What Is the Dharma-Discriminating Eye?

The second of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment is the enlightenment factor of discernment. When one cultivates to this stage, one attains the discernment eye, enabling one to know whether the Dharma one encounters is correct and whether the Dharma teachers one meets are genuinely accomplished. Only then can one make correct choices and avoid going astray. This is the awareness one must possess before attaining fruition and enlightenment; otherwise, one cannot attain fruition, achieve enlightenment, or realize the Way.

Before cultivating to the point of possessing the enlightenment factor of discernment and attaining the discernment eye, one’s practice lacks strength, and one is deficient in merit, meditative concentration, and wisdom. One does not know whether a teacher possesses wisdom or the extent of that wisdom, nor can one distinguish right from wrong, orthodox from heterodox in the Dharma. With a confused and unawakened mind, one fails to learn when encountering the true Dharma and fails to avoid when encountering false teachings, thus preventing the attainment of correct knowledge and views. Some who lack the discernment eye do not eliminate the covering of doubt, doubting both the Dharma and the teacher, unable to ascertain either. Such practice cannot progress or succeed. A heavy burden of doubt is not a wholesome state; it arises from a deficiency in merit. Only when one possesses the ability to discern can doubt be eliminated, allowing one’s spiritual path to advance.

Only after truly mastering the Consciousness-Only doctrine can one reach the level of Bodhisattva Maitreya. This is by no means an overnight achievement. At the very least, one must realize the eighth consciousness. Subsequently, one must combine this with the cultivation and realization of meditative absorption, eliminate afflictions, eradicate habitual tendencies, and gradually realize all dharmas, thereby exhausting ignorance. All dharmas in the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra require experiential realization. If the foundational dharmas are not realized, the dharmas of the next level cannot be realized, and those of the level beyond that are even further out of reach.

Therefore, in studying Consciousness-Only, one must resolve to develop the great mind to realize the true nature of mind, tread the Bodhisattva path diligently, and perfect the six perfections of bodhisattvas in both inner and outer paths. One must vow to become a great-hearted bodhisattva who can truly benefit sentient beings. Only then, with the support of the Buddha’s power, can one complete the study of Consciousness-Only and reach the fruition stage of the Wonderful Enlightenment Bodhisattva, awaiting only Buddhahood. Studying Buddhism is not merely about learning theory; it also involves learning the Buddha’s pure and great vows, cultivating the Buddha’s compassionate, joyful, and equanimous heart toward sentient beings, practicing the Buddha’s precepts, meditative concentration, and wisdom, and mastering the Buddha’s profound meditative absorption. Only by learning and embodying all the virtues possessed by the Buddha can we ourselves become Buddhas.