Because we don’t recognize our essential nature — we don’t realize that although appearances arise unceasingly, nothing is really there — we invest with solidity and reality the seeming truth of self, other, and actions between self and others. This intellectual obscuration gives rise to attachment and aversion, followed by actions and reactions that create karma, solidify into habit, and perpetuate the cycles of suffering. This entire process needs to be purified.
Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche
from the book “In the Presence of Masters: Wisdom from 30 Contemporary Tibetan Buddhist Teachers”