The Reasons Why Those Who Slander the Dharma Cannot Attain Liberation

In a certain sect within the Buddhist community, practitioners exclusively believe in the Hinayana teachings, focusing solely on the path to liberation, while rejecting the Mahayana Dharma. They do not believe in the existence of the Tathāgatagarbha, nor do they acknowledge the Manas (the seventh consciousness). Essentially, they are proponents of the Six Consciousnesses theory, recognizing only the six consciousnesses. They slander the Mahayana Dharma as not spoken by the Buddha and deny the Mahayana patriarchs and Bodhisattvas. By doing so, they not only slander the Buddha and the Dharma but also slander the Sangha, thereby slandering all Three Jewels. Those who slander the Three Jewels are considered sinners in the Buddhist teachings, and sinners inevitably face retribution for their offenses. The law of cause and effect is clear and unfailing. If they do not repent and eliminate their negative karma, they will not attain the supreme benefits of the Dharma, namely liberation. If slandering the Three Jewels could lead to the severance of the view of self and liberation, it would imply that the world operates without cause and effect, or that causes exist but effects do not. However, cause and effect have never been absent; the retribution for good and evil has never failed to manifest.

If one does not acknowledge the existence of the Tathāgatagarbha, then an Arhat entering Nirvana would become mere annihilation, no different from non-Buddhist paths. For those Arhats who turn from the Hinayana to the Mahayana, when their Mahayana causes and conditions ripen while in the state of Nirvana without residue, and they must take rebirth in the human realm to continue cultivating the Mahayana path, how could they obtain a five-aggregate body? If they cannot obtain a five-aggregate body, then all Arhats would become fixed-nature Arhats, with no non-fixed-nature Arhats or Arhats who turn from the Hinayana to the Mahayana. In that case, wouldn’t the Mahayana teachings that the World-Honored One specifically expounded to Arhats before they entered Nirvana become pointless? Yet, the immeasurable great wisdom of the World-Honored One has always ensured that efforts are never in vain; whatever is spoken and intended will inevitably come to fruition.

If one does not acknowledge the existence of the Manas, claiming that the Manas is merely the sixth consciousness and that the Manas does not exist, then when contemplating the five aggregates and the eighteen realms, one would be unable to observe the Manas among the six sense faculties, observing only the five faculties. One would be unable to contemplate the twelve sense bases, observing only eleven. One would be unable to contemplate the eighteen realms, observing only seventeen. Such incomplete contemplation cannot eradicate the view that the Manas is the self. How then could one sever the view of self? The Manas is one of the six sense faculties, possessing the functions of both a faculty and a consciousness. Denying the existence of the Manas renders the contemplative practice incomplete and prevents liberation.

How great must the misunderstandings be among those who casually claim to have attained the four dhyānas or to have realized the fourth fruition? Sentient beings, burdened by heavy self-conceit, always tend to overestimate themselves and elevate themselves, never willing to examine themselves honestly or evaluate themselves realistically. Consequently, the world is filled with so-called saints, fragmenting Buddhism and disrupting the doctrinal order, leaving sentient beings without reliable guidance and unable to discern the truth of the Dharma. In the Dharma-Ending Age, the karmic obstructions of sentient beings are so severe—how could there possibly be so many saints abiding in the world? May the wise reflect deeply, contemplate carefully, and make skillful discernments, not merely following the crowd!