Comparing Conjectures about Learned Theories Is Unrelated to Realization

Question: Take scratching an itch as an example. After the faculty and the sense object make contact, if there is attention (manaskāra), consciousness will arise (here the manas attends first; in some cases the manas attends afterward), and at this time 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 of contact between faculty and sense object, when the manas attends, the eighth consciousness manifests the body consciousness (the three transformative agencies, trimandala-pariṇāma), and then the manas directs the body consciousness to carry out the scratching. As for the existence of the eighth consciousness in this passage, is this the student's inverted delusion, or is it merely a problem-solving line of thought, 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 learned theoretical knowledge and then deliberating, speculating, reasoning, and guessing. All of these are states of non-valid cognition, lacking direct perception, and thus none of them can be taken as true. This is how people without meditative concentration study the Dharma: the mind consciousness's function is overly strong and runs ahead. In reality it is just conjecture. Even if one conjectures all dharmas correctly, it is still, after all, conjecture and cannot count.

I have met quite a few people who are in this state of studying the Dharma. They appear quite clever, able to locate the crux and focal point of a problem, and then they take shortcuts, using the mind consciousness to deliberate, analyze, summarize, organize, and guess. But doing so obstructs their own path of practice and hinders actual cultivation and realization; the result is that cleverness is undone by cleverness. There are also many people who take such speculation and conjecture as 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 perfections, and even the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment have not yet been cultivated. The causes, conditions, and prerequisites for realization are still far too lacking. In the Dharma-ending age, sentient beings 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 causes the most delay, often blocking one's own gate of enlightenment.