Cultivation Is About Transforming the Mind

The mind is the master of afflictions, the master of cyclic existence, the master of birth and death, and the root of all phenomena. Only by resolving the problem of the mind can all problems be resolved. The Buddha taught in the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination that the root of birth and death lies in the ignorance of the mind. Due to the ignorance of the mental faculty, suffering arises in the realm of the five aggregates. Spiritual practice aims to eradicate the ignorance and defilements of the mental faculty. Only when defilements are eliminated and ignorance is extinguished can the suffering of birth and death be brought to an end. Therefore, spiritual practice is fundamentally the cultivation of the mind—it is about understanding the mind and transforming it. There is no other way.

If the purpose of spiritual practice is not to transform the mind, then what is being cultivated? If the very aim of practice remains unclear, how can one speak of genuine cultivation? If the root cause of birth and death is not understood, how can one seize the thief of afflictions—birth and death—and attain liberation?