The Difference Between Understanding the Principle and Realizing the Principle

When Patriarch Bodhidharma met Emperor Wu of Liang, why was he unwilling to save him? After listening to a few words from the emperor, he turned and left; even when Emperor Wu sent soldiers to pursue him, he did not look back. He would rather sit facing 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, sponsored people to leave home, made offerings to the Three Jewels, and personally lectured on the Diamond Sutra. When Layman Fu ascended the lecture seat 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. Such a person, with profound merit and no shallow good roots—why did Patriarch Bodhidharma not accept and guide him? If Emperor Wu were living in today's era, he would have been enlightened eighteen or nineteen times already; such spiritual faculties are rarely encountered even in today's society. Yet Bodhidharma simply looked down on him, refusing even to guide him into saying a few more words—why on earth? 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 on earth?

Emperor Wu'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 his true mind and become enlightened, to recognize the essential teaching upon hearing the words. Therefore Bodhidharma had no way to gradually teach him step by step along 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 those talkers who can speak but cannot practice; what such patriarchs seek are disciples who can truly realize the principle and are suitable vessels for the Path. Therefore, when Bodhidharma saw that no one's conditions had matured, he faced the wall for nine years to await the arrival of a disciple whose conditions had matured. Although Emperor Wu could at that time lecture on the Diamond Sutra for many sessions and serve as a lecture master, he was after all merely a talker of principles, still unable to realize the principle. To expound principles without having realized them—the words spoken are mostly watered down and devoid of real meaning. No matter what approach Bodhidharma took with him, it would have been useless, because Emperor Wu was, after all, not a suitable vessel for the Path.

Consider Chan Master Deshan: in the old days, before his enlightenment, he had lectured on the Diamond Sutra countless times and was known as "Zhou the Diamond." Carrying on his shoulders two loads of commentaries and subcommentaries—the Qinglong Commentaries—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, 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 many principles he had expounded and however many doctrines he had debated in the past, it was like tossing a single hair into vast empty space—utterly weightless; and exhausting all his wisdom and abilities was like a single drop of water cast into a huge ravine—insignificant. Before true enlightenment, however many books one writes, they are all waste paper.

What is the difference between expounding principles and realizing principles? The talker of principles uses the mind consciousness; the realizer of principles uses the manas. There is a saying in Patriarch Bodhidharma's Treatise on the Bloodline: 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 canon, if one has not seen one's nature (been enlightened), it is the same as the demons' teaching.

The phenomenon of much talking about principles and little realization of principles is very common, especially now in the Dharma-ending age: everywhere there are talkers of principles, and realizers of principles can hardly be seen; talkers fill the sky and cover the land, which is truly disheartening. As for those talkers, even calling them possessors of intellectual understanding would already be raising them several steps up, yet they are still dissatisfied with the very name of "intellectual understanding." Those with intellectual understanding have all gone through a process of genuine, actual practice; they simply have not reached the final level of realization—the ultimate 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 the path, only not perfectly; they have also cultivated the bodhisattva's six perfections, only not yet finished. Why is it that nowadays, when even the conditions for intellectual understanding of the Dharma are not complete, there are still so many people who claim realization? The answer is for everyone to ponder for themselves.