Compilation of Daily Discourses
Chapter 9: Training the Manas (Part 2)
Eight: "Revolving the Seeing to Follow the Source" Is the Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration Through the Manas
Original text of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume Five: 阿那律陀。即从座起。顶礼佛足。而白佛言。我初出家。常乐睡眠。如来诃我。为畜生类。我闻佛诃。啼泣自责。七日不眠。失其双目。世尊示我。乐见照明。金刚三昧。我不因眼。观见十方。精真洞然。如观掌果。如来印我。成阿罗汉。佛问圆通。如我所证。旋见循元。斯为第一。
Explanation: Aniruddha cultivated starting from the eye faculty, and his cultivation insight was "revolving the seeing to follow the source." "Revolving" means to turn around, to reverse: turning the seeing of the eye faculty from its original outward direction to inward, following the source from which the seeing comes—that is, falling back to the fundamental place. Originally one saw material form outwardly, outside the body and outside the mind; now one must reverse this to see that fundamental place of the ability to see. What is this fundamental place? It is the source that gives rise to the function of seeing. Who guides and determines the seeing of the eye faculty? First, the manas; second, the eighth consciousness; and the ultimate place is the eighth consciousness.
Falling back to the place of the manas makes one a great arhat; falling back to the place of the eighth consciousness makes one a great bodhisattva. From the perspective of the mundane world, the manas has the function of seeing all dharmas, including seeing the inner and outer realms of the six sense objects. However, because of ignorance, the manas's function of seeing dharmas is restricted, and it has to rely on the six consciousnesses to see through the five sense faculties. If ignorance is removed and the manas's greatest function is restored, then it is no longer necessary to use the six consciousnesses to see dharmas outwardly through the five faculties; the manas alone can see dharmas, letting the five faculties rest and the six consciousnesses rest.
Through cultivating the vajra samādhi of joyful seeing and illumination taught by the World-Honored One, Aniruddha trained himself to see dharmas with the manas, seeing inwardly without relying on the eye faculty. As a result, he could see the worlds of the ten directions, very clearly and distinctly, truly and genuinely, just like looking at a piece of fruit in his own palm. "Revolving the seeing to follow the source" turns out to be the dharma gate of perfect penetration through the manas. Who says the manas cannot see the realms of the five sense objects? The manas of the great arhat Aniruddha could see the worlds of the ten directions, clearly and distinctly; form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas—nothing was unseen. He attained samādhi through the manas, with the mind consciousness rendered useless. Then the claim that enlightenment and fruit-attainment are accomplished through the mind consciousness would be an enormous joke.
Nine: When the Mind-Ground Is Level, the World's Ground Is Level (The Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration Realized by Bodhisattva Dhrīṭi)
Original text of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: 时国大王。筵佛设斋。我于尔时。平地待佛。毗舍如来。摩顶谓我。当平心地。则世界地。一切皆平。我即心开。见身微尘。与造世界。所有微尘。等无差别。微尘自性。不相触摩。乃至刀兵。亦无所触。
Explanation: When Bodhisattva Dhrīṭi first went forth countless eons ago, he often built roads and bridges to help people travel, always silently and unrequitedly providing convenience for the multitude, enthusiastically engaged in conditioned dharmas without realizing the mind-ground. In between, countless Buddhas appeared in the world, and he accumulated immeasurable resources of merit, laying an extremely solid foundation for seeing the Path; in between he may also have awakened many times, but his awakening was not deep or thorough enough.
It was not until he met Vipaśyin Buddha that he leveled the ground for the Buddha to pass over. The Buddha rubbed his crown in blessing and told him: "You should level your mind-ground. If your mind-ground is leveled, then all the ground in the world will be leveled, including the ground of the worlds of the ten directions." Under the Buddha's blessing, hearing the Buddha's instruction, Bodhisattva Dhrīṭi's mind-ground suddenly opened and he awakened. He immediately saw that the fine dust composing his physical body and the fine dust composing the world were exactly the same, without any difference. The self-nature of these fine dust particles is empty, without form or mark, so there is no mutual contact between them, no mutual merging; even weapons and blades on the battlefield can do nothing to these dust particles and cannot touch them in the slightest.
