Why Observe the Mind When Studying Buddhism

Those who do not know how to observe the mind, cannot observe the mind, or are incapable of observing the mind will fail to awaken to their own mind. Without awakening to their own mind, they cannot transform it. Many who study Buddhism allow their minds to drift freely, indulging their afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, and yielding to their self-nature. They have never considered that they possess evil minds or unwholesome mental states, and thus have never contemplated changing themselves. Consequently, they do not constantly oppose themselves, oppose their habitual tendencies of affliction, or oppose their ignorance and delusion. They fail to realize that yielding to their self-mind and self-nature is yielding to the cycle of birth and death, yielding to the three evil realms, and yielding to karmic suffering.

Revolt—against whom? It is a revolt against oneself, against the manas (the root consciousness). Only then can one attain liberation and great freedom. Yet many people spend their days revolting against others, striving to change others to conform to their own self-nature and satisfy their selfish desires and greed. Such individuals are deeply entrenched in ignorance. Those who cannot observe the mind are invariably burdened by severe afflictions and habitual tendencies, dominated by self-nature, and characterized by arrogance and conceit. How could the manas, the deepest layer of the mind, awaken and attain liberation and freedom when even their surface consciousness remains unawakened?

Most people, before encountering the Dharma, are lost and unawakened within. Even after encountering the Dharma, they remain just as lost and unawakened. They grasp external phenomena as their own possessions, tools for their use, thereby strengthening self-view and arrogance. They resort to base means to achieve personal desires and gains, yet grandly consider themselves to be practicing, skillful, intelligent, and talented. They never engage in introspection. After studying the Dharma, they use Buddhist knowledge as a disguise to bolster and inflate the self—a profound delusion they remain unaware of.