Do Not Let Go of the Way Before Awakening

There are times when study does not open well, or when we have not yet fulfilled the Way. At such times, the thing to be most careful about is the mind that believes it already knows when it does not yet know correctly.

If we have not awakened correctly, it is easy to grasp falsehood as truth. Like insisting that a deer is a horse, or claiming that a shadow is real, we may come to treat an illness as the Dharma. This is very dangerous both in practice and in life.

Especially when the mind grows strong with thoughts such as, 'I know,' 'I have awakened,' or 'Now I too have something to reveal,' study can easily go astray. The mind that wants to put the self forward covers truth and mistakes brief satisfaction for happiness.

That is why, until complete awakening, we must not let go of the Way even for a moment. We need the mind that sees not knowing as not knowing, examines what is cloudy as cloudy, and humbly studies again.

Today, when certainty rises first in the mind, pause once. Examine whether what you are holding is truth, or a mark made by desire. True happiness does not come from holding falsehood; it comes closer through honest study that remembers the Way to the end.