Commentary on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (176)

Form does not delude people; people delude themselves. When ignorance is removed, all dharmas become clear.

If we carefully contemplate the illusory nature of our own mind consciousness, and attentively observe the arising, ceasing, and illusory nature of all dharmas in the world, our minds will engage in less grasping and seeking, with 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 conjured up by afflictions and delusive thoughts in this present 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, there are layers upon layers of afflictions and boundless suffering—all self-inflicted, given by no one else. All illnesses are illusory and conjured; they have no place of arising, and when they cease, they have no place of ceasing, because they are illusory. Once these principles are thoroughly understood, one can cure a hundred illnesses—no need for any physician of the body or physician of the mind at all; all disease-obstructions arise illusorily and cease illusorily. Once the Buddhadharma is understood, all dharmas are understood. Study the Buddhadharma well, and all worldly dharmas will be completely understood.

The physical illnesses of worldly people, their psychological illnesses, 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 comprehend the truths of the world, one must first understand oneself; thereafter, all dharmas will become clear. 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 troubling, insisting on coming to disturb our minds. Rather, we should reflect on why our minds are attracted by external forms and seized by external forms. Why must we stick to external objects? Is it that external objects want to bind us and glue themselves to us? No—it is our own minds that insist on grasping at them or rejecting them, and as a result we are stuck to the sense objects. We originally wanted to seize the sense objects, but instead we were seized by them. The five desires and six sense-objects have bound us to suffer the misery 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 afflictive birth-and-death.