After deliberation, one must still engage in direct perception (valid direct cognition) for it to be of use.

Think about it: the mind-consciousness self and the manas self—are they not merely a very illusory kind of existence? The powerful and truly real existence is only the true suchness mind (tathāgatagarbha); only the true suchness mind is the inconceivable true and permanent substance, the substance of wisdom. Knowing all this, do you still brood over the love, hate, passions, joys, angers, sorrows, happiness, gains, losses, successes, and failures of this human world, which is as insignificant as a speck of dust and illusory and unreal? The above is the reflection of a Buddhist practitioner, also called an insight. However, even with such an insight, if the body-and-mind world is to be fundamentally turned around and transformed, one must, on this basis, engage in genuine contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) within meditative concentration (samādhi); only after personal realization can the body-and-mind world be changed and one truly attain some degree of liberation. "Thinking about it" falls within the scope of the mind consciousness's capability, whereas personal realization depends on the manas, and the manas requires direct perception (pratyakṣa). So merely thinking about it is of little use; one still needs to observe with direct perception and cognize with direct perception. Knowing that everything in the world is empty, that all is conjured up illusorily by the tathāgatagarbha, is also not of much use; one needs the next step of actual cultivation and realization. Only when it is realized does the mind become empty, and only then is there the power of liberation. Some people spend all day thinking in their minds that the world is like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, and they feel as if it really were a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow. But when the moment of truth arrives, things are just as they always are—not the slightest bit like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, or a shadow. Only when one truly realizes that the world is a dream, an illusion, a bubble, and a shadow—at the stage of the ten dedications (daśa-pariṇāmanā), on the verge of becoming a bodhisattva of the first bhūmi—only then can the mental conduct be transformed. However, before engaging in actual contemplative practice, one must still possess the theoretical knowledge and views in full; the mind must have a semblance of emptiness and a certain degree of understanding of the theory. With this foundation, one can then engage in actual investigation and contemplative practice within meditative concentration, and only then is there hope of personal realization.