplative practice, many changes arise in the mind; the seven factors of enlightenment must appear one by one; the sign of warmth must appear in the mind; the first three of the four aids to penetration must appear; and when one finally realizes non-self and emptiness, that is the foremost worldly dharma, and the stream-enterer fruit is accomplished. If none of these phenomena have appeared and one claims to have eliminated self-view and become a stream-enterer, that is simply self-deception and deceiving others. Ninety-nine percent of people have never practiced such contemplation; the seven factors of enlightenment have not all appeared; even the stage of patience has not been truly completed—it is impossible to become the last one, the stream-enterer foremost in the world.

The realization of the Buddha's Dharma has certain strict standards, and the Buddha expounded these standards in the sutras: the thirty-seven factors of the path, the seven factors of enlightenment, the four aids to penetration, the four foundations of mindfulness, and so on are all the standards of cultivation taught by the Buddha. It is only that sentient beings themselves do not understand; if those who propagate the Dharma also do not understand, then the world will be full of chaotic phenomena—streets full of so-called sages, yet murky and miasmic, with public morals declining daily.

7. When the Buddha, in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sūtra, spoke of the five hindrances, he said there is inner sensual desire and outer sensual desire, inner ill will and outer ill will, inner sloth-and-torpor and outer sloth-and-torpor, inner restlessness-and-remorse and outer restlessness-and-remorse, inner doubt and outer doubt. What do "inner" and "outer" respectively refer to?

If the mind is divided into outer and inner, the outer mind refers to the mind consciousness that sentient beings can generally discover and observe; the inner mind refers to the manas, the mind-root that sentient beings find hard to discover and observe. The two consciousnesses are one manifest and one hidden, one bright and one dark, one shallow and one deep, one easily changed and one firm and hard to change. Cultivation means first implementing at the shallow level of the mind consciousness, then implementing at the deep level of the manas—first initially transforming the mind consciousness, and finally ultimately transforming the manas. Therefore all afflictions and ignorance are initially and manifestly at the level of the mind consciousness, and ultimately and hiddenly, profoundly at the level of the manas.

From this sutra we can see that when the Buddha taught the Small Vehicle Dharma, although he did not explicitly speak of the manas' dharma, he still covertly spoke of the manas—covertly stating that all afflictions and ignorance belong to the manas; severing afflictions is severing the manas' afflictions; liberation is the manas' liberation. When all dharmas are implemented upon the manas and the manas' problem is solved, all dharmas can be solved, ultimately reaching nirvāṇa and liberation.

8. In the Satipaṭṭhāna Sūtra, when the Buddha spoke of contemplating feeling, he mentioned two kinds of feeling: inner feeling and outer feeling. Outer feeling refers to the feeling of the mind consciousness that is easy to observe, especially the mind consciousness' feeling regarding the six sense-objects; inner feeling refers to the manas' feeling, which is relatively hidden and hard to observe. Although the vast majority of people cannot distinguish the mind consciousness from the manas, the deep mental activity can still be perceived and observed, as long as the mind is very meticulous.

When the Buddha spoke of contemplating the mind, observing the mind meant observing the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion of the inner and outer minds, observing the concentration and distraction, expansiveness and narrowness, superiority and unsurpassedness, concentration and non-concentration, liberation and non-liberation of the inner and outer minds. This shows that the inner mind, the manas, has the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, has concentration and non-concentration, has liberation and non-liberation. This proves from the Small Vehicle scriptures that the manas has these mental factors, although the World-Honored One did not state it explicitly. Because the manas' dharma could not be understood and realized even by Great Vehicle disciples, let alone deeply and correctly understood by Small Vehicle disciples, the World-Honored One had to speak covertly of the manas' mental factors.

The affliction of doubt has inner doubt and outer doubt; severing doubt must be done ultimately—certainly severing the manas' doubt. Therefore the three fetters refer entirely to the manas' fetters; only severing the manas' doubt is severing the three fetters. Severing sensual desire—severing the manas' sensual desire—allows the mind to accord with the devas of the form realm and be reborn in the form realm; severing ill will must be severing the manas' ill will to be a non-returner; severing delusion must be severing the manas' delusive ignorance to escape the three realms.

The Small Vehicle scriptures are the easiest to understand, yet who can truly understand the Small Vehicle scriptures? Let alone the Great Vehicle scriptures—who can truly fully understand them? Even having realized arhatship, one still cannot fully trust your own mind; when wisdom is insufficient and understanding not ultimate, fully trusting it easily leads to errors.

9. In the Satipaṭṭhāna Sūtra, when the World-Honored One spoke of the five aggregates of grasping, he also spoke of the inner and outer dharmas of form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness. Inner form is the physical body; outer form is the six sense-objects; inner feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are the manas; outer feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are the mind consciousness.

When the World-Honored One spoke of the seven factors of enlightenment, he also divided them into inner and outer seven factors. The factor of discrimination of dharmas, the factor of effort, the factor of joy, the factor of tranquility, the factor of meditative concentration, and the factor of relinquishment are all divided into the mind consciousness' outer factors and the manas' inner factors. When the inner seven factors have not been cultivated to accomplishment, it is impossible to realize the Small Vehicle fruit, impossible to eliminate self-view, let alone to see one's true mind and see one's nature. Without accomplishing the thirty-seven factors of the path, do not speak of any fruit of the Great or Small Vehicle. Without accomplishing tranquility of body and mind, concentration is not accomplished; without the inner state of neutral feeling, self-view cannot be eliminated, and one cannot see one's true mind and see one's nature. These are the hard criteria of realizing the Buddha's Dharma, which no one can bypass. If one insists that so-and-so has realized the fruit and seen the mind, those are all plastic fruit—fine to look at, but cannot fill the belly, without real value.

10. The first of the seven factors of enlightenment is the factor of mindfulness. The inner factor of mindfulness is the manas' mindfulness; the outer factor of mindfulness is the mind consciousness' mindfulness. When the manas has no factor of mindfulness, the factor of mindfulness is not accomplished, and the factor of discrimination of dharmas cannot manifest. Therefore the manas must have the mental factor of mindfulness; the Small Vehicle scriptures covertly speak of the manas' mental factor of mindfulness, let alone the Great Vehicle scriptures. It is only that sentient beings, heavy with ignorance, cannot understand the sutras and cannot discern this.

From the World-Honored One's description of the seven factors of enlightenment, the manas has the factor of discrimination of dharmas, the factor of effort (true diligence), the factor of joy (the manas does not have only neutral feeling), the factor of tranquility, the factor of meditative concentration (according with concentration), and the factor of relinquishment. Only afterward, when mental conduct accords with the Eightfold Noble Path, are the conditions for realizing the Small Vehicle fruit fulfilled, enabling elimination of self-view and realization of the stream-enterer fruit; otherwise all is fake fruit, plastic fruit. When conditions are not fulfilled and causes and conditions are not complete, forced guidance can only yield a fake fruit.

Among the seven factors of enlightenment is the factor of discrimination of dharmas; when one cultivates to this point, one has the ability to discern. But when something exceeds one's current level by too much, one again lacks the power of discernment, and must then continue cultivating. The factor of discrimination of dharmas must be continuously advanced until perfectly complete, able to immediately and correctly discern all dharmas without doubt.

(To be continued)