Is Diligent Study of the Dharma Considered Spiritual Practice?

The Diamond Sutra says: “法尚应舍，何况非法。” Dharma is the pure and wondrous teachings of the Tripiṭaka and the twelve divisions of the canon, belonging to the realm of theory and knowledge. After these theoretical teachings have been realized in practice and the corresponding ignorance has been eradicated, they are no longer of use and must be abandoned. If they are retained in the mind, they can only obstruct consciousness, preventing the mind from being empty and unobstructed, merely adding to the bondage of dharma. It is like using medicine to cure an illness: once cured, the medicine should be discarded; otherwise, clinging to the medicine itself becomes a disease. The non-dharma opposed to dharma is ignorance (avidyā), 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 unending birth and death is ignorance. These non-dharmas must all the more be abandoned. Our entire process of learning Buddhism and cultivating practice is precisely the process of continuously eradicating ignorance, until ignorance is completely extinguished and one reaches the other shore, where cultivation is no longer needed and even the principles of dharma must be emptied out.

Thus the relationship between dharma and non-dharma becomes very clear: the two are like medicine and disease, the relationship between the remedy and that which is remedied. Dharma is used to counteract non-dharma; once non-dharma has been remedied and is gone, the dharma too must be abandoned. In this way the mind becomes empty, pure, and characterized by permanence, bliss, self, and purity. Since dharma is used to counteract ignorance, it is a tool and method of cultivation, while the object of cultivation is ignorance and afflictions, not the dharma itself. Dharma is principle; ignorance and afflictions are phenomena (deeds). Phenomena are manifested 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 with phenomena, and to bring all kinds of deeds and characteristics to perfection is the goal and purpose of cultivation, both at the beginning and at the end.

In the end, the dharma in the mind must certainly be eliminated—but should deeds and phenomena also be eliminated? The deeds born of ignorance and afflictions must definitely be eliminated. Once ignorance and afflictions are eliminated, bodily, verbal, and mental actions become thoroughly pure, without defilement; in this way all kinds of deeds 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; in the abodeless nirvāṇa (apratiṣṭhita-nirvāṇa), perfected and pure deeds must constantly manifest. Because the Buddhas, in their causal stages, made vows to widely deliver immeasurable sentient beings, after attaining buddhahood they must perfectly fulfill the various pure and great vows made in their causal stages. Therefore deeds cannot be severed, nor can they be extinguished, until all sentient beings have been delivered.

Thus it is clear: only one who has wisdom and can harmonize principle and phenomena, and can bring all kinds of deeds to perfection, is a true practitioner. What one can take pride in and display to others should be pure bodily, verbal, and mental actions 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 eradicating ignorance. It is like a healthy person who only needs to show others a healthy body—there is no need to publicize everywhere that one has medicine for curing cancer or leukemia; being free of disease is what is truly praiseworthy. When dharma is used to counteract non-dharma, fulfilling its proper function—eliminating ignorance, removing the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, and extinguishing the two attachments of self and dharma—that is the fundamental point. If it does not work, then even recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti) is non-dharma; if it does work, then even the non-dharma of non-Buddhist paths is dharma.

Now there are some people for whom theory is theory and deeds are deeds, with no connection between the two—then what exactly is being cultivated in their practice? Many people think that learning Buddhism means learning theoretical knowledge and knowing more Buddhist teachings, yet they do not know what knowing the Buddhist teachings is for, nor do they know the goal and direction of cultivation. If learning Buddhism is only for mastering theoretical knowledge, then even if one is extremely learned and becomes a doctor of Buddhist studies, one remains an ignorant sentient being, unable to attain liberation in the slightest. Theoretical knowledge cannot enable sentient beings to become Buddhas; clinging to principle while abandoning deeds instead becomes attachment to dharma, and being bound by dharma only increases birth and death. Such learning of dharma is foolish conduct and does not count as cultivation. Theory serves deeds; once deeds are perfected, theory is no longer useful and should be abandoned. How could a wise person cling to theory all day long while neglecting deeds, inverting the root and the branches?

People attain liberation through deeds, not through theory. Some people are truly inverted: they hold theory high aloft, yet commit great unwholesome karma, thinking that with theory in hand their goal is achieved and deeds can be ignored. But in reality, what is useful is deeds, and what needs to be perfected is deeds; only when deeds are perfected is one a Buddha. It is precisely in order to harmonize and perfect deeds that one studies theory, using theory to guide, transform, and perfect deeds. If not for this, then burying oneself in the Tripiṭaka and the twelve divisions of the canon, diligently seeking—what is it all for? Studying for the sake of studying—is that not useless effort? How foolish and inverted are those who, having learned some dharma, look down arrogantly upon all beings! If what one has learned cannot reduce greed, hatred, and delusion but instead increases ignorance, it would be better not to learn at all; learning in this way is nothing but a scourge, causing sentient beings to misunderstand the Buddhadharma and Buddhism, which is itself the commission of great unwholesome karma. To sum up: learning dharma that cannot harmonize with deeds, no matter how diligent, does not count as cultivation.