Can One Attain Bodhi Without Cutting Off Afflictions?

Some people say that when seeing the mind and attaining the first fruit, one has not severed afflictions, and there is no change in body and mind, no transformation — and that this is normal. But this is actually extremely abnormal. Such a great matter of birth-and-death, overturning one's former major erroneous views, transforming one's cognition of the world of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) from existence to emptiness — how could the body and mind undergo no change whatsoever? Through the proper practice of the Four Right Efforts, how could the body and mind not change? Through the practice of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment in accordance with the truth, how could the body and mind not change? If the mind does not change, how can this be attaining the fruit and seeing the mind? Even in worldly matters, when the manas truly comes to know something, one becomes extraordinarily excited, with great changes in the body — the heart surging with excitement, or eyes brimming with hot tears, or body and mind trembling, or a solemn expression, or being unable to sleep for several days, and so on.

During the process of cultivating the Thirty-seven Factors of Enlightenment before attaining the fruit, the body and mind will change little by little, greatly differing from before. If the difference becomes very evident, and the five grades of afflictions of the desire realm have been severed, then one has become a candidate for the first fruit (srotāpanna-phala-pratipannaka). If the body and mind never undergo any change, then one has not practiced in accordance with the Dharma, or one's direction of practice is wrong, or one is simply not diligent, or one remains stuck at broad learning and much hearing and at emotional speculation and intellectual understanding, or one devotes more attention to worldly matters, and the Dharma principles have never truly entered the mind.

The Abhidharmakośa Śāstra says that as long as one truly cultivates the path and cultivates it in accordance with the truth, one will certainly subdue the afflictive delusions and then sever them. It is like this during the process of cultivating the path, and even more so with the result of cultivating the path; only then can one become a candidate for the first fruit, and subsequently attain the first fruit. If one has not severed even a thread of afflictive delusion and the body and mind have not transformed, one still remains a bound ordinary being, tied up tightly by afflictive delusions and unable to move — how could one advance along the path of bodhi and transform one's status? If one forcibly claims such a status, then it can only be a case of having the name without the substance, the name not matching the reality — this is called deceiving the world and stealing a reputation.

Many people believe that as long as one can expound the Dharma, one has already realized it. But the facts are not so. If one expounds the Dharma without having realized it, it has no true guiding significance. If one has not walked that stretch of the road oneself, one cannot guide others on how specifically to walk it. If one's own mind is blazing with the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, with leaks everywhere, there is no way to guide others in subduing and severing afflictions.

There is a Zen koan of the "one-finger Chan": when a bhikṣuṇī who was guiding the master raised her index finger, he attained enlightenment on the spot. The little novice śrāmaṇera saw this and thought: "So this is what enlightenment is!" Thereafter, whenever the master was away and someone came asking about the Dharma, the little śrāmaṇera would likewise raise his index finger, telling them that this was that true suchness (tathatā) — imitating like a parrot, and quite convincingly at that. People's "enlightenment" nowadays is no different from that of this little śrāmaṇera. Although they can gesture and pose, quite resembling the maneuvers of the patriarchs, seemingly like zen repartee, and seemingly able to guide people, outsiders watch the excitement while insiders see the tricks of the trade — these techniques can only deceive some laypeople. All kinds of zen repartee involve the harmonious functioning of the eight consciousnesses, containing both the true and the false. If one cannot distinguish the true from the false and takes the false as the true, then no matter how one gestures, it is not zen repartee.

One hundred years after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, Ānanda heard a little śrāmaṇera recite "conditioned phenomena of arising and ceasing" as "water old crane," and corrected him. But when the little śrāmaṇera asked his master which was right, his master said, "Don't listen to Ānanda; he has become senile with age. Just recite it the way I taught you." So the little śrāmaṇera continued reciting as before. Hearing this, Ānanda thought: the Buddha has only been in parinirvāṇa for a hundred years, and the Buddha's Dharma has already been mis-transmitted like this; in future ages, even further removed from the Buddha, what will the Buddha's Dharma have evolved into? Sentient beings are truly too ignorant. Grieved, Ānanda thereupon decided to enter parinirvāṇa immediately and depart, not wishing to witness the tragic scene of the Buddha's Dharma being gradually destroyed. Even back then the Buddha's Dharma had already degenerated — how much more so today, several thousand years later! The present age is by no means an age of sages filling the streets; many people have severely misunderstood the practice and realization of the Buddha's Dharma.

Nowadays, neither the Mahāyāna nor the Hīnayāna Dharma is treasured; they are no longer rare dharmas. One merely needs to hear the Dharma and deliberate a little, and the fruit is obtained — no need for precepts, meditative concentration (samādhi), or wisdom, no need to cultivate the six pāramitās and myriad practices; those who keep the precepts and cultivate concentration are fools. Now any fruit can be easily obtained — for instance, the contemplation of things being like a dream, like an illusion, and the fruit of the tenth dedication bhūmi are no difficult matters. As for the method of practice and realization through contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of the tathāgatagarbha, as long as it is passed on by word of mouth, one can take the fruit home. The ignorance and perversity of sentient beings have already left one speechless.