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—serene and cool. Ignorance is the fundamental and primary cause of birth-and-death and saṃsāra; if ignorance is not extinguished, the mental formations continue unbroken, craving within the three realms continues unbroken, and the suffering of birth-and-death continues unbroken. Yet 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 cling to birth-and-death without end. When sentient beings do not wish to awaken, even if the Buddha comes, He cannot save them.