Intellectual Understanding Is Merely Armchair Strategy

Question: Why is it said that if the study and practice of Buddhism all remain at the level of intellectual understanding, the true Buddhadharma will gradually disappear and perish?

Answer: Let me give an example. Suppose everyone bought a book to learn driving skills, or listened to someone explain driving techniques in person, and everyone mastered the technical knowledge and all felt they could drive. Yet they had never actually driven a car, never even touched a steering wheel. Then these people went on to write books and teach others how to drive. In that case, what would driving skills become after being passed down in this way? Would such skills still have any practical, hands-on value? Would anyone still drive in the future? Would there still be anyone who knows how to drive? After this, wouldn't the skill of driving be lost and turn into a mere armchair game of paper talk?

The Buddhadharma is just like this. If everyone only has intellectual understanding without any real realization, and it is passed from one person to another, then in the end, even those with intellectual understanding will no longer exist, and even the dharma of intellectual understanding will have become distorted, and the true Buddhadharma will be lost. This is a situation the Buddha could not bear to see, and as the Buddha's true disciples, we would also feel deep pain over it.

There is an essential difference between comprehension and intellectual understanding. Intellectual understanding is something like guessing the general way in which the tathāgatagarbha functions; it is not observed through direct perception/valid direct cognition, and it is not as clear as seeing an object right before one's eyes. What is arrived at by guessing leaves the manas still unenlightened; the mind remains unsteady, without a firm footing, and is easily swayed. In this way, one cannot observe the specific workings of the tathāgatagarbha and cannot give birth to genuine great wisdom. Ordinary comprehension means one has learned and grasped knowledge fairly well, but has not yet entered the actual stages of deliberation (manana) and contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and investigation; one still has not the slightest knowing of the operation of the tathāgatagarbha. This is still very far from the level of intellectual understanding, and the gap from true realization is even greater.