Contemplating the Five Aggregates and Eliminating the View of Self (Part I) (Second Edition)
Section 3: The Four Noble Truths and the Four Marks
1. The contents of the Four Noble Truths are: the truth of suffering, the truth of the accumulation of suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering, and the truth of the path to the cessation of suffering.
The truth of suffering is the principle and truth of suffering. Sentient beings have three kinds of suffering, eight kinds of suffering, and immeasurable suffering; life after life they transmigrate through birth and death in the six realms, constantly enduring the torment of birth, aging, sickness, death, and immeasurable sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress (śoka-parideva-duḥkha-daurmanasyopāyāsa). The truth of suffering is a truth that only the Buddha's noble disciples can comprehend and recognize, and therefore it is called the Noble Truth of Suffering. Only by knowing that there is the Noble Truth of Suffering can one cultivate the path, thereby severing the accumulation [of suffering] and extinguishing suffering.
The truth of accumulation is also called the truth of the accumulation of suffering. The truth that sentient beings, over immeasurable kalpas, have created defiled karma and accumulated the karmic seeds of birth and death, so that in future lives they will incur karmic retribution of suffering feelings, is the truth of the accumulation of suffering. How is suffering accumulated? How is it incurred? Because sentient beings have craving and attachment, this craving and attachment constantly gives rise to the afflictive karma of ignorance and delusion; the actions of craving and attachment that are created are collected as seeds, and when the karmic seeds ripen according to conditions in the future, the karmic retribution of suffering appears. Therefore the Buddha said: the accumulation of craving and attachment is the accumulation of suffering. Only by extinguishing craving and attachment through cultivation can one extinguish immeasurable suffering.
The truth of cessation is the method and truth of extinguishing suffering. That is to say, suffering can be extinguished by certain methods; it does not exist forever without ceasing. Through cultivating the path one eradicates the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), and then, upon attaining the meditative concentration of the first dhyāna, one can sever the craving and attachment of the desire realm; having further severed the craving and attachment of the form realm and the formless realm, one then has the ability to leave the three realms and extinguish all suffering feelings within the three realms.
The truth of the path: the path is the Eightfold Noble Path: right speech, right action, right livelihood (samyag-ājīva), right view, right mindfulness, right effort (samyag-vyāyāma), right concentration, and right thinking. Through cultivating the Eightfold Noble Path, having perfectly accomplished the resources of bodhi of the Small Vehicle, contemplating the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) one can eradicate the view of self and eradicate self-grasping, thereby extinguishing the five aggregates entirely, leaving the three realms, and entering nirvāṇa without remainder (Anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa).
Before the arhat of the fourth fruit enters nirvāṇa without remainder, he abides in nirvāṇa with remainder (sopadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa). "With remainder" means there is still a little suffering to be endured; because the five-aggregate body exists, there are some unavoidable suffering feelings. For example, enduring the suffering of hot weather, the suffering of mosquito and insect bites, the suffering of illness, the suffering of bodily discomfort, the suffering of being despised by others, and so on — these are all mild suffering feelings that do not affect their liberation from the suffering of birth-and-death transmigration. As long as there are the five aggregates there are suffering feelings. Arhats who do not turn their minds toward the Great Vehicle understand this point; unwilling to endure any slight suffering any longer, and also fearing that after rebirth they might again become deluded and create defiled karma, they therefore firmly resolve to extinguish the five aggregates and enter nirvāṇa without remainder; after entering nirvāṇa, all suffering feelings are extinguished.
2. The Meaning of the Four Marks
The six faculties: the six faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind — the first five faculties are subject to arising and ceasing, change, impermanence, arising from causes and conditions, suffering, and emptiness, and therefore are not self. The manas is unborn but ceases; it arises and ceases moment by moment, changes, is impermanent, suffering, and empty, and therefore is not self. The six sense objects: form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma — the six sense objects arise and cease, change, are impermanent, arise from causes and conditions, are suffering and empty, and therefore are not self. The six consciousnesses: the consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind — the six consciousnesses arise and cease, change, are impermanent, arise from causes and conditions, are suffering and empty, and therefore are not self.
The mark of a person: the five-aggregate mark and eighteen-realm mark of human sentient beings are likewise all illusory, arising and ceasing, changing, impermanent, suffering, empty, and arising from causes and conditions, and therefore are not self, not-self, not different from self, and not mutually encompassing. The five aggregates are not self (the arising-and-ceasing manas), nor are they a "mine" (ātmīya) outside of self; self is not within the mine, the mine is not within self, and self and mine do not exist mixed together. From the perspective of the Mahāyāna dharma, the five aggregates and the true eighth consciousness are neither identical nor different; they neither mix together, yet they also have an extremely close connection.
The mark of sentient beings: for all sentient beings in the worlds of the ten directions, whether noble or ordinary, whatever realm they belong to, their five aggregates and eighteen realms are all arising and ceasing, impermanent, changing, arising from causes and conditions, suffering, and empty; they are not self, nor are they mine, and self and mine do not exist mixed together. But from the perspective of the Mahāyāna dharma, the five aggregates and the eighth consciousness are neither identical nor different; they are also not mixed together with the eighth consciousness, yet the two have an extremely close relationship.
