The Sequence of Cultivation

The elimination of habitual tendencies occurs after one has cultivated to the point of seeing one's true mind and awakening to the true mind, attaining the first bhūmi as a bodhisattva, and continues until the eighth bhūmi. First one sees one's true mind and awakens to the true mind, then one eliminates afflictions, and only afterward can one eliminate the habitual tendencies of afflictions—this is the sequence of cultivation. Afflictions can only be eliminated through the wisdom of seeing the path combined with meditative concentration (samādhi); without wisdom and without meditative concentration, one cannot eliminate afflictions, let alone eliminate the habitual tendencies of afflictions.

If seeing one's true mind and awakening to the true mind is compared to turning on a light, this is merely switching on a small lamp—not yet bright enough. The final awakening to the true mind at the time of buddhahood is the most brilliant of all, when every lamp has been turned on. If seeing one's true mind and awakening to the true mind is compared to waking up from a dream, then the initial awakening to the true mind is not yet a complete awakening from the dream—it is a small awakening. Only upon becoming a Buddha does one fully wake up from the dream, never to dream again.