Pitfall One: Some people engage extensively in study and contemplation, but do not practice at all.
They neither enjoy practice nor know how to put it into practice. After acquiring conceptual understandings of renunciation, bodhicitta, and emptiness, they leave them merely at the level of words and thoughts.
There are many people like this! I have met many doctoral and master's students who studied for ten or even twenty years. Eventually, they simply could not continue. They had accumulated a great many concepts, yet their body and mind had no real experience whatsoever. If this continues, they gradually become either scholars or mere intellectual adherents of Buddhist doctrines. In the end, because they do not practice, their concepts are unable to direct the mind, and they begin to develop doubts or become lax in their efforts, eventually turning into complacent Dharma practitioners. This is one of the major pitfalls: understanding theory without practice.
So how should one practice? After reading the relevant texts, one should contemplate them in detail. At the same time, one should engage in deep reflection during formal meditation, and after rising from meditation, continue to familiarize oneself with these teachings in daily life.
How do we familiarize ourselves with them in daily life? We should constantly remind ourselves to benefit others. For example, when we hurt someone around us, we should immediately remind ourselves that harming others is wrong and that it violates the altruistic principle of bodhicitta. Only through repeatedly familiarizing ourselves in this way can genuine bodhicitta arise. Otherwise, bodhicitta will forever remain nothing more than a concept.
If our minds do not become pliable, we will never know what a pliable mind feels like. Then we will be unable to genuinely abide in that state as a bodhisattva, and we will not be able to enter the Path of Accumulation (the five paths of practice are: the Path of Accumulation, the Path of Preparation, the Path of Seeing, the Path of Meditation, and the Path of No-More-Learning). Upon entering the Path of Accumulation, one becomes a genuine bodhisattva. The mind can then frequently abide in the state of bodhicitta and experience its taste. Without training in this way, it is impossible to become a true bodhisattva.
Yet many people only read books. After reading them, they never put them into practice. They do not practice during meditation sessions, nor do they familiarize themselves with the teachings in daily life. After ten or twenty years, they still do not believe in the Buddha dharma. Among them are many highly intelligent people—master’s students, doctoral students, the so-called elites of humanity. This is truly very sad.
—— Excerpted and compiled from The Relationship Between Buddhist Theory and Practice
This article is a preliminary translation draft and has not yet been reviewed or proofread by the speaker.
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