Buddhist Practitioners Should Skillfully Utilize Deluded Thoughts

How many people, in the process of learning Buddhism, constantly struggle with delusive thoughts, believing that eliminating them will lead to the realization of the Dharma? Yet, even after battling delusive thoughts for a hundred years and subduing them, one still fails to understand the Dharma, lacks the birth of wisdom, and cannot attain liberation.

The correct practice method is to shift the attention of the mental faculty to contemplating the Dharma. Delusive thoughts will naturally diminish. Shift the focus, redirect the object of clinging, and the practice will succeed swiftly. Constantly fixating on delusive thoughts, debating them back and forth, is of no benefit to the cultivation of the Dharma or the attainment of wisdom. The most direct method is to change the object to which the mind clings—shift from clinging to worldly phenomena to clinging to the Dharma. Transfer the attachment to worldly phenomena to the Dharma, shift one’s interests, redirect the objects of greed, and transform the petty cleverness of worldly intelligence into the wisdom of observing and practicing the Dharma. In this way, concentration and wisdom will arise immediately—why worry about failing to realize the Way? Those skilled in learning Buddhism should know how to utilize delusive thoughts, not suppress them to death, but understand how to transform them into thoughts contemplating the Dharma. With every thought focused on the Dharma, every thought being the Dharma, concentration and wisdom will be achieved.

If one battles delusive thoughts every day, it is no different from the practice methods of heretical paths. Moreover, it fundamentally cannot match the profound samadhi attained by heretics. In the past, heretics cultivated concentration, achieving the four dhyanas and eight samadhis, and even attained the five supernatural powers. However, because they had not yet eradicated the view of self, they still regarded some phenomenon within the five aggregates and eighteen elements as the self, as real, without eliminating even a fraction of their perverse and inverted views. Relying on such perverse views, they inevitably remained bound to the cycle of birth and death.

Even if one can enter samadhi for as long as eighty thousand kalpas, upon emerging after eighty thousand kalpas, one will still fall into the three evil realms and cannot escape the suffering of birth and death. Sentient beings create karma and remain trapped in the cycle of birth and death precisely because of the perverse view of self. If the view of self is eradicated, the bonds that tie one down are loosened, ensuring that one will not fall into the three evil realms. In practice, eliminating perverse views and attaining correct knowledge and vision is crucial. Otherwise, even after practicing for immeasurable kalpas, one remains on the wrong path, unable to return to the right path or attain liberation.

As long as one’s merit and virtue are sufficient, the goal is correct, and the method is appropriate, attaining enlightenment is not a very difficult matter. Each person’s capacity is different, so the practice method varies. Those who from a young age enjoy tranquility, prefer solitude, and have few hobbies and interests tend to develop concentration quickly. Even without formal sitting meditation, their minds cling less, their energy is focused, and upon encountering the Dharma, they can wholeheartedly contemplate it and delve deeply into it. After being exposed to the correct knowledge and vision of the Dharma for a period of time, they gain correct understanding, learn the method of Chan (Zen) investigation, and spontaneously begin to investigate Chan. Conversely, some people may sit in meditation for ten or twenty years yet still fail to focus their minds on contemplating the Dharma, do not understand how to observe and practice the Dharma, and cannot distinguish between correct and perverse teachings or recognize their levels.