The Goal of Practice and the Essence of Precepts, Concentration, and Wisdom

The purpose of practice should not be fixated on the fruits of realization; those fruits are merely by-products. Take as your goal the subduing of afflictions and the removal of ignorance, the attainment of great and boundless wisdom, and the salvation of sentient beings—with such a goal, it is pure and free of obstruction.

The essence of precepts, meditative concentration (samādhi), and wisdom is a mind of precepts and a mind of concentration, so that wisdom arises from the mind. Precepts mean abstaining from afflictions, abstaining from the self-nature, and abstaining from obstructions—this is the fundamental function of precepts. Only by abstaining from obstructions and keeping the mind from producing wrongdoing can there be concentration, with deep and thorough deliberation (manasikāra), from which wisdom is thereby aroused.