Playing the Lute to a Cow: How Should the Mind Consciousness Perfume the Manas?

Although the melody of the qin is melodious, elegant, and pleasing to the ear, the ox is very dull and at first will not understand it, let alone appreciate it. Because the manas, this ox, is heavily laden with ignorance, and throughout beginningless kalpas of birth-and-death transmigration it has spent the vast majority of the time undergoing retributive suffering, it has had no opportunity to be immersed in the true truths of the mundane and supramundane worlds, and so it has never understood the principle of liberation. Even though the Buddha's Dharma is so wondrous, the manas remains unaware of it and does not comprehend its meaning; it does not even seek the method of liberation. The mind consciousness's effort to influence the manas is just like playing the qin to an ox.

At this time, the mind consciousness must train its own playing technique and patiently continue playing over the long term; eventually one day the ox of the manas will come to understand the charm within the music. The training the mind consciousness must strengthen is such that no matter what melody is played, it can guarantee that the ox of the manas will be able to understand it. This is extremely difficult and requires arduous effort. Once the ox understands the melody, things will become easy, and cultivation will proceed smoothly and without hindrance.