Rote Memorization Is Not as Good as Improving One's Power of Thinking

Look for the self-confidence of the manas within your own self-confidence, and compare them: what is the difference between the self-confidence of the mind consciousness and the self-confidence of the manas? Then, within the manas's self-confidence and lack of self-confidence, observe the self-validating cognition (sva-saṃvitti-saṃvitti-bhāga) of the manas. Constantly improve your own capacity for thinking and observation, and in the future your ability for self-study and self-cultivation will be strong. There will be no need to always rely on memorizing texts—memorizing back and forth without even knowing whether what you have memorized is correct. Without the ability to rely on the Dharma, one has no choice but to rely on people, which makes it very difficult for one's progress along the Path to advance.