The Practice of Buddha-Dharma Must Follow the Proper Sequence

Under normal circumstances, practice should proceed step by step, with one stage having one content of practice; as the levels of practice differ, the contents of practice also differ. Ordinary beings have the practice methods of ordinary beings, the wise have the practice methods of the wise, and the noble ones have the practice methods of the noble ones. One absolutely must not use the practice methods of the noble ones—the gap is too great, and one simply cannot apply any force with them.

Ordinary beings can only engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the arising, ceasing, and impermanent mutation of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha), contemplate the Four Noble Truths of suffering, its origin, cessation, and the path, or investigate Chan in order to see one's true mind. Ordinary beings cannot contemplate the states realized by an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva, such as abiding nowhere and attaching to nothing, such as emptying all dharmas, such as not grasping at signs and making discriminations, such as acting spontaneously and naturally, and so on.

Ordinary beings and the wise who have awakened are still at the stage of cultivating wholesome dharmas with a deliberate mind and attachment to signs. Although the wise have already initially broken through some signs, their level is still too shallow. To ask such people not to attach to signs, not to cognize all dharmas through signs, is impossible. For example, when an ordinary being sees meat, one should think: this is a sentient being; out of a compassionate mind, one should not eat the flesh of sentient beings—this is the correct way of practice. At this time one should not view the meat as empty, view it as suchness (tathatā), and then think that eating it is the same as not eating it, and thus eat it in big mouthfuls while feeling that one has entered the state of suchness; in reality one has entered the realm of greed and desire. This is an erroneous method of practice.

For instance, when an ordinary being sees the signs of male and female, one should not say, "I will empty away the signs of male and female, viewing them all as the one mark of suchness," and then, as if the signs of male and female no longer existed in one's mind, associate with others without any scruples—with the result that, due to severely insufficient meditative concentration, each parties goes off the track. Such a method of practice may also be called misapprehended emptiness (inert emptiness), and the fault is very great.

When an ordinary being wishes to repent of the sinful karma created in the past, one should repent with signs, repenting of one's evil mind and evil deeds. Yet instead one practices signless repentance, forcibly convincing oneself that all afflictions are bodhi, that all are the mark of suchness. After convincing oneself of this, one feels at ease. At ease is at ease, but the sinful karma still exists, and karmic retribution spares no one. Doing this habitually is misapprehended emptiness.

If a person of the opposite sex makes special demands on oneself, and at this time one refuses to grasp at signs, refuses to attach to signs, regarding the other person as a manifestation of suchness, and thus "goes along with conditions"—as a result, one of the ten major precepts of the bodhisattva precepts is violated, and then one is surely registered for hell.

Our practice has its sequence and its method; one must not act recklessly. What a bodhisattva can do, an ordinary being cannot do. Going along with conditions to transform those of the opposite sex is beyond the capability of ordinary beings; that is the conduct of bhūmi bodhisattvas possessing profound dhyāna. If an ordinary being does so, one will surely go to the three evil destinies.

Buddhadharma today is simply in complete chaos. Most people's mind consciousness is very clever, and they can understand something of the practice states of bhūmi bodhisattvas and the Buddha, and so they hang the dharmas that bhūmi bodhisattvas should practice on their lips, demanding that they themselves can also accomplish them. Is this possible? You are not Sudhana (Shancai Tongzi); you do not have Sudhana's wholesome roots and merit, and you are unwilling to solidly cultivate meditative concentration and contemplative practice.

In our practice, we should change the habit of "Chan on the lips." Buddhadharma must be actually practiced before it can be actually realized; actual practice and actual realization are not slogans. There must be practical, feasible methods of actual practice; if there are none, then it is not actual practice, nor can there be actual realization. Even if we can speak the words spoken by the Buddha, it is of no use—it is merely shouting slogans. One must put it into practice step by step underfoot.