The Differences Between Modern and Ancient Buddhist Practitioners

The characteristic of modern people is that the environment they live in is complex, and the realms of the six sense objects are too alluring. Learning the Dharma is easy, knowledge is abundant, and the mind consciousness is extremely clever—yet meditative concentration (samādhi) is hard to cultivate, so they cannot cultivate the Path or attain the Path. Therefore they can only be called learners of Buddhism, and there are few who cultivate the Path. The environment ancient people lived in was simple; obtaining the Dharma was not easy, they had little knowledge and little theory, their minds were pure and simple, and meditative concentration was easy to cultivate. Therefore there were many who cultivated the Path, and many who attained the Path. 

Abundant knowledge ultimately became an obstruction to cultivating the Path, turning into the obstruction of the knowable (jñeya-āvaraṇa). The theory is sufficient, yet the Path does not appear; one dies beneath theory, just like dying of thirst at the edge of the sea. 

The ancients asked: How did you modern people all die? The modern people answered: Crushed to death by theory, poisoned to death by knowledge, died from being too clever. There is also another kind of death—died from research.