Playing the Lute to a Cow

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, much less appreciate it. Because the ox of the manas is heavily obscured by ignorance, and throughout beginningless kalpas of birth-and-death transmigration it has spent the vast majority of the time undergoing painful retribution, it has had no opportunity to be nurtured by the true truth of the mundane and supramundane, and so it has never understood the principle of liberation. Even though the Buddha-dharma is so wondrous, the manas remains unaware of it, does not comprehend its meaning, and does not even seek the method of liberation; the mind consciousness's nurturing of 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 flavor within. The training the mind consciousness must strengthen is to reach the point where, 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 painstaking effort. Once the ox understands the melody, things will become easy, and cultivation will proceed smoothly and without obstruction.