Commentary on the Sutra of the Compendium of Father and Son (200)

What is the reason we are bound by all phenomena?

It is not that phenomena insist on binding us, but rather that we insist on clinging to and craving them, thus preventing our minds from separating from phenomena. For example, if the mind craves wealth, one becomes bound by money and material possessions throughout life, unable to escape them, and drifts through rebirth after rebirth within the realms of the six dusts. If we do not cling to phenomena, phenomena cannot bind us, because phenomena have no intention to actively bind our minds. Material objects have no mind that seeks to make us attached to them; money has no intention to bind us. Instead, it is our own minds that insist on pursuing and clinging, resulting in bondage. Material objects, sounds, scents, tastes, and tactile sensations have no mind, yet we possess a craving mind. How then can we attain liberation? By correctly understanding the impermanent, changing, and selfless nature of all phenomena—neither seeking, nor coveting, nor pursuing, nor clinging—the mind, free from attachment, attains liberation.