Intellectual Disciples Are Not Mahayana Bodhisattvas on the Path of Seeing

The Sixth Patriarch addressed the assembly in the Platform Sutra: "I possess one thing, without head or tail, without name or character, without back or front. Do you all recognize it?" The young novice Shenhui replied: "It is the source of all Buddhas, the Buddha-nature of Shenhui." The Sixth Patriarch said: "I told you it has no name or character, yet you still speak of the source and Buddha-nature. In the future, you will merely be a scholastic adherent."

What is meant by a "scholastic adherent"? Both knowing and understanding are activities of consciousness. If the mental faculty neither knows nor comprehends, then there is no realization. Although the young novice Shenhui's consciousness knew it was the source of Buddha-nature, he had not realized the source of Buddha-nature. Thus, the Sixth Patriarch called him a scholastic adherent and predicted that in the future he would remain one—capable only of intellectually understanding the Dharma but unable to realize it, regardless of how much or what Dharma he expounded.

The Sixth Patriarch and all Chan masters of that time opposed mere intellectual understanding divorced from practical cultivation and realization. They opposed indulging in conceptual thinking and intellectual interpretations, and opposed neglecting the genuine work of Chan investigation while showing off with clever speech. Such practices can only produce a scholastic adherent, not a true Mahayana bodhisattva. Nowadays, the faculties of sentient beings are even more flighty and impractical. They do not cultivate meditation at all. With the advancement of modern information technology, many people know everything yet can realize nothing.

Thus, it is evident that no matter how much Dharma the consciousness knows, it remains useless. One still earns the reproach of the patriarchs and gains not the slightest benefit toward liberation. One must exert genuine effort, engage in true cultivation and actual realization, earnestly practice meditation, cultivate śamatha and vipaśyanā, and sincerely investigate Chan to awaken to the truth. Do not resort to petty cleverness or flaunt Buddhist knowledge. Even if one knows all the Tripitaka and the twelve divisions of scriptures by heart, even if one can expound all the Tripitaka and the twelve divisions of scriptures, it still falls short of the grounded realization of no-self attained through down-to-earth practice.