The Dangers of Turning Buddhism into Fast Food

Research is work within the domain of the conscious mind, similar to intellectual speculation and conceptual understanding. In fact, the practice and realization of the Buddha's teachings is absolutely not a matter of doing research. The Chan patriarchs of the past were most wary of intellectual conjecture, yet nowadays conjecture is openly practiced—people brazenly engage in speculation and intellectual understanding, without honestly and genuinely doing real practice, watching as Buddhism gradually degenerates. What can be done?

The pace of life in the secular world has quickened, and fast food is very much in vogue, leaving people's bodies unhealthy. Buddhism, too, has gone along with the trend and taken up the fast-food approach, so that even its thinking has become unhealthy, manifesting a kind of pathological state—yet without being aware of it, and instead displaying this pathology as something beautiful. Buddhist fast food arises from the restless minds of the masses, and its result is even greater restlessness; there are many who are glib and slick-tongued.