What Is Gradual Cultivation and Sudden Enlightenment

Before sudden enlightenment, there still needs to be a process of gradual cultivation, and this gradual cultivation is different from the gradual cultivation after enlightenment—their natures are entirely distinct. The gradual cultivation before sudden enlightenment is the practice of the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment and the bodhisattva's six perfections, the cultivation of precepts, meditation (samādhi), and wisdom (prajñā), and the full attainment of the four roots of goodness—heat, summit, patience, and the foremost worldly dharma—only then can one suddenly awaken to the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna teachings. If this issue is illustrated with an analogy, the principle will become clearer. Suppose one is sawing down a thousand-year-old tree with a very thick trunk; to fell the trunk, one must use tools to saw through it bit by bit—this process is equivalent to gradual cultivation—while finally felling the old tree in one stroke is equivalent to sudden enlightenment. Therefore, without gradual cultivation there is no sudden enlightenment.

The processing after the tree is felled—such as stripping the bark, cutting it into boards, grinding, polishing, waxing, coloring, and so on—is similar to gradual cultivation after enlightenment; and finally assembling the boards into pleasing furniture and handicrafts is equivalent to the ultimate sudden enlightenment of becoming a Buddha. Sawing down an old tree is extremely laborious and arduous, requiring patience, endurance, and physical strength; the tools must be sharp, and the skill must be solid—this is equivalent to the provisions needed for seeing the Path. Without sufficient provisions, there is no seeing the Path. Some people, as they cultivate, regress, fall behind, or come to a standstill; some simply turn back. On this path of cultivation, the further one goes, the fewer the people: of ten thousand who first generate the aspiration, hardly any persevere, and of those who attain the Way there may not even be one. Thus sages are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns—extremely rare and precious—and encountering one should be cherished.

Some people mix up the gradual cultivation before enlightenment with the gradual cultivation after enlightenment, believing there is no gradual cultivation before enlightenment and that cultivation is a matter for after enlightenment. But a sudden enlightenment without gradual cultivation does not even count as intellectual understanding/interpretive awakening; it is entirely emotional thinking and conceptual speculation, mere conjecture, without the slightest benefit of merit—unless one is a bodhisattva on the bhūmis with extraordinarily great roots of goodness who, due to a deep foundation from previous lives, can directly achieve sudden enlightenment. Gradual cultivation before enlightenment is precisely the process of transforming the ordinary person's mind-nature into the mind of a sage; it is the process of being reborn with a completely new body and mind, the process of metamorphosis before the carp leaps over the Dragon Gate. Without this process, how can one metamorphose? Therefore, to observe whether a person has truly awakened, one must observe their mind-nature, observe their bones—not look at the superficial gloss and polish, the eloquence and glib talk. The essence is what matters most.

Gradual cultivation is making one's body and mind gradually approach and resemble the body and mind of sages; only when one reaches the standard of a sage can one suddenly awaken and see the Path. This is the process of cultivating the mind. If the mind does not change, if one's mental conduct is not that of a sage, one cannot become a sage. Therefore gradual cultivation is very important; it is the key step for generating wisdom acquired through cultivation (bhāvanā-mayī-prajñā). Before this, there is only wisdom acquired through hearing and wisdom acquired through reflection, which are very shallow and cannot withstand the karmic obstructions of birth and death. Only when wisdom acquired through cultivation is complete can the wisdom of realizing the Path arise; only from then on can one be freed from the karma of the three evil destinies, sever afflictions, and escape the suffering of saṃsāra.