The Relationship Between Ascetic Practice and Cultivating the Path

Modern people cannot endure hardship, so they make excuses, saying that ascetic practice is not the Way. Although ascetic practice is not the Way itself, cultivating the Way cannot be separated from ascetic practice, for it represents a person's ability to free himself from all kinds of craving and desire. Without a mind and conduct of craving and desire, the mind is pure, and cultivating the Way proceeds quickly. Reading the accounts of Śākyamuni Buddha's ascetic practices in his previous lives, one can know that throughout countless lifetimes Śākyamuni Buddha practiced austerities—even sacrificing his body to feed a rākṣasa in order to obtain half a verse. When the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas cultivated the path at the causal stage, they all took ascetic practice as their mainstay and did not indulge in craving and desire. Yet in today's world, the trend of cultivation has been reversed: it is now said that ascetic practice is not the Way, and everyone wants to indulge in craving and desire while simultaneously pursuing the reputation and fruits of a sage. Can one have both the fish and the bear's paw?

Some people, because their craving and desire are heavy and they cannot renounce them, still wish to conceal this mentality, so they find an excuse, saying that Bodhisattvas are people of great merit and should display their merit to sentient beings in order to attract and guide them. Therefore, such people constantly and everywhere indulge in enjoyment, as if they had already attained accomplishment. If that were so, was Śākyamuni Buddha back then a person without merit, unable to enjoy his merit after leaving home? Were all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions, when cultivating, people without merit, unable to enjoy blessings during their cultivation, and that is why they so cherished merit? Were the twenty-eight patriarchs of the Western Regions and the six patriarchs of China, as well as all the Chan masters and venerable adepts of past ages, people without merit, all unable to enjoy blessings?