What does "when the mind is level, the ground is level" mean? All things arise from the mind. An unlevel mind sees unlevel ground, sees the world rising and falling, sees heaven and earth vast and endless, sees the wholesome and unwholesome, true and false, beautiful and ugly. If one can level the mind, then whatever one sees is bodhi; whatever one sees is the manifestation of the seeds of the seven great elements; whatever one sees is equal and without difference, without high or low, superior or inferior. Therefore, leveling the mind-ground enables one to see the truth and reach directly to supreme bodhi.
After the Buddha finished explaining the principle of leveling the mind-ground, Bodhisattva Dhrīṭi, with the immeasurable roots of goodness and merit cultivated over immeasurable eons, as well as profound dhyāna, immediately entered samādhi. He saw that the fine dust in his own physical body and all the fine dust composing the world were equal and without difference—that is, the constituent elements and components were identical, composed of the same elements—and he immediately realized that body and world are non-dual. And the essence of the fine dust is empty: the fine dust composing the physical body and the world is composed of the five great elements, which are formless and markless; the fine dust they compose, though having marks, is empty in its marks.
If the marks are empty, then there is no such thing as substantial fine dust, and there can be no mutual touching or combining; thus there is no hindrance or obstruction between bodies, no mutual overlapping, no mutual collision, like the merging of empty space with empty space. Between body and world, and between world and world, there is likewise no mutual hindrance or obstruction, no mutual overlapping or collision, like the merging of empty space with empty space, with no contact whatsoever. Since this is so, immeasurable superknowledges can manifest without obstruction; the body entering any realm is like entering empty space, requiring not a moment or the slightest effort.
Original text: 我于法性。悟无生忍。成阿罗汉。回心今入。菩萨位中。闻诸如来。宣妙莲花。佛知见地。我先证明。而为上首。佛问圆通。我以谛观。身界二尘。等无差别。本如来藏。虚妄发尘。尘销智圆。成无上道。斯为第一。
Explanation: Bodhisattva Dhrīṭi said: "I awakened to the patience of non-arising on the dharma-nature of fine dust and realized arhatship. Turning my mind, I now entered the stage of the bodhisattva. Hearing the various Tathāgatas proclaim the wondrous lotus, the ground of the Buddha's knowledge and vision, I was the first to validate the Buddha's teaching, and thereby became the foremost. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration: through my careful contemplation of the two kinds of dust—body and realm—which are equal and without difference, both being dust emanated from the originally existing tathāgatagarbha, in samādhi the dust dissolved from the mind and ceased to exist, wisdom became complete, and I accomplished the unsurpassable path. This is my foremost dharma gate of perfect penetration."
This self-account of Bodhisattva Dhrīṭi is also the key to cultivation accomplishment. After hearing the wondrous and profound dharma principles taught by our Buddha, Bodhisattva Dhrīṭi personally practiced and finally truly validated the reality of the Buddha's dharma, rather than stopping at merely accepting in faith what the Buddha taught. Faith and actual practice are two different levels. Faith alone does not yet make one a true disciple of the Buddha; practicing the dharma the Buddha taught is what truly honors the Buddha, truly understands the Buddha's intent, and makes one a true child of the Buddha. If one does not cultivate, what use is faith? What use is studying theories and knowledge?
