Speculation Based on Comparing Learned Theories Has Nothing to Do with Realization

Question: Take the example of scratching an itch: after the faculties and sense-objects make contact, if there is mental engagement (manaskāra), consciousness will arise (here the manas engages first, though at times the manas engages afterward), and at this moment the manas is directing the body consciousness in its operation. So I thought to myself: the seventh and eighth consciousnesses depend on each other (the eighth consciousness requires nine conditions); since the manas has appeared, the eighth consciousness should be nearby. So it must be that at the moment the faculties and sense-objects make contact and the manas engages, the eighth consciousness manifests the body consciousness (the three transforming consciousnesses), and then the manas directs the body consciousness to scratch the itch. Regarding the existence of the eighth consciousness in this passage—is this a student's deluded imagination, or is it merely a possible line of approach to solving the problem, still very far from actually realizing the eighth consciousness?

Answer: At this moment you have neither directly observed the operation of the manas nor directly observed the operation of the eighth consciousness. Therefore what you have described is not fact; rather, you are comparing theoretical knowledge you have learned and then deliberating, conjecturing, reasoning, and guessing. All of these are states of erroneous cognition (non-valid cognition), lacking direct observation, and thus none of it can be taken as true. This is how people without meditative concentration study the Dharma: the mind consciousness is excessively strong and overreaches, which in fact is just speculation. Even if one speculates correctly about all dharmas, it is still speculation after all, and cannot count.

I have encountered many people who are in this state of studying the Dharma. They appear quite clever, able to locate the key points and focal issues of a problem, and then they take shortcuts, using the mind consciousness to deliberate, analyze, generalize, organize, and guess. But doing this obstructs their own path of practice and hinders actual cultivation and realization; the result is that cleverness is undone by cleverness itself. There are also many people who take such conjecture and speculation to be realization, proclaiming everywhere that they have become enlightened and attained sagehood. But this is still the stage of a beginner: meditative concentration has not yet arisen, and the precepts, concentration, and wisdom, the bodhisattva's six pāramitās, and even the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment have not yet been cultivated. They are still far short of the causes, conditions, and prerequisites for realization. Sentient beings in the Dharma-ending age have meager merit (alpa-puṇya): they cannot cultivate meditative concentration, cannot uphold the precepts, and are unwilling to cultivate merit, so they can only engage in dry wisdom. And it is precisely this dry wisdom that obstructs the Path the most and delays things the most; it often seals off one's own gate to enlightenment.