How to Generate the Aspiration for Liberation

The function of the mind is the function of sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness—discernment, cognition, grasping, feeling, and decision-making. It gives rise to joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, worry, grief, distress, and affliction toward all dharmas. These functions are all initiated by the consciousness-seeds of the Tathagatagarbha. Once the seven great seeds are projected, the mental activities of the seven consciousnesses and the realms of the six dusts appear like foam. Since beginningless kalpas, the manas has been grasping this foam, taking the impermanent as permanent, taking the suffering, emptiness, and affliction as bliss, taking the selfless nature of the five aggregates as a self, and taking the impure nature of the six dusts and six consciousnesses as pure. It clings to all this foam as "I" and "mine," clinging to the dharmas of suffering, emptiness, and impermanence as "I" and "mine."

Because it grasps these dharmas, the manas cannot transcend the Three Realms and attain liberation. Understanding these principles, we should generate the resolve for liberation in this very life, diligently discern how all these dharmas are illusory and unreal, understand the causes and conditions for their arising and cessation, and cease grasping the impermanent, selfless, illusory conditioned dharmas. All sensations, even pleasurable ones, are impermanent and cannot be retained. When a pleasant sensation arises due to the appearance of a phenomenal state, it ceases when that state ceases. There is not a single sensation or dharma that can exist permanently, unchanging and indestructible.

The six dusts are merely illusory shadows manifested within the brain. We grasp these shadows, giving rise to various sensations and perceptions. Since the shadows are unreal, the sensations and perceptions they produce are likewise unreal. All dharmas are ceaselessly arising and perishing moment by moment (ksana by ksana). The past has already passed; the present instantly becomes the past; the future has not yet arrived. The manas cannot grasp any of these illusory appearances of the past, present, or future.

In truth, there is no such person, event, or principle in the world; there is no world itself. It is like weeping and laughing at the reflection in a mirror, generating thoughts and emotions, creating various karmic actions, yet unaware that everything faced is merely an illusory shadow. It is like a foolish dog barking incessantly at its own reflection in a mirror, or like a foolish monkey leaping into a lake trying to grasp the reflection of the moon. Sentient beings are thus deluded. To free oneself from this delusion and attain wisdom and liberation, one must recognize the truth and reality, cease grasping all dharmas, and sever the two attachments: to self and to dharmas.