What Are Gradual Cultivation and Sudden Enlightenment?

Before sudden enlightenment, there must be a process of gradual cultivation, which differs fundamentally from the gradual cultivation after enlightenment. The gradual cultivation before sudden enlightenment involves practicing the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment and the six perfections of a bodhisattva, cultivating precepts, concentration, and wisdom, and fully developing the four wholesome roots—heat, summit, acceptance, and supreme worldly dharma—to attain sudden enlightenment in the teachings of both the Mahayana and Hinayana vehicles. This principle can be clarified through an analogy. For instance, to fell an ancient tree with a thick trunk, one must use tools to saw through the trunk bit by bit. This process resembles gradual cultivation, while the moment the tree finally falls corresponds to sudden enlightenment. Thus, without gradual cultivation, there can be no sudden enlightenment.

The processing after felling the tree—such as stripping the bark, cutting it into planks, sanding, polishing, waxing, and painting—is analogous to gradual cultivation after enlightenment. Finally, assembling the planks into pleasing furniture or crafts corresponds to the ultimate sudden enlightenment and Buddhahood. Felling the ancient tree is arduous and demanding, requiring patience, endurance, physical strength, sharp tools, and exceptional skill, which parallels the provisions needed for realizing the path. Without sufficient provisions, one cannot attain realization. Some practitioners withdraw, fall behind, or stagnate along the way, while others turn back entirely. On this path of practice, the number of practitioners dwindles over time. Though thousands may initially set out, few persevere, and even fewer attain the way. Thus, sages are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns—exceedingly precious and seldom encountered. When met, they should be cherished.

Some conflate gradual cultivation before enlightenment with that after enlightenment, claiming there is no gradual practice before enlightenment and that cultivation begins only after enlightenment. However, sudden enlightenment without gradual cultivation does not even constitute genuine understanding; it is mere intellectual understanding and emotional conjecture, devoid of any merit or practical benefit—unless one is a highly advanced bodhisattva with profound foundations from past lives, capable of directly attaining sudden enlightenment. Gradual cultivation before enlightenment is precisely the process of transforming an ordinary mind into a sage’s mind, a complete metamorphosis, like a carp undergoing change before leaping over the Dragon Gate. Without this process, how can transformation occur? Therefore, to discern whether someone has genuinely attained enlightenment, observe their mind and character, their very bones—not superficial charm, eloquence, or grandiloquence. The essence is paramount.

Gradual cultivation gradually aligns one’s body and mind with those of sages and saints. Only upon meeting the standards of sages and saints can one suddenly realize the path. This is the process of refining the mind. If the mind remains unchanged, lacking the conduct of a sage, one cannot become a sage. Thus, gradual cultivation is crucial—it is the key step in generating wisdom attained through cultivation. Before this, one possesses only wisdom from hearing and reflection, which is shallow and insufficient to withstand karmic obstacles of birth and death. Only when wisdom attained through cultivation is complete can wisdom attained through realization arise, enabling liberation from the three lower realms, severing afflictions, and transcending the suffering of samsara.