Now that we know the above principles, are body and mind, and the world, free of obstruction? Not in the slightest. Obstructions are still obstructions, karmic obstructions are still karmic obstructions, afflictions are still afflictions, ignorance is still ignorance—useless and unhelpful. Only by practicing diligently in accordance with these principles and realizing the non-duality of fine dust can those obstructions be removed, karmic obstructions and afflictions be eliminated, body-mind and world become perfectly harmonious, and immeasurable samādhis and superknowledges and powers of the path manifest. Principles are meant to guide practice. If one does not wish to practice, even principles piled up like mountains are of no help; knowledge cannot save a person, only practice and personal realization can save one from fire and water. So those who pride themselves on the quantity of their knowledge should wake up and stop dreaming. If knowledge cannot be transformed into the power of cultivation, having it or not makes no difference.
Someone has, over many years, continuously sent me various tables and charts—an outline of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra compiled and organized by who knows whom—spending years working on the outline, studying the structure of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, never willing to follow the methods taught in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra to guide their own actual practice, never willing to put theory into practice. Such research can at most make one a scholar, a theoretical researcher. And what is a scholar or researcher? Apart from playing with words, they are nothing. Even if they keep circling within words for another billion years, they will still be nothing.
Ten: The Dharma Gate of Perfect Penetration Through the Manas of Bodhisattva Mahākāśyapa
In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Bodhisattva Mahākāśyapa describes the dharma gate of perfect penetration he cultivated and realized: 我观世间。六尘变坏。惟以空寂。修于灭尽。身心乃能。度百千劫。犹如弹指。我以空法。成阿罗汉。世尊说我。头陀为最。妙法开明。销灭诸漏。佛问圆通。如我所证。法因为上。
Explanation: Mahākāśyapa said: "I observed that the realms of the six sense objects in the world constantly arise and cease, from nonexistence to existence, from existence to decay, to cessation, to emptiness, and none can be relied upon. Only with a mind of empty tranquility did I cultivate cessation, emptying all these dharmas, keeping body and mind constantly in the samādhi of the cessation dharma. In such a samādhi state, body and mind passed through the long ages of hundreds and thousands of eons, yet it felt as brief as a single finger-snap. It was because I emptied the dharmas of the six sense object realms that I became an arhat."
In the cessation attainment (nirodha-samāpatti), the realms of the six sense objects are all extinguished and emptied from the mind. What does this show? It shows that the six consciousnesses have also ceased and can no longer arise. The six sense objects are a condition for the arising of the six consciousnesses; if the condition is absent, consciousness cannot arise. If the six consciousnesses cease, only the manas and the tathāgatagarbha remain, and Mahākāśyapa could only remain in the samādhi of cessation. So did Mahākāśyapa ever emerge from samādhi? Did he still respond to the people and affairs of the mundane world? What should he do when response was needed? Mahākāśyapa cultivated to the point of extinguishing all dharmas, and although he could very easily enter the cessation attainment, as a great bodhisattva he had the responsibility of benefiting sentient beings and could not remain in the cessation attainment doing nothing. Upon emerging from the cessation attainment, he was still in the samādhi of extinguished dharmas, and at the same time carried out all works of benefiting sentient beings. This is inconceivable: if all dharmas are emptied, how can he carry out works of benefiting beings? Are not works of benefiting beings also dharmas?
There is another passage in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: 摩诃迦叶久灭意根。圆明了知。不因心念。 This passage describes how Mahākāśyapa normally handled affairs and responded to people and matters. How did he handle and respond to affairs? Without the mental activity of the mind consciousness, he could know the realms of the six sense objects completely and clearly.
For ordinary people, is this state not too mystical and inconceivable? Knowing the six sense object realms without the mind consciousness, and knowing them more completely and more clearly and thoroughly than ordinary people—how is that known? It is known by the manas. The manas replaces the discriminating nature of the six consciousnesses; in other words, the manas discriminates directly by itself, without the assistance of the six consciousnesses. The master can do everything himself, having dismissed all the assistants. This means the master is full of energy and his ability has increased; he can handle all affairs alone, without helpers. How formidable is such a manas! Is this a manas that ordinary people can possess? To be precise, can a person with such a manas be an ordinary person? That is Mahākāśyapa, equivalent to an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva!
