The Practice of Cultivation Is to Transform the Mind

The mind is the master of delusion and karma, the mind is the master of saṃsāra, the mind is the master of birth and death, and the mind is the root of all dharmas. Only by resolving the problems of the mind can all problems be resolved. The Buddha taught us in the doctrine of the twelve links of dependent arising that the root of the cycle of birth and death is the ignorance of the mind. Because of the ignorance of the manas, there is the suffering of the five aggregates and the world. Cultivation is precisely to eliminate the ignorance and defilement of the manas; only when the defilement is removed and ignorance is completely severed can the suffering of birth and death be utterly extinguished. Therefore, cultivation is the cultivation of the mind—it is to know the mind and transform the mind. Apart from this, there is nothing else.

If the purpose of cultivation is not to transform the mind, then what is the cultivation for? If one is not even clear about the purpose of cultivation, how can one even speak of cultivation? If one does not even know from what cause birth and death arise, how can one seize the thieves of birth, death, and afflictions and attain liberation?