What Does Cultivation Cultivate?

In the end, does cultivation mean killing off the mind consciousness, or killing off the manas? Killing off the mind consciousness is the cause, and killing off the manas is the result. Although killing off the manas is the ultimate goal, the starting point must still begin with the mind consciousness. The mind consciousness dies every night, and the mind consciousness of a person in a vegetative state is also more or less dead the whole time, yet in future lives they still cannot avoid the three evil paths, let alone the cycle of the six paths of rebirth. What does this show? It shows that the great authority over birth and death is held in the hands of the manas. Therefore, cultivation must be carried out at the manas—understand the manas, subdue the manas, and eradicate the ignorance of the manas. How exactly should one go about extinguishing the ignorance of the manas? Ignorance gives rise to all the afflictive mental factors (caittas). So whose mental factors are the afflictive mental factors mainly? The ignorance of the manas leads to the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death—which afflictive mental factor does the manas not possess in full? If the manas did not possess all the afflictive mental factors, would cultivation not be easy and pleasant?

Some people insist that the manas is neither wholesome nor unwholesome. If that were so, would we still need to cultivate? Cultivation means eliminating ignorance and unwholesome dharmas and perfecting wholesome dharmas. If the manas possessed only dharmas that are neither wholesome nor unwholesome, sentient beings would not need to cultivate at all. The tathāgatagarbha is neither wholesome nor unwholesome, and so the tathāgatagarbha never cultivates and does not need to cultivate at all. What would it cultivate, and what would He need to correct? He has no ignorance, no evil, and nothing false. If the tathāgatagarbha were to cultivate, it would probably cultivate wrongly and go astray. Both wholesomeness and unwholesomeness are ignorance; that which has ignorance must be wholesome and unwholesome. The tathāgatagarbha has no ignorance, and so He creates neither wholesome karma nor unwholesome karma—He responds according to conditions without employing the mind. Only with ignorance does there arise a mind of anger, and only then does one give rise to the intent to create the karma of killing; only with ignorance is there foolish delusion, and only then does one create the karma of killing.