Why does everything still feel utterly real even after knowing it is illusory?

Question: I clearly know that all dharmas are illusory, yet when I see mountains, rivers, the great earth, flowers, grass, and trees, why do they still seem so real? And why do the sensations of cold, heat, touch, and pain also still feel so real?

Answer: Your belief that all dharmas are illusory is based on knowledge acquired from the Buddhist sūtra theories you have studied; it is learned knowledge, not yet realized through personal verification, lacking direct-perception experience and observation. Therefore, this kind of knowing is tantamount to not knowing. Only after actual practice and attaining genuine realization, at the very moment of contacting each dharma, can you personally experience and taste it. Only then are your perception, feeling, and cognition real, direct (pratyakṣa), trustworthy, and reliable. Learned knowledge has no credibility; it cannot be relied upon and is riddled with doubts. After realizing that all dharmas are illusory, if you wish to transform all dharmas and be unbound by them, you need to cultivate the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, transcending the domain of the aggregate of form (rūpa), the domain of the aggregate of feeling (vedanā), the domain of the aggregate of perception (saṃjñā), the domain of the aggregate of formations (saṃskāra), and the domain of the aggregate of consciousness (vijñāna). Only in this way can you attain liberation from all dharmas, transcend all dharmas, and transform all dharmas.

Many people, even those who can recite the sūtras backwards and forwards, cannot eliminate the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi), cannot awaken to the true mind and see their nature, much less realize the illusory nature of all dharmas. So the idea of eliminating self-view after listening to just one lecture is pure fantasy; even after listening to a million lectures, one may not even touch the edge of eliminating self-view. This is because it is not something that can be realized merely by listening with the ears. What is heard is knowledge and theory; for theory to become actuality—to become one's own direct-perception wisdom—many stages of processing must be passed through, and completing these stages requires paying a considerable price. If you pay no price at all and just leisurely listen to lectures, those dharmas are like the sound of wind passing by your ears, flashing by without leaving much of a trace. Moreover, this assumes the dharmas being taught are correct and free of error; if there are errors, then eliminating self-view is even more out of the question.

The elimination of self-view in the Small Vehicle and the awakening to the true mind and seeing of one's nature in the Great Vehicle are both cognitions of wisdom, correcting previously erroneous false views (mithyā-dṛṣṭi). Cognition of wisdom cannot yet change the state of the dharmas themselves; the state of the dharmas themselves is changed through meditative concentration (samādhi) and the power of supernatural powers, which includes three modes of practice: śamatha, samāpatti, and dhyāna. Only after all three modes of practice are brought to perfection can the body, mind, and world be completely transformed, transformed into the pure and perfect state of a Buddha. At that point, the Buddha Way is accomplished. The specific methods of practice are all found in the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment (Yuānjué jīng).