What about the "long-extinguished manas" mentioned in the text—had Mahākāśyapa long ago extinguished the manas? Here "manas" does not refer to the seventh consciousness that acts as the master, but to the source from which the mind consciousness arises. If the seventh consciousness were extinguished, one would enter nirvāṇa without remainder, and there would no longer be a person called Mahākāśyapa existing in the world—how then could there be complete and clear knowing?
Then what does the source of the arising of the mind consciousness refer to? The arising of the mind consciousness requires several conditions; lacking any one of them, the mind consciousness cannot arise. Among these conditions are the mental sense-object realm and, most importantly, the attention (manaskāra) of the manas, the seventh consciousness. After the mental sense-object realm appears, if the manas does not attend to it to discern and know it—if it is mindless toward the object, without mind toward the object—the mind consciousness cannot arise. This is the most crucial point in cultivation. If the manas is mindless toward discriminating the six sense object realms, having emptied the six sense objects and all dharmas, the six consciousnesses cannot arise. Therefore, cultivating until the manas is mindless toward objects extinguishes the root from which the mind consciousness arises—this is Mahākāśyapa's samādhi state of the "long-extinguished manas."
Yet he could still know completely and clearly. Since the manas is mindless and no longer wishes to discriminate objects, how can it still know, and know completely and clearly? This is the manas's natural, effortless, mindless discriminating function. It is like a camera that is switched on: all scenes naturally enter the camera. The manas is like this—discriminating without mind, the sense object realms naturally present themselves. If this camera of the manas were switched off, one would enter nirvāṇa without remainder; a bodhisattva would not do this, but keeps it on so as to conveniently carry out works of benefiting sentient beings. All works of benefiting beings are done by the manas alone. So does the manas have wholesome mental factors? Is the manas's wisdom powerful or not? Surely not weak and inferior, right? Especially after the first bhūmi, when the bodhisattva transforms consciousness into wisdom, how could the manas's wisdom still be weak and inferior? Even the manas of an ordinary person sometimes has wisdom and is not weak and inferior. The manas's functions are so excellent—how can we not strive to cultivate and train Him?
Eleven: The Steps of the Manas Deliberating on the Idiom "Worrying Over Gains and Losses"
Step one: breathe deeply, calm the mind, and calm it further, until distracting thoughts gradually diminish to none.
Step two: let the eye consciousness fix its gaze on the idiom, with the mind consciousness grasping the general idea without engaging in thought and analysis; keep the mind unmoved, in a state of blankness, dullness, and daze. This process is equivalent to transmitting the information of the idiom into the manas. It is like a bag that is already full of things but still has more to be put in: you press down the contents inside the bag, pause for a moment, making room to load the remaining things. The pressing and pausing is moving things from the bag's opening down to the bottom of the bag; the more you move, the more space is freed. The bag's opening corresponds to the mind consciousness; the bottom of the bag corresponds to the manas.
Step three: after the information has all been transmitted to the manas, the manas begins to process the information. At this time, maintain and prolong the state of dazing, dullness, and blankness; the mind consciousness should not stir a thought, and one may even close the eyes to nourish the spirit.
Closing the eyes means the eye consciousness and mind consciousness close the eyes and do not see forms; what is nourished is naturally the manas, this spirit-consciousness. The manas feels it should rest and decides to close the eyes and not see forms; the two consciousnesses follow the decision and close the eyes. If the manas wants to see forms, the two consciousnesses cannot close the eyes no matter what. If the mind consciousness says, "These forms are really nice, let's look a while longer," and the manas says, "Then look a while longer," the two consciousnesses see forms without closing the eyes. In all matters, the manas is the one who governs and decides. Although some matters are suggested by the mind consciousness, the manas must still agree to the mind consciousness's suggestion before governing and deciding. Once the two consciousnesses close their eyes and cease activity, the manas need not expend attention on the matter of seeing forms, thus saving mental energy to deliberate on other important matters.
