What Is Practical Cultivation and Actual Realization?

So-called actual practice, if it does not include the cultivation of meditative concentration, how can such practice be considered genuine? Without meditative concentration, or with only very shallow concentration, one may attain wisdom, but this wisdom is merely an intellectual understanding. It cannot be wisdom born of actual realization. Wisdom at the level of understanding remains confined to the conscious mind's intellectual grasp of the Dharma. In Zen Buddhism, this is called emotional thinking and intellectual interpretation, where the conscious mind speculates and conjectures. As for what the ultimate meaning truly is, why it is so—one neither knows nor realizes it. One only knows the conclusion without the process of verification.

Actual realization, however, is the process of verification, where the conclusion reached aligns with the established answer. This answer was given by the Buddha, and the process of verification is each individual's actual practice of observational practice. Without meditative concentration, how can one engage in observational practice? How can genuine wisdom be born? Although liberation depends on wisdom, and Buddhahood depends on wisdom, without meditative concentration, how can true wisdom possibly arise? Some practitioners seek only the final wisdom, discarding concentration. It is like being only interested in the last pancake when eating, unwilling to consume the preceding ones. Wisdom without meditative concentration is like that last pancake—merely talking about food cannot satisfy hunger; one debates loftily on an empty stomach.

Those lacking sufficient wisdom often only admire others' lofty discourses and high-sounding theories, unable to discern whether they possess genuine substance within. This easily hinders one's own path of cultivation, leading one to mistakenly believe that merely understanding all the teachings equates to realization, to possessing wisdom, and to attaining liberation. In reality, one remains very far from it.