How to Be Free from Suffering

In the course of cultivation, the ignorance of the manas is extinguished bit by bit, afflictions are extinguished, self-grasping is extinguished; when the manas has no mind toward the three realms, the dharmas of the three realms will be extinguished, and finally the manas must cease, entering nirvāṇa without remainder (anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa), tranquil and cool. Ignorance is the fundamental and primary cause of birth-and-death and saṃsāra; if ignorance is not extinguished, the mental formations do not cease, craving within the three realms does not cease, and the suffering of birth-and-death does not cease. However, sentient beings have become accustomed to the suffering of birth-and-death—like one who has long dwelt in a latrine pit and no longer notices the stench—they do not feel that birth-and-death is a great suffering, do not feel that there is great suffering within birth-and-death, and remain deeply attached to birth-and-death. When sentient beings do not wish to awaken, even if the Buddha comes, He cannot save them.