Intuitive Enlightenment Is True Enlightenment

Jobs said to believe in your intuition, which transcends thought and allows you to see what thought cannot perceive. The intuition Jobs referred to is the awareness of manas (the thinking faculty), while thought is the awareness of consciousness. The dharmas (phenomena) that consciousness can perceive are limited, whereas the awareness of manas is limitless. Consciousness cannot perceive many of the dharmas that manas can perceive.

Why is the awareness of manas called intuition? Because manas, relying on the Tathagatagarbha (Buddha-nature), can directly know all dharmas. Consciousness, however, must depend on manas to know dharmas; its knowing is indirect. As expressed in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, manas silently encompasses all dharmas; it can rapidly connect with any dharma. The degree to which it knows the dharma is another matter. Therefore, the awareness of manas is extremely fast; it directly confronts the dharma and rapidly discerns it. It knows or it doesn't know, without the analysis and reasoning of consciousness, for consciousness has not yet arisen at this stage. Once a dharma falls into consciousness, it inevitably involves thinking, analyzing, reasoning, and judging, which is a long detour. The result is often inauthentic because it contains elements of inference and conjecture, not immediate seeing and knowing.

In the past, when Chan masters guided students toward enlightenment, if a student rolled their eyes and scratched their head in thought upon being questioned, the master would immediately strike them with a board, saying: "If you understand, you understand. What is there to think about?" Chan masters guided students to intuitively realize the Way, without falling into thought. Upon questioning, one realizes it or doesn't; thinking within consciousness was not permitted. If a Chan master guided you toward enlightenment and you pondered and pondered, you should have been struck with a stick and sent home the moment you began pondering. Who allowed you to ponder over and over? Yet nowadays, some people take hours or even days of pondering to achieve "enlightenment," making the result even less credible. The answer might be correct through pondering, but even if correct, it's still not genuine because it was produced by consciousness, not directly seen, not witnessed firsthand by manas.

If interrogating someone about whether they know something, if that person hesitates, thinks and thinks again, and doesn't answer directly, then their words are unreliable; the thinking involved contains elements of concealment and falsification. For example, if you think, analyze, reason, imagine, and ponder the appearance of Beijing, and finally conclude what Beijing is like, congratulations if you got it right—Beijing is roughly like that. But because you have never been to Beijing, you are not someone who has seen Beijing firsthand. Only those who have been to Beijing and entered the city have seen it firsthand. They can describe Beijing's appearance truthfully, meticulously, and with great certainty, leaving no room for doubt. This is equivalent to cutting off the three fetters (self-identity view, doubt, and clinging to rites and rituals) upon severing the view of self, eliminating doubt and having no uncertainty. Those who have never been to Beijing, no matter how they describe its appearance, will feel unsettled inside, lacking confidence, unable to be 100% certain. This is equivalent to the intellectual understanding (解悟) of consciousness, which cannot cut off the three fetters and is unable to eliminate doubt and generate true faith.

Only when you have silently done sufficient work behind the scenes and are just a hair's breadth away can a Chan master guide you to enlightenment and realization of the Way. It happens naturally, like water flowing to form a channel, utterly genuine and without the slightest pretense or falsity. Or, if only the right opportunity and timing are lacking, then the Chan master will observe you, pay attention to your state, and see if the time has come. When the time arrives, they will give you the opportunity to enter realization. If they observe that you are still far from ready, the Chan master absolutely will not step in to guide you. Yet nowadays, when students are still tens of thousands of miles away from enlightenment, they are forcibly dragged forward with iron hooks. The result is like pulling up a radish—pulled out alive and killed. The karmic retribution in future lives is extremely terrifying.