The True Starting Point of Spiritual Practice

When the Buddha taught the Dharma, there was not only the theoretical aspect but also the practical cultivation aspect; he certainly gave his disciples an entry point for study and practice. Because the Buddha himself was one who had walked the path—standing at the highest peak—he was fully capable of guiding sentient beings from all directions at the foot of the mountain to slowly climb up the mountainside and to the summit.

Practicing the Dharma taught by the Buddha is far, far better than worshipping theories that are splendid and lofty yet lack a practical, feasible method of entry. Anyone who cannot provide a practical, workable method shows that he himself has never succeeded in cultivation, that he himself has never walked that path through to the end—so how could those who follow him manage to walk it?

When someone without actual practice teaches the Dharma, it is often like directing sentient beings to pluck the stars from the sky while providing no ladder to the clouds. The beings who follow can only pitifully stand on tiptoe gazing up at the starry sky; no matter how hard they strive, the distance to the stars remains exactly as far as before, and there is no way to reach them. Some people even imagine they have plucked a star, when in fact it is merely a reflection in the water—they have not obtained the real fruit. If someone only speaks theory without offering a method to begin practice, you should be on guard, and not waste your precious time to no avail.

In genuine, down-to-earth practice, as long as you attain meditative concentration (samādhi) through one Dharma gate, any other kind of samādhi can be entered into quite easily. This is because all samādhis are interconnected, and the methods are interconnected: once you enter through one method, you have mastered the other methods as well. The only fear is that people cannot resolve to find one method and actually apply themselves to it, unwilling to endure hardship or expend effort. If you try every method, yet only skim the surface like a dragonfly touching water, tasting a little and then stopping, then there is no way you will succeed in cultivating any Dharma gate.