Why Reading All the Scriptures Might Still Only Make You a Pebble?

**Summary:** Humility within the Dharma allows us to recognize our smallness within the vast ocean of wisdom. Four common traps can help you reflect on your own path of practice.

Have you ever thought: "I have read all the scriptures, I have a PhD in Buddhist Studies, I understand the teachings better than anyone"? If so, please read on. In a dharma talk, Venerable Thich Chan Quang highlighted a type of humility that is supremely important—humility within the Dharma—which even many long-term practitioners fail to recognize.

**Humility in Conduct and Humility in the Dharma**

We often know about humility in social interactions: being courteous to everyone, respecting the less fortunate, honoring our elders. That is moral conduct. However, the Venerable emphasizes: "Humility within the Dharma means clearly recognizing one's own limitations in understanding and practice."

"Humility within the Dharma means clearly recognizing one's limitations, that is, what is still lacking, weak, incomplete, or inadequate in one's understanding and practice."

Understanding refers to the ability to comprehend the teachings; practice refers to the actual application and results of our cultivation. We may be outwardly modest but deep down believe we have mastered everything. Such a person has not achieved humility within the Dharma.

**Four Traps that Rob Us of Dharma Humility**

The Venerable points out four causes that make us believe we already know, have already practiced, have already attained:

1. **Believing we have fully understood the teachings:** Having read all the texts, understanding many traditions, earning a PhD—but "compared to the wisdom of the Bodhisattvas, we are merely a tiny, clipped fingernail." 2. **Believing we have accumulated great merit:** Making offerings, reciting mantras, entering long retreats, guiding seventy families to Buddhism—and feeling superior. At that very moment, our blessings from merit become limited. 3. **Believing we have attained realization:** Having some spiritual transformation or supernatural powers, imagining we have reached a saintly fruition. Yet "even if we dedicate fifty years of continuous practice... in reality, we are still only a small pebble at the foot of a vast mountain." 4. **Not recognizing the Buddha's blessings:** Accomplishing great things while forgetting that the Buddha is always silently watching and protecting. "When we succeed but do not understand that a large part is the blessing of the Three Jewels, then we lack humility within the Dharma."

**The Subtlety of Karma: Why Harvesting Honey Can Also Be Stealing**

To see our limitations clearly, the Venerable tells a story: A man complained to him about being robbed. The Venerable said to comfort: "What is gone replaces a person," but thought to himself: "Who told you to steal in a past life!" Yet karma is not that simple. Sometimes, in a past life, we merely harvested honeycombs, using fire to get the honey. The honey might only be worth a few tens of thousands, but to the entire hive, it is their entire fortune. We took eighty thousand, and in a future life, we lose our entire inheritance. "We didn't think taking honey was stealing, but it was an outright robbery!"

"To us, it's just eighty thousand, but to a thousand bees, it's a whole fortune, their entire livelihood for a season."

Or consider cutting down a forest: thinking it's ownerless, but the forest belongs to the entire planet, to all living beings. Taking from the forest is stealing from all sentient beings, so in a future life, one is robbed throughout their life. Thus, karma is far more subtle than our simplistic understanding.

**Do Not Hastily Judge Greed**

The Venerable also speaks about holding money. Many think that anyone who holds money is greedy. But the treasurer of a temple holds money to serve the community, which is not greed. A person who has much wealth but uses it in accordance with the Dharma is also not greedy. Therefore, "within the Dharma, there are many very subtle points; we cannot draw one-sided conclusions."

"Is holding money always greed? Not necessarily. The important thing is not whether holding money is greed, but whether one spends it correctly—that is what makes it non-greed."

Even the Buddha's precepts are like this. He forbade monks from holding money not only to avoid greed, but also to avoid danger to their lives: knowing who keeps gold makes one a target for thieves.

**How to Cultivate Humility in the Dharma?**

The Venerable advises: Reflect on the deeds of the Bodhisattvas. They have journeyed through samsara for hundreds, thousands of lifetimes, enduring countless injuries and illnesses to spread wholesome teachings, yet they remain always humble, respectful, and never boastful. If we compare ourselves, we dare to admit our own shortcomings.

"Only those with wisdom and true understanding dare to dedicate great effort yet still think themselves inadequate." And the most difficult thing is: after thirty years of sitting in meditation, reciting the Buddha's name, and practicing, still feeling we are nothing. Only through this can we make great progress over lifetimes.

**Conclusion:** Please do not become complacent because of your learning. Always maintain humility within the Dharma, for the ocean of the Buddha's teachings is vast, and we are still only a small pebble. Yet, it is precisely this humility that forms the foundation for progressing towards the ultimate fruition.