The Four Stages of Spiritual Practice

Faith, understanding, practice, and realization are the four sequential stages of cultivation. Faith is not the same as understanding, understanding is not the same as practice, and practice is not the same as realization—or one might say that realization is not the same as practice. For example, the eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) is a realization, but the afflictions are not necessarily eliminated at the same time; when the self-grasping has not been severed, the practice is incomplete. One could also say that after the eradication of the view of self, some dharmas have not yet been realized, and therefore the afflictions and self-grasping cannot be severed at the same time.

Take another example: seeing the mind means realizing the tathāgatagarbha, the Ālayavijñāna, but if the afflictions have not been eliminated and the habituated tendencies have not been eradicated, then the practice lacks power and is incomplete. This also shows that when certain dharmas have not yet been realized, the practice is incomplete; once those subsequent dharmas are all realized, the practice becomes complete and perfected. After seeing the mind, one sequentially realizes the contemplation of illusoriness, the contemplation of mirage-like appearance, the contemplation of dream-likeness, the contemplation of mirror-image-likeness, the contemplation of light-and-shadow-likeness, and so on; the afflictions are eliminated, the habituated tendencies are gradually eliminated, ignorance diminishes, the bodhisattva's mental disposition continually strengthens, and the bodhisattva's practice is continually perfected. Without the preceding realizations, there can be no subsequent practice. Therefore, as long as a dharma is realized, the practice can be accomplished simultaneously—this shows that realization carries the benefit of the merit of liberation, and whatever the degree of realization, there is a corresponding benefit of the merit of liberation. Thus the first fruit has the benefit of merit of the first fruit, the fourth fruit has the benefit of merit of the fourth fruit, seeing the mind has the benefit of merit of seeing the mind, and the realization of each stage of the bodhisattvas' contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) has its corresponding benefit of merit; attaining buddhahood has the benefit of merit of the buddha-bhūmi. Without the benefit of merit, there is no realization.

When the very last dharma is realized, the practice is completely and fully perfected, and one becomes a Buddha. Therefore the sequential stages of cultivation are still faith, understanding, practice, and realization, with realization being the last and final, the most ultimate. Once realization is attained, nothing else needs to be attended to, for one has arrived home and can rest.