What Does Cultivation Cultivate?

In the end, does cultivation mean killing off the mind consciousness, or killing off the manas? Killing off the mind consciousness is the cause, and killing off the manas is the result. Although killing off the manas is the ultimate goal, the point of entry must still begin with the mind consciousness. The mind consciousness dies every night, and the mind consciousness of a person in a vegetative state is also more or less dead all the time, yet in future lives they still cannot avoid the three evil destinies, let alone the cycle of rebirth in the six destinies. What does this show? It shows that the great authority over birth and death is held in the hands of the manas. Therefore, cultivation must be carried out at the manas: understand the manas clearly, subdue the manas, and eradicate the ignorance of the manas. How exactly should one go about extinguishing the ignorance of the manas? Ignorance gives rise to all the afflicted mental factors (caittas). Then whose mental factors are the afflicted mental factors mainly? The ignorance of the manas leads to the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death—which afflicted mental factors does the manas not possess in full? If the manas did not possess all the afflicted mental factors in full, would cultivation not be easy and pleasant?

Some people insist that the manas is neither wholesome nor unwholesome. If that is so, do we still need to cultivate? The tathāgatagarbha is neither wholesome nor unwholesome, and that is why the tathāgatagarbha never cultivates and does not need to cultivate at all. What would it cultivate? What would He correct? He has no ignorance, no unwholesomeness, and nothing deviant. If the tathāgatagarbha were to cultivate, it would probably go astray and become crooked. Both wholesomeness and unwholesomeness stem from ignorance; that which has ignorance is necessarily wholesome or unwholesome. The tathāgatagarbha has no ignorance, so He creates neither wholesome karma nor unwholesome karma; He responds according to conditions without any deliberate mental effort. Only with ignorance is there a mind of anger, and only then does one give rise to the intention to create the karma of killing; only with ignorance is there foolish delusion, and only then does one create the karma of killing.