Practice Is Denoising, Not Installing New Features

If dharmatā is all-pervading and the seeds are present, why can't you receive?

Adventitious afflictions. The mind's nature is originally pure; afflictions are "guests" — not intrinsic, but layered on through habitual patterns of ignorance.

A mirror's nature is to reflect. Cover it in dust, you see nothing. The dust isn't part of the mirror. Wipe it away, and the reflecting capacity is fully restored.

Practice isn't "creating" a new connection or installing a supernatural ability from scratch. It's clearing the noise on a connection that was always there.

Practice is denoising, not installing new features.

You don't need to "acquire" purity. You need to "remove" impurity.

These sound similar but feel completely different. If practice is acquisition, anxiety follows — how much? enough? If practice is removal, you can relax — the place you're going is a place you never left.