Consciousness-Attained Fruition Remains a Fettered Ordinary Being

Attaining the fruit through consciousness is extremely swift and convenient, requiring little cost, no mental exertion or effort in meditation, and most importantly, no cultivation of meditative concentration. This is simply too easy. The hurdle of meditative concentration is the most difficult to overcome—it is particularly arduous, time-consuming, and requires enduring the pain of prolonged sitting, which delays many worldly affairs. Attaining the fruit through consciousness requires little observance of precepts; even the Three Refuges and Five Precepts can be waived. The most troublesome Thirty-seven Aids to Enlightenment need not be cultivated, saving an immense amount of time and energy. One's merit and virtue need not be particularly good; the first five of the Six Perfections can be waived. It is simply too convenient. One only needs to use consciousness to study theoretical knowledge, then engage in thinking, understanding, analyzing, speculating, reasoning, integrating, and summarizing. These operations do not require great concentration, nor are they mentally taxing or exhausting. These tasks are like the daily routine of a minor secretary, manageable even for those of average intelligence.

How cheap it is to attain the fruit this way! It requires little cost, offers a wealth of theoretical knowledge to attract attention and win admiration, and avoids the need to abandon wife and children to leave home and cultivate the path. There’s no need to sever family ties or forsake worldly affections, nor does it disrupt one’s worldly career. One can still receive offerings from the public, become a Bodhisattva teacher, or even act as a supramundane monk to surpass ordained monks, thereby enjoying the benefits of both the monastic and lay life and maximizing worldly gains. With so many advantages to attaining the fruit through consciousness, who would be willing to give it up?

However, after attaining the fruit this way, one cannot eradicate even the slightest affliction and remains no different from an ordinary being bound by all fetters. Some make excuses, saying only the third and fourth fruits eradicate afflictions, while the first and second fruits still have them—this is not surprising. They claim that a Stream-enterer has just as many and just as heavy afflictions as an ordinary person, and this too is deemed unsurprising. If a Stream-enterer is said to be the same as an ordinary being bound by all fetters, then it means a Stream-enterer is essentially an ordinary being fully endowed with all afflictions—a Stream-enterer in name only, not in reality. How could such a person be considered a Stream-enterer who has severed the view of self? If Buddhism continues like this, how can it avoid extinction?

Although there are many heretical teachings and teachers in the world, those heretical doctrines are shallow and cannot destroy the fundamental essence of Buddhism or shake its foundation. For example, a certain teacher’s explanation of the Tathagatagarbha is utter nonsense, yet it cannot influence the mainstream development of Buddhism. The beings he guides have particularly shallow roots; no matter how much effort he expends to draw them out, they achieve nothing significant and pose no threat to Buddhism. Another example is dual cultivation—that is fundamentally an external path, extremely base and inferior. Anyone with a modicum of wisdom can recognize it and will not fall into it. Most who do fall in are those with heavy karmic obstructions and shallow roots of virtue. Even if great effort is made to rescue them, they cannot become influential; they cannot become the pillars of Buddhism. What can destroy Buddhism can never be external paths or their teachings; it always comes from within Buddhism itself. As the saying goes, “It is the worms within the lion’s body that devour its flesh.”

The foundation and focus of the Buddhadharma throughout the three periods—past, present, and future—lie in the critical link of attaining the fruits and realizing the mind and seeing its nature. As long as no major issues arise in this link, the future development of Buddhism will be stable and secure. Therefore, the fundamental Dharma of severing the view of self and realizing the mind and seeing its nature is not something anyone can teach casually. It must never be carelessly disseminated. If one recklessly harms the Dharma-body and wisdom-life of sentient beings, then even if one wishes to become a wild fox for five hundred lifetimes in the future, it would be a deluded fantasy—the resulting karmic retribution would be infinitely more severe. Protecting those who recklessly transmit the Dharma is equivalent to abetting evil, and the karmic retribution is also quite grave. Therefore, I respectfully urge everyone to deeply contemplate cause and effect, treat the Buddhadharma with utmost seriousness, and uphold a highly responsible attitude toward sentient beings and Buddhism.