How to Be Free from Suffering

In the course of cultivation, the ignorance of the manas is gradually extinguished, the afflictions are extinguished, and self-grasping is extinguished. When the manas becomes indifferent to the three realms, the dharmas of the three realms will be extinguished; ultimately the manas itself must cease, and one enters Nirvāṇa without remainder, in tranquility and coolness. Ignorance is the fundamental and primary cause of birth-and-death and saṃsāra. If ignorance is not extinguished, the mental formations do not cease, the craving and desire within the three realms do not cease, and the suffering of birth-and-death does not cease. Yet sentient beings have become accustomed to the suffering of birth-and-death—like those who dwell long in a latrine pit and no longer notice the stench—they do not feel that birth-and-death is great suffering, nor do they feel that there is great suffering within birth-and-death, and they cling to birth-and-death without end. When sentient beings do not wish to awaken, even if the Buddha comes, He cannot save them.