 But Sapaṇ’s critique is not merely a matter of overly literal numeric quibbles in the application of metaphors. In the Three Vows it is primarily a critique of the claim that a single practice can be causally effective, when in fact all attainments depend upon multiple causes. In the Sage’s Intent Sapaṇ is expansive and detailed in his rejection of many, specific errors. He criticizes the practice’s adherents’ notion of resting in the mind as “original, unaltered and relaxed” (D. Jackson 2015: 492ff). If the mind were simply enlightened in its “unaltered” state, he writes, then the Buddha would never have needed to teach the dharma. Such an ideal, he says, is similar to the non-Mahāyāna traditions of Disciples and Solitary Buddhas, or even simple ignorance. It cannot be a Mahāyāna path, he writes, if it fails to generate compassion and wisdom. He points out that study is necessary to understand the proper target of a meditation on emptiness. If the Mahāmudrā is attempted without prior cultivation of merit and wisdom, he says, there is no way that simply saying “I will meditatively cultivate non-conceptualization” could be effective.