The Danger of Understanding the Dharma through the Mind Consciousness

If merely the mind consciousness attaining the fruit counted as attaining the fruit, then in our group, if not half, at least a third of us would have mind consciousnesses that have attained the fruit. If I gave some face-to-face guidance, then three-quarters or even four-fifths would have mind consciousnesses attaining the fruit. Adding in the members of the Yogācāra group, there would be at least one or two thousand people whose mind consciousnesses had attained the fruit—it would not be surprising if five or six thousand people's mind consciousnesses attained the fruit.

If merely the mind consciousness seeing the mind counted as seeing the mind, then I could hold a big meeting and announce how the tathāgatagarbha concretely operates. Everyone's mind consciousness would come to know it, and all who did not deny it would become bodhisattvas enlightened through seeing the mind. Then this world would be nearly as magnificent as in the Buddha's time.

Nowadays quite a few people in the group can discern the teachings concerning the manas, and their wisdom in Yogācāra is not low either. If the mind consciousness attaining the fruit were enough, then our group could already have many bhūmi bodhisattvas possessing the seed-wisdom of Yogācāra, and twenty-some years later, we could cultivate a thousand or eighteen hundred bhūmi bodhisattvas—that would not be a difficult matter. But is the cultivation and realization of the Buddha's Dharma really like this? Is it really that easy? Can one attain realization merely through word-of-mouth transmission?

Why is the Buddhist community being rectified now? People with wisdom should understand: on the surface it appears to be an action of the secular world, but in fact the Buddha long ago knew the current state of the Buddhist community—could the Buddha not think of a way to deal with it? The Buddha's protection behind the scenes—sentient beings are all unaware of it; they only know how to look at surface phenomena and do not know the true reasons behind them. Every upheaval in the Buddhist community is in fact caused by great problems arising internally, which then invite external turmoil. All the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and the Dharma-protecting dragons and devas all know this.