What Is the Significance of Studying and Practicing the Tathāgatagarbha Dharma?

What is the significance of studying and practicing the tathāgatagarbha dharma gate?

The study and practice of all Buddhadharma is for the purpose of realizing the emptiness of self and the emptiness of dharmas, extinguishing the view of self and view of dharmas of the seventh consciousness as well as its grasping at self and grasping at dharmas, and eliminating the ignorance, afflictions, and delusions of the seventh consciousness. Each person must keep this goal clearly in mind; only then does studying the Buddhadharma and practicing the tathāgatagarbha dharma have meaning. Otherwise, it becomes merely an academic subject, with practice and scholarship split into two separate things, so that scholarship is scholarship and practice is practice, the two unrelated. We should be clear about this point: scholarship cannot sever ignorance and afflictions; it will only add afflictions and bondage in vain, and may even increase the karmic delusions of ignorance and birth-and-death.

Why does the phenomenon arise where scholarship and practice become two separate things? The fundamental problem lies in the lack of meditative concentration (samādhi) and authentic contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), and the lack of correspondence and connection with one's body, mind, and world. One erroneous view—that bodhisattvas need not sever afflictions—is the direct root of the problem. Because the purpose of practice is unclear, although scholarship accumulates, it has no real substance. Studying the tathāgatagarbha dharma is precisely for severing afflictions. As long as the direction and method are correct, afflictions will gradually dissolve, and even if one does not wish to sever them, they will be severed without one's awareness. If the direction and method are wrong, knowledge and scholarship may keep increasing, but afflictions will not decrease; afflictions may even grow along with the growth of scholarship. To study the dharma this way is truly a misunderstanding—completely upside down.

Because sentient beings have been immersed in ignorance and afflictions for countless kalpas, the various sufferings of birth-and-death and transmigration through the six realms never cease. A bodhisattva is one member among sentient beings, likewise transmigrating through birth-and-death due to ignorance and afflictions, likewise needing to practice to sever ignorance and afflictions, to cut the bonds of birth-and-death, and to leave suffering and attain happiness. Only when one has oneself severed ignorance and afflictions is one qualified to be a bodhisattva who guides the multitude to also sever ignorance and afflictions, leave suffering and attain happiness, and move toward liberation. If a bodhisattva is mired in the abyss of afflictions, how could he have the ability and qualification to guide others out of the abyss of afflictions?

Therefore, the view that "bodhisattvas need not sever afflictions and should not sever afflictions" is extremely harmful. If one does not sever afflictions, what is the point of studying Buddhism and practicing? If one delivers sentient beings without letting them sever afflictions, what kind of deliverance would that be? Could it be that every sentient being becoming a collector of knowledge and an expert in theory is the final destination? Can knowledge, theory, and scholarship withstand birth-and-death? Can they serve as merit or be eaten as food? Where there are afflictions, there is no virtue—neither merit (puṇya) nor power of merit (puṇya-bala). Sentient beings without merit and without the power of merit are ordinary beings obstructed by the karma of birth-and-death—then what is there to say about practice and delivering sentient beings?

Those who study the tathāgatagarbha dharma may analyze and intellectually comprehend the tathāgatagarbha with perfect clarity, yet they themselves receive not the slightest benefit: their afflictions remain as before, their wisdom remains shallow, and the bonds still bind their own minds. Practicing this way to the end is all labor in vain. No matter how pure the tathāgatagarbha is, how selfless, how complete with all precepts (śīla), concentration (samādhi), and wisdom (prajñā), if the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) and the seventh consciousness are not pure, cannot be selfless, and lack precepts, concentration, and wisdom, they will still be without blessing and without wisdom, with boundless afflictions and no hope of liberation. The tathāgatagarbha will still cause the five aggregates and the seventh consciousness to be reborn among the three evil destinies to suffer, bobbing up and down in the sea of suffering of the six realms.

Therefore, study and practice must accord with reason, with the dharma, and with the vinaya; one must not deviate from the correct goal and course. One must strictly discipline oneself with the Buddha's precepts, and practice strictly according to the standards of the three unconditioned learnings of precepts, concentration, and wisdom as taught by the Buddha. The goal is an untainted mind; untainted means without ignorance and without afflictions. Only this is the correct path of practice. Do not say again that bodhisattvas need not sever afflictions—this is a wrong view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi), running contrary to practice.