Commentary on the *Pitāputra Samāgama Sūtra* (176)

It is not the form that deludes people; people delude themselves. Remove ignorance, and all phenomena are understood.

By carefully contemplating the illusory nature of our consciousness and meticulously observing the arising, ceasing, and illusory nature of all phenomena in the world, the mind will reduce its grasping, and fantasies and scattered thoughts will diminish. Consequently, mental illnesses among people will decrease, neurasthenia and insomnia will lessen, and various ailments will subside. Where do diseases originate? One source is the karmic retribution from past actions, and the other is the afflictions and deluded thoughts generated in the present life. Sentient beings create their own suffering. When the principle is understood, the mind is free from afflictions; when the principle is not understood, afflictions multiply, suffering becomes immeasurable, and it is all self-inflicted, not given by others. All diseases are illusory and unreal—they have no origin, and when they cease, they have no place of cessation, for they are illusory. By thoroughly understanding these principles, one can cure all illnesses. No physicians—physical or psychological—are needed, as all disease obstacles arise and cease like illusions. When the Buddha Dharma is understood, all phenomena are understood. By mastering the Buddha Dharma, all worldly phenomena become clear.

Physical illnesses, mental illnesses, troubles in family life, work, and career—all such worldly sufferings—are the result of being entangled by one’s own ignorance and karmic obstacles. Those who have not studied the Dharma do not understand these principles; those who have studied the Dharma but have not yet comprehended it deeply, failing to engage in profound contemplation and observation, remain obscured by their own ignorance. To truly understand the truth of the world, one must first understand oneself; thereafter, all phenomena will become clear. Thus, when worldly phenomena remain unclear, it is because the mind is bound by knots and bonds. What needs to be untied are one’s own mental knots, not the resolution of external circumstances.

We should not complain that external forms are so troubling, insisting that they disturb our minds. Instead, we should reflect on why our minds are attracted to external forms, why they are seized by them. Why do we insist on clinging to external objects? Is it the external environment that seeks to bind us or cling to us? No, it is our own minds that insist on grasping or rejecting it, ending up being bound by it. Originally, we intended to grasp the environment, but instead, the environment grasps us. The five desires and six dusts bind us, causing us to suffer poverty and the pain of rebirth across countless lifetimes. In this way, we are bound by all phenomena within the six realms of rebirth, trapped in this vast ocean of afflictive birth and death.