Afflictions and diseases are both illusions created by the mind.

If we carefully contemplate the illusory nature of our mind consciousness, and attentively observe the arising-and-ceasing, illusory nature of all dharmas in the world, our mind will lessen its clinging 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 karmic retribution of past-life actions, and the other is that they are conjured up by afflictions and deluded thoughts in this present life. Sentient beings always create suffering for themselves. When the principle is understood, the mind has no afflictions; when the principle is not understood, there are layers upon layers of afflictions and immeasurable suffering—all self-inflicted, given by no one else. All illnesses are illusory and conjured; they have no place of origin, and when they cease, they have no place of cessation, because they are illusory. Once these principles are thoroughly understood, one can cure a hundred illnesses—no physiological doctors or psychological doctors are needed at all, for all disease-obstacles arise illusorily and cease illusorily. Once the Buddha-dharma is understood, all dharmas are understood; if one studies the Buddha-dharma well, all worldly dharmas are completely understood.

The physical illnesses and mental illnesses of worldly people, all the afflictions within the family, the afflictions 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, and 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 the external material sense-objects are so vexing, insisting on coming to disturb our mind; rather, 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 or rejecting them, and as a result we are stuck to the sense objects. We originally wanted to grasp the objects, but instead we were seized by them. The five desires and six sense objects have bound us to suffer poverty and the suffering of saṃsāra life after life; in this way we are bound by all dharmas within the six paths of rebirth, bound within this ocean of saṃsāra and karma of afflictions.