Attaining Fruition through Mind Consciousness Is a Wrong Path in the Dharma-Ending Age

On the path of practice in the Saha world, there are so very many wrong turns. Without considerable wholesome roots and merit, it is truly difficult to discern the direction—especially in subtle matters. If one has never walked that path, one can genuinely go astray; even a small wrong turn is enough to waste an enormous amount of practice time, and extricating oneself from it is not easy, let alone a major wrong turn, which is even harder to discern and escape. As for realizing the fruits and seeing the mind—does it count if only the mind consciousness realizes the fruit and sees the mind, or must the manas realize the fruit and see the mind together with the mind consciousness for it to count? Is this a small wrong turn or a big one? Attaining bodhi without eradicating afflictions—is that a big wrong turn or a small one?

The question of realizing the Dharma is the most weighty issue for individual sentient beings and for Buddhism as a whole; it is the crucial issue and turning point of life and death. Therefore, any other dharma may be mistaken, but on this question there must be absolutely no error. If one errs on this question, it is a fundamental error of principle, a major error concerning the destiny of sentient beings and Buddhism. The closer one gets to the Dharma-ending age, the more wrong turns there are in the practice and realization of the Buddha-dharma. In ancient times, learning Buddhism was called cultivation and practice; for most modern people learning Buddhism, it can only be called study, rarely involving cultivation and practice. Yet among the ancients who cultivated and practiced, those who became enlightened were slow and few, whereas in the Dharma-ending age, among those who merely study, enlightenment comes quickly and abundantly—is this not highly abnormal? Of course it is highly abnormal. The Buddha-dharma in the future will perish precisely here—it will perish at the very root of practice and realization. Without genuine realization, the Buddha-dharma will be hard to sustain. That is why for many years I have been teaching about the manas realizing the fruits and the manas seeing the mind, and have written several books on the manas, out of fear that the Buddha-dharma will quickly be destroyed.

I have expounded the manas realizing the fruits from every possible angle, three hundred and sixty degrees with no blind spots, yet there are still dull-facultied scholar-venerables who refuse to accept this principle no matter what, and dare not accept it—because once they accept it, their fruits of the Great and Small Vehicles would be ruined, vanish into nothing, and they would become mere ordinary beings. How unwilling they are to accept this! But those who act this way are very irrational people, not people who prioritize the Path, nor people who take the Dharma and truth as their refuge. Evading facts is not the conduct of a great man; it is a manifestation of self-attachment.

If sentient beings have deep wholesome roots and abundant merit, then even if they encounter a wrong turn, they will rely on their own wholesome roots and merit to eventually walk out of it and return to the correct path. Therefore, every Buddhist practitioner should cultivate more merit and plant more wholesome roots, so as to ensure that in this life and future lives they do not go astray, possess the Dharma-selecting eye and discernment, are not misled, and do not fall into evil destinies. The closer one gets to the Dharma-ending age, the more opportunities there are to cultivate merit and plant wholesome roots. Those who truly wish to attain the Way and those who make great aspirations must seize every opportunity well and plant more wholesome roots and merit. In this way, they will not only benefit immensely life after life, but also accelerate the progress of their cultivation of the Buddha Way, attain liberation through wisdom sooner, and benefit both themselves and others.