Can Investigating Written Words Lead to Seeing the Mind and Realizing One's Nature?

Many people who consider themselves wise are helpless when faced with Chan (Zen) koans. There are also some who believe themselves to have attained the Way and lecture on Chan koans, yet everything they say falls into worldly dharmas—ordinary people quite enjoy reading such things, not knowing what flavor there really is in them. Some people who study the Buddha-dharma burrow into the shell of words, dissecting the text, words, and vocabulary, studying back and forth; as soon as they seem to grasp a bit of the surface meaning, they think they have attained the Way, and then they paste their ideas everywhere, with arrogance greatly arising. In fact, studying Buddhism and cultivating practice is not about burrowing into the shell of words—the real effort lies beyond the written word. One should apply effort and practice diligently in the bodhisattva's six perfections, subduing afflictions, improving one's mental cultivation, developing merit, and strengthening meditative concentration (samādhi). By cultivating diligently in these areas, one can continuously perfect the qualifications of a bodhisattva; it is not about burying oneself all day in piles of text, studying those words. If studying Buddhism were merely a matter of literary skill, then all graduate students and doctoral candidates could become Mahāyāna bodhisattvas who have seen the mind and realized its nature through enlightenment—but in fact this is not so. There are also people who emphasize that taking the three refuges is unnecessary, that receiving the five precepts is unnecessary, and that as long as one earnestly investigates the words, one can see the mind and realize its nature. If that were the case, then since non-Buddhists are all clever and quick-witted people, they would not need to believe in the Buddha—as long as they studied the Buddha-dharma, they could understand it intellectually. Yet they can never become bodhisattvas of the true meaning of the Mahāyāna; even if they know some of the answers, they are still not Mahāyāna bodhisattvas, because they have not given rise to wisdom and lack the bodhisattva's mental disposition. Clever and quick-witted people are everywhere; after studying the Buddha-dharma for a while, they can understand some of the surface content. However, because they do not possess the bodhisattva's mental disposition, they can never become true bodhisattvas, will not receive the blessing and protection of the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and dharma-protecting benevolent deities, and therefore cannot achieve true realization and enlightenment.