The Imaginations of Consciousness Cannot Replace Actual Practice

With a telescope one can gaze at the extremely distant starry sky, behold the vast and boundless ocean, and see the mountains, rivers, and lands at the horizon, yet the body is separated from them by far more than a thousand mountains and ten thousand rivers. No matter how far or how high one sees, it does not mean being personally present on the scene. A set goal cannot be reached by pointing a finger, nor by mere empty talk; it must be measured out with one's feet, so one must always set out walking. Walk step by step—no running, no jumping, and certainly no leaping over—only thus can one arrive safely at the destination. Do not complain that the road is long and resort to the mind consciousness's idle imagining; do not complain that the journey is arduous and resort to the mind consciousness's idle imagining; still less complain that the travel expenses are high and resort to the mind consciousness's idle imagining. Wild fantasies are, in the end, nothing but illusions. If you wish to reach the royal land and be personally present on the scene, you must let the manas set foot on solid ground, measuring it out step by step, personally touching every inch of the land.

Sometimes, after learning a bit of Buddhist dharma, the mind consciousness feels that it can clearly change everything, that it can summon the wind and call the rain, that with a bit of effort anything can be done and there are no difficulties whatsoever—including that becoming a Buddha is not so difficult either. And yet, one cannot even control a single thought of one's own mind; clinging stubbornly to something, one simply cannot let go, and one's bodily, verbal, and mental actions cannot change at all.

What is going on here? Because without the manas's personal realization, whatever the mind consciousness takes for granted, understands, or thinks is useless—it does not land on solid ground; one has strength but nowhere to exert it, and one often feels helpless. Therefore, even if you feel that becoming a Buddha is extremely easy, you must still honestly pass through the three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas; even if you feel that attaining realization and seeing the mind is as easy as eating cabbage, you must still cultivate the four right efforts, the seven factors of enlightenment, and the eightfold noble path step by step, honestly uphold the precepts and cultivate meditative concentration, cultivate the four foundations of mindfulness, and honestly complete the bodhisattva's six perfections. None of these paths of practice taught by the Buddha are useless ornaments; they must be actually carried out. For the vast majority of people, it is already quite an accomplishment to complete these prerequisite conditions in a lifetime. If these conditions cannot be perfectly fulfilled, then relying on the mind consciousness's reasoning and idle imagining to attain realization and see the mind will be of no avail.

Why do I say this? Because actual practice and personal realization involve the manas. In the process of cultivating the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment and the bodhisattva's six perfections, one is all along permeating and training the manas, changing the manas's ingrained views. Only when the cultivation has reached the proper level can the manas's views be changed, and then everything changes along with the manas's change—only then can one attain realization and see the mind. But the manas is not so easily made to change its stubborn views; if the manas does not change, nothing can change. Therefore, in learning Buddhism one must still honestly engage in actual practice; the mind consciousness's fantasies are useless. Even if you feel you could become a Buddha tomorrow, it will still be after three great immeasurable kalpas. Some people also hold forth grandly about not taking marks and making distinctions, about the mind dwelling nowhere and grasping nothing—but that should be discussed when one reaches the stage of a several-bhūmi bodhisattva; pre-bhūmi bodhisattvas simply cannot do it. The mind consciousness eradicating the view of self, the mind consciousness attaining realization, the mind consciousness seeing the mind, the mind consciousness becoming a Buddha—try it in a dream first and see whether it works.