We have to do certain things. Cultivating the mind means practicing mindfulness. We are caught in all kinds of confusion. We don't understand things as they really are. To enable us to get to our destination, we need a clear understanding of where we are.
Clear understanding is born from mindfulness.
No matter what else we do or other practices we engage in they have their own purposes and goals. We learn that they do not purify the mind. The very word meditation means cultivation. We know that there has to be a land and some means of cultivating it. We have to do certain things, such as cutting down the trees to clear the land, remove weeds and other things, and till it over and over and fertilize it.