Decoding the Eighth Samantabhadra Practice: Why Even the Enlightened Must Continue Studying with the Buddha

Do you remember your school days, when you once solved a math problem perfectly and got a full score? That feeling was wonderful, wasn't it? But were you certain you had fully understood everything your teacher taught? Or was it simply that this answer was right, at this moment only?

In his lecture on the Eighth Samantabhadra Practice, Venerable Thích Chân Quang skillfully used that image to open up a profound lesson: our confidence in Buddhism is often just a narrow perspective, and it is precisely this excessive self-confidence that quietly diminishes the sublime nature of the Buddha's teachings (Dharma).

Why must even an Arhat continue studying with the Buddha?

We often think that once one has attained enlightenment, a saint who has realized the truth has nothing left to learn. But Venerable Chân Quang pointed out an interesting truth: in the time of the Buddha, thousands of Arhats, together with monks who had not yet attained realization, always followed closely beside the Buddha. He taught: even those with nothing more to learn still need to study, and this study is not about acquiring knowledge, but about learning to see clearly what remains hidden within one's own mind/heart.

"The Arhats who have nothing left to learn no longer need to study anything. So why does the Samantabhadra Practice say that we should vow to constantly follow the Buddha in order to learn?"

Because according to the Buddha's teachings, there are extremely subtle roots of afflictions (kleshas) that only a Buddha can perceive. For example, the remaining five fetters of an Anagami: attachment to form, attachment to the formless, and even pride. Yes, a practitioner who has reached the level of Anagami may still harbor latent pride, a kind of excessive self-confidence so deep that even they themselves cannot see it.

Excessive self-confidence: the disease of the Dharma's decline

Venerable Chân Quang emphasized: remember these four words, "excessive self-confidence," deep in your heart. This disease slowly clings to us: when we have read only a few books, when we sit in meditation and feel a little calm, when we can give a few dharma talks, a confident mind/heart flares up and makes us believe we understand everything. In particular, patriarchs, dharma masters, and lecturers are the ones most prone to this error.

"Those smooth talkers speak so people will listen. They happen to speak well and happen to have conditions (dependent origination) with sentient beings, so wherever they speak, sentient beings listen. And sentient beings assume they are speaking correctly. But little do they know that all of them suffer from the same disease: excessive self-confidence."

This disease causes them to interpret the Buddha's words at ever-lower levels, and it spreads to the tens of thousands who follow their practice. This is precisely the reason the Buddha's teachings gradually decline in the age of the Dharma's ending. Sentient beings believe in tricks and healing incantations without cause and effect (karmic law), and we become ever more deceived by these self-assured teachers.

How much understanding of the Buddha's words is enough?

No one can understand one hundred percent of the Buddha's teachings. Venerable Chân Quang gave this analogy: someone who understands five percent already rushes to praise themselves as intelligent; one who understands thirty percent is called a returning bodhisattva; one who understands seventy percent is a great bodhisattva from another realm. And yet no one in this realm fully understands the Buddha's words. It is precisely because they believe they understand everything that patriarchs suddenly become frogs at the bottom of a well, using their own narrow understanding to judge the Buddha.

"No one can fully understand one hundred percent of what the Buddha taught. Each person understands only a portion. Some understand five percent and already go around proclaiming themselves intelligent, brilliant, wise, and supreme. One who understands thirty percent of the Buddha's teachings we would call a returning bodhisattva."

When we have not yet understood everything, it is difficult to be moved by the sublimity of the truth, and thus our reverence for the Buddha is not complete. This shows that to attain the deepest reverence, we must study endlessly, listen endlessly, and always humble ourselves before the sacred wisdom of the Buddha.

Non-self (anatta): the supreme goal from which practitioners easily stray

The Buddha once practiced with two ascetics, and he attained lofty states of meditative concentration along with boundless supernatural powers. But he asked: "In this concentration, does the self still exist?" The two could not answer. The Buddha walked away, because he believed that as long as the self remains, it is not yet the absolute. Afterwards, he practiced austerity for six years and entered concentration for forty-nine days to cut off the self completely, only then entering perfect enlightenment. Yet many patriarchs who came later, despite partial realization, turned around and interpreted the doctrine in a direction that still preserved the self, turning the Buddha's teachings one hundred and eighty degrees, so that fewer and fewer people practiced and realized the truth.

"Even practicing to the level of those immortals, those two ascetics with such lofty supernatural powers, they still could not conceive what non-self (anatta) is. Only the wisdom of a future Buddha could understand that this path had not yet reached non-self (anatta)."

Therefore, even though we have not yet realized anything, if we engrave the goal of non-self (anatta) deep in our hearts, then we are truly faithful children of the Buddha. Listen to teachers' lectures as reference, but always keep the orientation toward non-self (anatta) firmly in your heart, and you will not go astray.

The branch office of the self: a noble trap

Venerable Chân Quang used the image of "the branch office of the self" to describe the center of thought in our heads. When a practitioner's meditative concentration progresses, that center may collapse, and the person enters a state of great awakening, seeing the mind/heart as empty, with no remaining "I." But the self has not disappeared; it controls from afar, like a company operating through the cloud without needing a physical office. At that moment, excessive self-confidence reaches its peak, and it is precisely the fetter of pride that only a Buddha can see.

"The branch office is gone, but what about the demon king? He still laughs arrogantly, able to control the entire mind/heart of sentient beings. There is no need to see the office anywhere at all."

This is why Bodhisattva Samantabhadra warned: no matter what level anyone attains, they must "constantly follow the Buddha to study." It is precisely knowing that we do not yet understand that keeps us humble enough to keep learning.

A daily vow: Constantly following the Buddha to study

If today we are still ordinary beings who have realized nothing, let us recite the ten Samantabhadra practices every day, especially the eighth: constantly following the Buddha to study. Then one day, at the moment of enlightenment, that vow will keep us from excessive self-confidence and from straying from the determination toward non-self (anatta). So today, practicing this vow is planting the heart of a truthful child before the World-Honored One.

Finally, every morning when we wake, let us silently vow: "I will always follow the Buddha and study, whether the road is long or short." In this way, we will never feel we have had enough, will never fall into the disease of excessive self-confidence, and will always remain worthy students of the Buddha.