Glib Chan Talk Is Not Equivalent to Practice and Realization

Practice before enlightenment has many stages, and practice after enlightenment likewise has many stages. If one practices before enlightenment using the methods intended for after enlightenment, it is futile and useless, for one has not yet entered the gate and thus cannot do the things done within the gate. For someone who has just awakened, or has not yet awakened, to practice according to the methods of bodhisattvas on the bhūmis is even less likely to be effective. Holding lofty and profound theories in one's hands and imagining that one has already realized them, that one can be like the sages and like the tathāgatagarbha—this is purely self-deception and deceiving others. Many people, upon seeing the statement that affliction is itself bodhi, think that regarding afflictions as transformations of the tathāgatagarbha is itself practice, and make no effort to subdue their afflictions. As a result, affliction remains affliction, bodhi remains bodhi, and after death they still sink through birth and death—what benefit is there in that?

Some people, having understood that the tathāgatagarbha is beyond cultivation and beyond realization, think that the seven consciousnesses and the five aggregates should also be beyond cultivation and realization, and that since the tathāgatagarbha is originally a Buddha, they might as well just be a Buddha at home. Others, having heard that all dharmas arise from discrimination, no longer wish to discriminate at all, believing that as long as they do not discriminate, the mind will be empty and without dharmas. Since the tathāgatagarbha does not discriminate, they too must not discriminate—then even if they go hungry for seven days, they should have no objection.

All dharmas are indeed like illusions and transformations, but this is the realization of bodhisattvas at the tenth abode stage and above. If one has not reached that level of practice and does not possess that actual realization, then one should not hang the words "illusion and transformation" on one's lips every day, turning them into mere lip-service Chan. The tathāgatagarbha does not keep precepts, so some people think that they too, like the tathāgatagarbha, need not keep precepts, and thus roam free and unrestrained, casting off all restraint. They do not realize that their own mind is replete with all greed, hatred, and delusion—how could they possibly cast off restraint and roam free and unrestrained? Empty talk often ruins a nation. Those who can talk a foot high but cannot walk an inch would do best to practice earnestly and practically, and stop holding forth loftily with eyes high and hands low.