Does Diligently Studying the Dharma Count as Practice?

The Diamond Sutra says: Even the Dharma should be abandoned, let alone what is not the Dharma. The Dharma refers to the pure and wondrous principles of the Tripitaka and the twelve divisions of scriptures, which belong to the realm of theory and knowledge. After these theoretical teachings have been realized in practice and the corresponding ignorance has been eliminated, they are no longer of use and should be discarded. If they are retained in the mind, they can only obstruct consciousness, preventing the mind from being empty and unobstructed, and merely add to the bondage of Dharma. It is like using medicine to cure an illness: once cured, the medicine should be thrown away; otherwise, clinging to the medicine itself becomes a disease. What stands opposed to the Dharma—namely, the non-Dharma—is ignorance, the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion. The scope of ignorance is extremely broad: any thought or view that is erroneous, contrary to reason, and leads to the unending cycle of birth and death is ignorance. These non-Dharmas must all the more be abandoned. Our entire process of studying Buddhism and cultivating practice is precisely a process of continuously eliminating ignorance, until ignorance is completely extinguished. Having reached the other shore, cultivation is no longer needed, and even the principles of the Dharma must be emptied out.

Thus the relationship between Dharma and non-Dharma becomes very clear: the two are like medicine and disease, like that which counteracts and that which is counteracted. The Dharma is used to counteract the non-Dharma; once the non-Dharma has been counteracted and is gone, the Dharma too must be discarded. In this way the mind becomes empty, pure, and endowed with permanence, bliss, self, and purity. Since the Dharma is used to counteract ignorance, it is a tool and method of cultivation, and the object of cultivation is ignorance and affliction, not the Dharma itself. The Dharma is principle; ignorance and affliction are phenomena (matters). Phenomena manifest in bodily, verbal, and mental actions, and these bodily, verbal, and mental actions are also phenomena, divided into three kinds: wholesome, unwholesome, and neither wholesome nor unwholesome. When the unwholesome is extinguished, the mind becomes purely wholesome and pure. Therefore, using principle to break through phenomena, to harmonize phenomena, and to bring all kinds of actions and appearances to perfection—this is the goal and purpose of cultivation, from beginning to end.

In the end, the Dharma in the mind must certainly be eliminated. But should the phenomena of action also be eliminated? The phenomena of action rooted in ignorance and affliction must definitely be eliminated. Once ignorance and affliction are eliminated, bodily, verbal, and mental actions become thoroughly pure, without defilement; in this way all kinds of actions are brought to perfection and the unsurpassed Buddha Way is accomplished. However, when the Buddhas attain the Way, they do not enter nirvāṇa without remainder. Abiding in non-abiding nirvāṇa (apratiṣṭhita-nirvāṇa), their perfected and pure actions will constantly manifest. Because the Buddhas, in their causal stages, made vows to extensively deliver immeasurable sentient beings, after attaining buddhahood they must perfectly fulfill the various pure and great vows made in their causal stages. Therefore, the phenomena of action can neither be severed nor extinguished, until all sentient beings have been delivered.

Thus it is clear: only with wisdom, able to harmonize principle and phenomena and to bring all kinds of actions to perfection, is one a true practitioner. What one can take pride in and display to others should be bodily, verbal, and mental actions that are pure and free of ignorance—not what Dharma one has studied or how much Dharma one has learned. Therefore, methods and tools need not be displayed to others; the result is what matters. Only by showing the result to others can one inspire, teach, and guide them onto the Buddha Way of eliminating ignorance. It is like a healthy person who need only show others a healthy body; there is no need to go around proclaiming that one has medicine for curing cancer or leukemia—being free of disease is what is worthy of pride. When the Dharma is used to counteract the non-Dharma, fulfilling its proper function—eliminating ignorance, removing the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, and extinguishing the two attachments to self and to Dharma—that is what is fundamental. If it does not function, then even recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti) is non-Dharma; if it does function, then even the non-Dharma of external paths is Dharma.

Now there are some people for whom theory is theory and phenomena are phenomena, with no connection between the two. So what exactly is being cultivated in their practice? Many people think that studying Buddhism means studying theoretical knowledge and learning more Buddhist teachings, but they do not know what understanding the Dharma is for, nor do they know the goal and direction of cultivation. If studying Buddhism were merely about mastering theoretical knowledge, then even if one were learned enough to fill five carts with books and became a doctor of Buddhist studies, one would still be an ignorant sentient being, unable to attain even the slightest liberation. Theoretical knowledge cannot enable sentient beings to become Buddhas. Clinging to principle while discarding phenomena instead becomes attachment to Dharma; being bound by the Dharma only increases birth and death. Such study of the Dharma is foolish conduct and does not count as cultivation. Theory serves phenomena; once phenomena are perfected, theory is no longer of use and should be discarded. What wise person would cling to theory all day long while ignoring phenomena, inverting root and branch?

People attain liberation through phenomena, not through theory. Some people are truly inverted: they hold theory aloft while committing great unwholesome karma, thinking that with theory in hand the goal is achieved and actions need not be attended to. But in reality, what is useful is phenomena; what needs to be perfected is phenomena; only when phenomena are perfected is one a Buddha. It is precisely in order to harmonize and perfect phenomena that one studies theory, using theory to guide, transform, and perfect one's actions. If not for this, then burying oneself in the Tripitaka and the twelve divisions of scriptures, diligently seeking—what would it all be for? Studying for the sake of studying—is that not useless effort? How foolish and inverted are those who, having studied some Dharma, look down arrogantly upon all beings! If what one has studied cannot lessen greed, hatred, and delusion, but instead increases ignorance, it would be better not to study at all; studying in this way is nothing but a calamity, causing sentient beings to misunderstand the Buddhadharma and Buddhism—this is creating great unwholesome karma. To sum up: the study of Dharma that cannot harmonize and perfect one's actions, no matter how diligent, does not count as cultivation.