After the mind consciousness settles down and all the information has been transmitted to the manas, the manas begins to deliberate—soundlessly, without motion or stillness, so quiet that the mind consciousness can hardly detect or feel His existence and operation. That is why most people say the manas is a fool and a mere ornament with no real function or effect, when in fact the most important functions of the five aggregates all belong to the manas; the manas plays the role of bearing the main burden.
Step four: the manas first deliberates on the character "患" (huàn, worry/trouble). The mind consciousness should not analyze; it must not interfere or make trouble, must not distract the manas, and must not let the manas depart from deliberating on the idiom. Keeping the manas from leaving the object it should deliberate on is the mind consciousness's task; if done poorly, it may affect the results of the manas's deliberation. If the manas is already adept at deliberation, it does not need the mind consciousness's urging. The mind consciousness must not, eager for results, participate in the process; it absolutely must not engage in thinking; otherwise the manas will have no wisdom to produce. Results produced by the mind consciousness's thinking do not represent true wisdom and cannot be used.
At the very beginning, the mind consciousness may not know how to urge and prompt, and the manas may not know how to deliberate; both need to learn diligently. After passing through this stage, they can proceed smoothly into contemplative practice. After the manas deliberates for some time, it knows that "患" has the meanings of fault, worry, fear, and fretting over. Which meaning exactly applies must be determined by looking at the characters that follow. So it deliberates on the character "得" (dé, gain). Since "得" has too many meanings, it links "得" and "失" (shī, loss) together to deliberate, thereby circumscribing the meanings of gain and loss. Then it deliberates on gaining what and losing what, and knows that it refers to the fretting and grasping over the conditioned, empty, false dharmas of the five-aggregate worldly realm—wealth, sex, fame, food, sleep, family and relatives, power and status, and so on, these arising-and-ceasing empty and false dharmas of the human world. Finally, deliberating on the four characters as a whole, it knows that "worrying over not gaining" is fearing one will not obtain something, and "worrying over losing" is fearing that what has been obtained will be lost again—fretting and grasping intensely, unable to see through or let go of anything; it is entirely the working of the view of self and grasping at self. This is the psychological state of a ordinary being in birth-and-death—how pitiable.
What to deliberate on in the end? That depends on each person's manas wisdom and views. The manas should review the gains and losses of one's entire life and, with wisdom, deliberate that gains and losses are both unobtainable—nothing is gained, nothing is lost; it is merely pointless fussing, truly foolish. Of course, most people's manas cannot deliberate to this point; just practice deliberation slowly.
Due to insufficient wisdom, unfamiliarity with the method, and insufficient meditative concentration, initial practice of deliberation may be very slow and not necessarily correct, but that is all right; the day of proficiency will surely come. Once the manas learns to deliberate and contemplate in accordance with the dharma, that wisdom will gush forth like a spring, unstoppable.
Those who formerly emphasized the mind consciousness's hearing and thinking, studying broadly and extensively, spending all their time in various massive Yogācāra treatises—looking at it now, haven't they suffered a loss? Decades of using the mind consciousness to gnaw through Yogācāra treatises—what results have come of it? Shouldn't they now turn back to shore up the foundations and begin actual practice step by step? However, some people, accustomed to the mind consciousness's hearing and thinking, find that during actual practice the mind consciousness refuses to be quiet and honest, which is a great obstacle to practice; meditative concentration is very hard to develop, let alone contemplative practice. Those with strong theory, compared with those who emphasize actual practice and combine theory with reality, differ greatly in cultivation and realization: with a few years of effort, the latter attain samādhi and have already reached the first or second fruit, able to realize the emptiness (śūnyatā) of the tathāgatagarbha anytime and anywhere, while one's own theory is not yet mastered and one's meditative concentration has not even a trace.
