Both afflictions and illnesses are manifested by the mind

By carefully contemplating the illusory nature of our mind consciousness, and by attentively observing the arising, ceasing, and illusory nature of all dharmas in the world, the mind will engage in less grasping and have fewer fantasies and random thoughts. People's mental illnesses will decrease, nervous exhaustion and insomnia will be alleviated, and all kinds of ailments will be reduced. Where do illnesses come from? One source is the retribution of karmic actions from past lives; the other is that they are imagined into being by afflictions and delusive thoughts in this life. Sentient beings always seek out suffering for themselves. When the principles are understood, the mind has no afflictions; when the principles are not understood, afflictions abound and suffering is boundless—all self-inflicted, given by no one else. All illnesses are illusory and conjured; they have no place of arising, and when an illness ceases, there is no place of cessation, because they are illusory. Once these principles are thoroughly understood, all diseases can be cured—no physiological doctors or psychological doctors are needed at all; all obstacles of illness arise illusorily and cease illusorily. Once the Buddha-dharma is understood, all dharmas are understood. By studying the Buddha-dharma well, all worldly dharmas are completely understood.

The illnesses of the body, the illnesses of the mind, all the afflictions within the family, the troubles of work and career—all such things are the result of being entangled by one's own ignorance and karmic obstructions. Those who have not studied Buddhism do not understand these principles; those who have studied Buddhism but have not yet studied it thoroughly, who have not engaged in deep and detailed contemplation and contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), are still obscured by their own ignorance. To truly understand the truths of the world, one must first understand oneself; thereafter, all dharmas will be understood. Therefore, when worldly dharmas are not understood, it is because the mind has knots and bonds; what needs to be untied is one's own mental knots, not the resolution of external circumstances.

We should not complain that external material sense-objects are so troubling that they insist on disturbing our mind. Instead, we should reflect on why our mind is attracted by external forms and seized by them. Why must we stick to external objects? Is it that external objects want to bind us and stick to us? No—it is that our own mind insists on grasping at them or rejecting them, and as a result, we become stuck to the objects. We originally wanted to grasp at objects, but instead we were seized by them. The five desires and six sense-objects have bound us to endure the suffering of poverty and the suffering of saṃsāra, life after life. In this way, we are bound by all dharmas within the six realms of rebirth, bound in this ocean of afflictions and birth-and-death.