The Fundamental Purpose of Buddhist Practice and Realization Is Liberation from the Bondage of All Dharmas

The entire process of our Buddhist practice and cultivation—from ordinary being to becoming a Buddha—is the process of continuously realizing that all these dharmas are not real, that they are all illusory transformations, all shadows, all dreams, all without self. In the end, when all the Buddha-dharma has been realized, it is exactly like this: all dharmas are unreal, none of them is the self. At that time we awaken from this great dream of birth and death, and only then is there complete liberation; at that time one becomes a Buddha and no longer needs to cultivate. Therefore, the process of cultivation is the process of continuously changing one's own cognition—the deluded mind of ignorance that takes all dharmas as real. In the course of cultivating the Path, we gradually change it, until in the end we recognize that all these dharmas are not real, and finally we fully realize that it is indeed so, that none of them is real. Then all the mental activities are transformed, becoming a mind without defilement, without delusion and ignorance; the seventh consciousness completely transforms consciousness into wisdom, and one becomes a Buddha. Such is the process of studying Buddhism and cultivating practice.

In this process, one's own mind continuously breaks free from the bondage of dharmas, continuously liberates itself from the fetters of dharmas, and becomes ever more at ease. The reason ordinary beings cannot attain liberation and ease is that they take the false as real, regarding the shadows conjured up by these illusory appearances of the three realms' worldly existence as real; they grasp at them and engage in activities within them, and then are bound and constrained by karmic actions, so the mind cannot attain liberation and ease. They suffer through birth and death again and again within these three realms. Cultivation is precisely the breaking of these ignorances, so that we no longer take the false as real, breaking through all marks. Such is the principle, and it does not look difficult; yet the actual process of cultivation is extremely long, because the manas has too much and too heavy ignorance, and the attachment to self and attachment to dharmas are also very heavy. Therefore, the time needed to break through ignorance is extremely, extremely long.