Saṃyukta Āgama (864)

Thus have I heard: At one time, the Buddha was dwelling at Śrāvastī, in the Jeta Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada's park. At that time, the World-Honored One addressed the bhikṣus: "If a bhikṣu, whether in action, form, or appearance, abandons sensual desire and unwholesome states, attains applied thought and sustained thought, and dwells in the joy and bliss born of seclusion, he dwells having attained the first jhāna. He does not recall such actions, such forms, or such appearances. Instead, he contemplates the phenomena of form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness as a disease, as a boil, as a thorn, as a killing, as impermanent, as suffering, as empty, as non-self. He becomes weary of, fearful of, and guarded against those phenomena. Having become weary, fearful, and guarded, he benefits himself with the door to the deathless nectar. Thus is tranquility, thus is the supreme excellence, namely, renunciation, the complete destruction of craving, dispassion, cessation, Nirvāṇa."

To attain liberation through studying and practicing Buddhism, one must first recognize and realize that the five aggregates are phenomena subject to decay, destruction, and cessation. Only afterward can one practice the Mahāyāna path and engage in meditation to recognize and realize that all five aggregates are empty, neither identical to nor different from the Tathāgatagarbha. The preliminary foundation must be firmly laid; one must engage in actual practice to subdue the self, subdue afflictions, and liberate the mind. Without this foundational part, the subsequent Mahāyāna practice is like a castle in the air—it cannot subdue the self, cannot eradicate afflictions, and may even increase them.

The afflictions arising from the five aggregates all stem from taking the five-aggregate self as real. If one does not break through the five aggregates, does not clearly recognize their impermanent, changing nature and their true non-self nature, one will continue to grasp at them and create karma for birth and death.

If one directly asserts that the five aggregates are the eighth consciousness, merely its functions, then when committing unwholesome actions, one will excuse oneself by saying: "The five aggregates are the eighth consciousness; committing unwholesome karma is also done by the eighth consciousness, and whatever the eighth consciousness creates is illusory, without cause and effect." Consequently, one cannot transform one's own mind and remains the same as before. When any affliction arises, if one always says "affliction is itself bodhi," that there is no appearance of affliction, that it is all the liberating appearance of the bodhi mind, one cannot change one's own mind—afflictions remain as before, and unwholesome retribution is endless. When unable to uphold precepts, one might say, "The eighth consciousness inherently does not need to uphold precepts, nor are there any precepts to uphold; attachment to the appearance of precepts is also saṃsāra." The result of such a nihilistic view (uccheda-dṛṣṭi) is that one can never uphold precepts and can never attain liberation. When speaking of liberation, someone might immediately retort, "I do not seek liberation," claiming that the eighth consciousness is inherently liberated and unbound, therefore naturally one does not seek liberation. But can your seventh consciousness and five-aggregate body be equated with the eighth consciousness? Are they also inherently liberated without needing to seek it?

Studying Buddhism is originally meant to obtain the nectar of the Dharma, to remove the obscurations of ignorance and attain liberation. What is the result of studying and practicing Buddhism in this manner? Increased ignorance, increased afflictions—how can liberation be attained? The Buddha-Dharma is like nectar, like good medicine; one must know how to take it correctly. If taken incorrectly, it is like drinking poison. When nectar turns into poison, whose fault is it?