From this comparison, one should know that if theory is not combined with reality, empty talk often ruins the nation; if theory cannot be grounded in the real, realization is as hard as ascending to heaven. What is the "real place"? The real place is the place of the manas, the place of seeing with one's own eyes, the place where one can touch the truth of facts; whereas the mind consciousness is the "empty place," the place of hearing with the ears, where one cannot touch the truth of facts.
Twelve: How to Read the Sūtras for the Greatest Benefit?
Many people lack the foundation of prajñā emptiness yet relish discussing Yogācāra; as a result, the more they study, the more attached to existence they become, the less empty they become, diverging from the Path. Yogācāra originally points entirely to the emptiness of all dharmas, but through many people's "research" it has turned into solid, real existent dharmas, becoming an academic discipline—this is the misfortune of Yogācāra studies. To reverse this situation and make up the foundational portion, from now on we should turn back to emphasize the study and cultivation of the prajñā dharma gate. The prajñā dharma gate connects what precedes and follows: it helps with the Lesser Vehicle's eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) and also aids the study of Yogācāra. Without a foundation in prajñā studies, studying Yogācāra is mere conceptual proliferation (prapañca). The World-Honored One's prajñā sūtras comprise six hundred scrolls; persist in reading a portion every day, and over time your understanding of the prajñā dharma gate will deepen, your mind will become increasingly empty, unattached to worldly marks, and your body and mind will be transformed.
To read the sūtras so as to understand the Buddha's intent and gain great benefit requires certain methods. First is to give rise to the bodhi mind and let the bodhi mind run through the entire process of study and cultivation; on this basis, practice the bodhisattva's six perfections, then apply effort single-mindedly to the path. There are generally three ways of reading sūtras: the first is reading with the mind consciousness mouth moving but heart absent, while the manas daydreams about everything under the sun; the second is with distracting thoughts reduced, the mind consciousness reading the sūtra attentively, the manas giving rise to few distractions, attending to the text together, leaving some space to think about and understand the meaning; the third, when the text is familiar, is for the mind consciousness not to read or to read slowly without voicing, cooperating with the manas's thinking and investigation, the manas focused on the text, continuously pondering it.
The first is the most elementary way of reading sūtras—purely reading, without needing to understand the text. One must transition to the second and third ways to achieve the effect of reading sūtras: thinking about the text to some degree, correctly understanding it, grasping its meaning, and thereby effectively guiding one's own cultivation.
How to achieve the second way of reading? Reading must be focused and refined, without mixed random thoughts; forbid the manas's widespread grasping, tethering the manas to attend only to the text. Read slowly, leaving space for thinking and understanding, and giving the manas time to ponder; when reading key passages or places of doubt, pause, letting the manas quietly deliberate and digest. This emphasizes the quality of reading rather than racing through as if completing a task.
When this step is more or less accomplished, transition to the third way of reading, leaving most of the thinking work to the manas; the mind consciousness is only responsible for guiding the manas to each portion of the text, letting the manas condense the key points of each passage into a point suspended in the mind, pondering and investigating it alone in the mind. Only when reciting very slowly without distracting thoughts can the manas be unaffected by the recitation, suspending the dharma meaning in the mind and pondering it on its own.
This is the process of cultivating wisdom, and at the same time the process of cultivating concentration—cultivating samādhi and prajñā together. When the dharma principles enter the mind, the mind becomes increasingly empty, to the point that body and mind are transformed. For one who knows how to read sūtras, sitting there is like an old monk in samādhi: though the eyes are on the text, the attention is on the manas's silent pondering, extremely focused, to the point that dhyāna arises, body and mind are comfortable and open, the mind opens and understanding dawns, wise thoughts gush like a spring, and wisdom shines on the field of the mind like the bright sun—utterly refreshing. In doing anything, everything lies in how one applies the mind: not only must the initial resolve be correct, one also needs focus and refinement, as well as correct and reasonable methods. In that case, the result may not only be twice the result with half the effort, but may even surpass that.
