Commentary on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (200)

What is the reason we are bound and entangled by the myriad dharmas?

It is not that the myriad dharmas insist on binding us, but rather that we insist on grasping and craving them; therefore the mind cannot separate itself from the myriad dharmas. For example, if the mind craves money, one ends up bound and entangled by money and possessions for an entire lifetime, unable to escape from them, transmigrating life after life within the realms of the six sense objects. If we do not grasp at the myriad dharmas, the myriad dharmas cannot bind us, because the myriad dharmas have no mind that actively seeks to bind us. Material form has no mind wishing us to crave it, and money has no mind seeking to bind us; rather, our own mind insists on pursuing and grasping, and as a result we become bound. Forms, sounds, scents, tastes, and tangibles all have no mind of their own, yet we have minds that crave and seek them. So how can one attain liberation? By correctly understanding the arising, ceasing, changing, and selfless nature of the myriad dharmas—not seeking, not craving, not chasing, not clinging—when the mind no longer grasps, liberation is attained.