The Difference Between Explaining Truth and Realizing Truth

When Patriarch Bodhidharma met Emperor Wu of Liang, why was he unwilling to save him? After hearing him say a few words, he turned around and left; even when Emperor Wu sent troops to pursue him, he did not look back. He would rather face the wall alone for nine years in a stone cave on Mount Song in Henan than come out to save people, let alone save Emperor Wu. Who was Emperor Wu of Liang? One can look him up online: he built monasteries, let people go forth as monastics, made offerings to the Three Jewels, personally lectured on the Diamond Sutra, and when Layman Fu ascended the hall to expound the Dharma, Emperor Wu crouched down and offered his back as a step for Layman Fu to walk up to the lecture hall. A personage like this, with profound merit and no shallow good roots—why did Patriarch Bodhidharma not guide him? If Emperor Wu of Liang lived in today's era, he would have attained enlightenment eighteen or nineteen times already; such a disposition is rarely encountered even in today's society. Yet Patriarch Bodhidharma simply looked down on him, refusing even to lead him into saying a few more words. Why exactly? During the nine years of facing the wall, the Patriarch could have saved so many people, yet he did not care for a single one—why exactly?

Emperor Wu of Liang's merit was indeed great; he especially protected and supported the Three Jewels, and his good roots could not be called shallow. But after all, they were not deep enough for him to see the mind and attain enlightenment, to recognize the School upon hearing the words. Therefore Patriarch Bodhidharma had no way to gradually teach him step by step toward the upward path—he was simply not the right material for the Chan School, and saying more would have been useless. The Chan School saves those who wish to liberate themselves from birth and death and whose conditions are also complete. Those whose conditions are not complete cannot be forcibly guided into awakening; otherwise it would harm Buddhism and sentient beings.

A patriarch who has truly attained the Way most detests expositors of doctrine who can speak but cannot practice; what they seek are disciples who can truly realize the principle and are suitable vessels for the Path. Thus, seeing that no one's conditions had matured, Bodhidharma faced the wall for nine years to await the arrival of a disciple whose conditions had matured. Although Emperor Wu of Liang could at the time lecture on the Diamond Sutra for many sessions and serve as a lecture master, he was after all merely an expositor of doctrine, still unable to realize the principle. To expound the principle without having realized it—the words spoken are largely watered down and devoid of real meaning. No matter what intentions Patriarch Bodhidharma applied to him, it would have been useless, because Emperor Wu of Liang was after all not yet a suitable vessel for the Path.

It is just like Chan Master Deshan: in the old days before his enlightenment, he had lectured on the Diamond Sutra countless times and was known as "Zhou Vajra." Carrying on his shoulders two loads of Qinglong commentaries and subcommentaries, he rushed south to defeat demons, but after being saved and enlightened by Chan Master Longtan, he resolutely set fire to and burned up the two loads of commentaries that were the fruit of many years of his heart's labor, murmuring: "穷诸玄辩，若一毫置于太虚；竭世枢机，似一滴投于巨壑。" The meaning is that however much principle he had expounded and however many arguments he had debated in the past, it was like tossing a single hair into vast empty space—utterly weightless; exhausting all his wisdom and abilities was like a drop of water cast into a huge ravine—insignificant. Before true awakening, however many books one writes, they are all waste paper.

What is the difference between expounding the principle and realizing the principle? The expositor of doctrine uses the mind consciousness; the realizer of the principle uses the manas. There is a saying in Patriarch Bodhidharma's Bloodline Treatise (Xuemai Lun): 若不见性，说得十二部经教，尽是魔说，是魔家眷属，不是佛家弟子，既不辨皂白，凭何免生死？The meaning is that even if one can lecture on the twelve divisions of the Buddhist scriptures, if one has not seen one's nature (attained enlightenment), it is the same as the demons' teaching.

The phenomenon of much exposition of doctrine and little realization of the principle is very widespread, especially now in the Dharma-ending age: everywhere there are expositors of doctrine, and realizers of the principle can hardly be seen; expositors of doctrine fill the sky and cover the land, which is truly disheartening. As for those expositors of doctrine, calling them people of intellectual understanding (jie wu) is already elevating them several steps, yet they are still dissatisfied with the very name of "intellectual understanding." Those with intellectual understanding all have a process of genuine, actual practice; they simply have not reached the final level of realization—the final result has not been realized, only inferred and imagined. But they do have meditative concentration, only not quite complete; they do have wisdom, only with more watered-down content; they have cultivated the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment, only not perfectly; they have cultivated the bodhisattva's six perfections, only not yet finished cultivating them. Why, then, in modern times, when even the conditions for intellectual understanding of the Dharma are not complete, would there appear so many people of realized enlightenment? The answer is for everyone to ponder themselves.