Thirteen: Methods for Training the Manas in Daily Life
Training the manas's focus can begin with small matters in daily life. In the Sūtra on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, one contemplates the breath, the white bones, and the body's actions; in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the twenty-five sages contemplate the six sense objects, six faculties, six consciousnesses, and six great elements. We can contemplate the flame of a candle, or the tip of a burning incense stick, or an apple, or a flower—choose whatever is convenient. Let the manas take the candle or incense tip as its object, the mind consciousness arising there, then settling there without moving; the eye consciousness does not look elsewhere, the mind consciousness does not think of other dharmas, does not stir mental activity; the two simply gaze单纯ly at the candle or incense tip. At this time the manas is restrained so that it can only take the candle as object and contemplate the candle, unable to grasp at other places; gradually it enters the state, gradually becomes focused, gradually becomes single-minded, and the mind gradually becomes subtle and refined.
Contemplation is letting the manas focus on one place, one point, one dharma. Normally the manas is too scattered, grasping at every dharma, recognizing no dharma clearly, understanding no dharma, not knowing the true face of any dharma, not knowing that what a dharma is not is not that dharma. When the manas's contemplation gradually enters a fine state, at this time the mind consciousness's mind is empty, not a single thought arising, or only the single thought of knowing the flame, while the manas quietly contemplates. Within this contemplation, on the one hand meditative concentration arises; on the other hand, the mind will undergo changes: the cognition of the flame's mark will gradually change, and the truth will gradually surface. One will gradually discover: the flame is not the flame, the incense tip is not the incense tip, the apple is not the apple, the fresh flower is not the fresh flower, all things are not all things. After wisdom arises, there will be various cognitions of emptiness, samādhi will appear, and body and mind will undergo a series of transformations.
This shows that everything we ordinarily see is wrong seeing—seeing the false without knowing the true—which is why we grasp at all things as self and what belongs to self: form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness as self; form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas as belonging to self; wealth, sex, fame, food, sleep as belonging to self; power, status, reputation, money as belonging to self; family and relatives as belonging to self; everything connected with oneself as belonging to self. For the sake of self and what belongs to self, any price will be paid. How could cultivation ever be more important than self and what belongs to self? Isn't it just cycling through the six realms of saṃsāra? "I don't care; saṃsāra is not frightening—only losing self and what belongs to self is most frightening." But have you ever actually obtained self and what belongs to self? How many selves and belongings-to-self have you lost? Do you have any way to protect them?
To break this foolishness, foolish views, and foolish grasping, contemplate one thing, contemplate it long-term, and you will know what a thing is, what the self is, who grasps at what and what can be grasped. Go right now to experience the dream, illusion, bubble, and shadow, and wake up from the dream. "In the dream, clearly there are the six destinies; after waking, empty and void, there is no great chiliocosm." Laugh at your former foolish delusion, beating your breast in regret. Waking up is what matters; what came before no longer counts—the page is turned. After waking, one is a great man; before waking, one was a deluded and inverted ordinary being. The identity has changed. The deeds performed by a great man are worthy of the admiration of all people in the world; the deeds of a deluded ordinary being evoke pity in the heart.
For the specific contemplative practice process and results, refer to the dharma gates of perfect penetration of the twenty-five sages in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra. The sages' cultivation was not confined to one realm or one dharma; any one of the eighteen realms may be chosen to enter the path, all can accomplish sublime samādhi, all can achieve perfect penetration. Entering the path from one dharma, every dharma is within the path—this is called "deeply entering one gate, with every gate penetrating through."
If we wish to eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), we need not perform contemplative practice on all of the five aggregates and eighteen realms; choose one point of focus that is easy for you to contemplate, and pierce into it like an awl, again and again—you will surely break through the five aggregates and eighteen realms. For example, if a balloon is punctured at one spot, the whole balloon bursts; if a boat leaks at one place, the entire boat sinks into the water. Let everyone act as quickly as possible! Stop foolishly embracing dream, illusion, bubble, and shadow, mistaking your parents!
