The Realization of Consciousness Leads to the Rapid Decline of the Buddhadharma.

The mind consciousness knowing alone is understanding-based enlightenment—attaining enlightenment and realizing the tathāgatagarbha. The mind consciousness will certainly realize it, but realization by the mind consciousness alone does not count as true realization; the manas must also realize it at the same time. If only the mind consciousness realizes it, that is understanding-based enlightenment. If only the mind consciousness realized it, then merely hearing someone tell you which one is the tathāgatagarbha, where it is, and what function it performs would already count as realizing enlightenment. If that counted as realizing enlightenment, we could simply tell all sentient beings which one the tathāgatagarbha is and what function it performs, and then sentient beings would not need to study and cultivate the Mahāyāna dharma, nor practice Chan contemplation—all sentient beings would directly become enlightened and become bodhisattvas. Then the hidden meanings at each and every juncture and each and every level could also be told directly to sentient beings, and all sentient beings would directly realize them—how fast becoming a Buddha would be that way. Why did the World-Honored One not adopt this method, and moreover even forbid explicitly revealing the hidden meaning?

For all dharmas, the mind consciousness first understands and first realizes, and only then can the manas understand and realize them. Because the manas lacks sufficient wisdom, it must rely on the mind consciousness's capacity for deliberation (manasikāra/manana). For many dharmas, the mind consciousness already knows them, yet the manas does not know them; the manas does not easily understand or realize them.

Modern people's mind consciousness is too clever and easily understands any principle, while the manas's afflictions of greed, aversion, and delusion are too heavily obstructive, creating a stark contrast. If one is satisfied with the mind consciousness's understanding, problems will arise, and Buddhism might thereby perish quickly. Before the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch came out, all Buddhist practitioners engaged in genuine practice, cultivating meditative concentration and investigating Chan, never engaging in mere verbal Chan. After the Platform Sutra came out, the direction changed: whenever people gathered together it was all verbal Chan, because after reading the contents of the Platform Sutra, everyone felt they understood the Chan dharma, that there was no need to laboriously investigate Chan anymore, that there was nothing left to cultivate, and so they would gather together talking eloquently without any actual cultivation. People today are even more so.