The mark of a life-span: the length of a lifespan manifested on a sentient being, the rings of a life — from the few hours of a bacterium's lifespan, to the eighty thousand great kalpas of the Longevity Heaven, to the lifespans of bodhisattvas of the eighth bhūmi and above who have ended segmented birth-and-death (pariccheda-maraṇa) — are all illusory, unreal, impermanent, and empty; none is self, nor are they possessed by self.
3. How to Be Without the Four Marks
Being without the four marks means no self, no person, no sentient being, no life-span. The false self of the five aggregates and eighteen realms is transformed and produced by the eighth consciousness depending on various conditions; it is illusory, changing, impermanent, empty, and of a suffering nature, and therefore is without self. This requires profound and meticulous contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) to reach such a conclusion; only then can the mind confirm that the five aggregates are truly not self. Since self is illusory, by the same reasoning it can be proven that others are also illusory, and all sentient beings are illusory and not self. Then the life-span mark, which depends on the five aggregates of sentient beings, is of course unreal and also illusory. Cultivating meditative concentration and contemplating these principles well is very important; many dharmas must be cultivated in this — the Eightfold Noble Path and the thirty-seven aids to bodhi must all be cultivated well before one can realize that these dharmas are all empty. Merely talking about emptiness is useless; it is merely verbal Chan.
All marks are false and illusory; all are conjured forth by the eighth consciousness. No mark has a real self-existing essence, including the mark of self, the mark of a person, the mark of sentient beings, and the mark of a life-span. To attain liberation, one must leave behind the illusory four marks and not grasp (upādāna) the four marks. Leaving the four marks means casting them aside and not acknowledging or accepting them; the mind does not take the four marks as truly existent, but realizes that the four marks are conjured and unreal, and that their existence is a false combination.
Leaving the four marks does not mean extinguishing the four marks. If the four marks were extinguished, sentient beings would disappear, leaving only the tathāgatagarbha; there would be no sentient beings, and henceforth nothing could ever be done again. The principle of leaving the four marks is the same as that of eradicating the view of self: eradicating the view of self does not mean extinguishing the false self of the five-aggregate body, but rather no longer accepting the five aggregates as self, correcting one's views. What is called "severing" in Buddhism refers to changing one's views, changing the cognitive mind's recognition, correcting inverted views, and thereby perfecting right view. In learning Buddhism we cannot extinguish the false self of the five aggregates and seven consciousnesses; moreover, without having reached the fruition of the fourth-fruit arhat, no one can extinguish the false self and the four marks.
All sentient beings have the four marks in their minds: either taking the material body as self, or taking the feeling mind as self, or taking the thinking mind as self, or taking what can walk, stand, sit, and lie down and can speak and laugh as self, or taking what can discriminate the six sense objects as self. Having taken these dharmas as self, one then takes those who are like me as "persons," takes those like myself and persons as "sentient beings," and takes the single lifespan on the bodies of self, persons, and sentient beings as the "life-span mark" — and thus the four marks are complete.
4. Neither Suchness nor the Seven Consciousnesses of Noble Ones Grasp the Four Marks
Arhats and bodhisattvas, through cultivation, have broken through the four marks; their minds are without the four marks, and inwardly they no longer take the four marks as true, as really existent. If the five aggregates and seven consciousnesses do not cultivate and contemplate the dharma, and do not realize no-self, they cannot achieve being without the four marks. But suchness needs no cultivation; He originally has no four marks, no five-aggregate mark, no eighteen-realm mark, nor does He consider Himself a true self, nor does He act as a master; He has no mental activities of self and does not grasp a mark of self. Thus He also does not grasp the mark of a person or the mark of sentient beings, still less the mark of a life-span; He also has no lifespan, because He has never been subject to arising and ceasing.
The Diamond Sutra says: 若心取相即着四相，若取法相即着四相，若取非法相即着四相。真如一相也不取，祂没有取的心行，连自己也不取。相反，妄心七个识总是在取，时刻在取四相和六尘相，取一切相，因此才生死不断，苦恼祸患无穷。总之能取的心就是妄，真如不取，也无四相。
5. The Meaning of No-Self
The term "no-self" has two meanings: first, impermanence and non-permanence-unity; second, inability to be master, lack of self-mastery. The first meaning is easy to understand: the so-called self arises and ceases and changes without stop, and cannot remain forever constant and unchanging. The second meaning is somewhat harder to grasp: the five aggregates cannot be their own master; they cannot determine their own birth, growth, and perishing — they cannot be master over birth, nor master over death; rather, their own karmic power is the master, and the Ālayavijñāna determines it. Therefore the five aggregates lack self-mastery (avaśatā); they are controlled by karmic power and the Ālayavijñāna.
As for some small matters, the manas can still be the master — for example, when eating, one can choose to eat or not eat, and within existing conditions, choose what to eat. But viewed from the underlying cause and effect, this too is determined by one's own merit (puṇya); if one's merit is very meager (alpa-puṇya), whether to eat or not, and what to eat, is not up to oneself. In every period there are people who starve to death, people who finish one meal without knowing where the next will come from; when karmic power manifests, there truly is no room for one's own choice. Even matters in which one appears to be master are supported and driven by underlying cause-and-effect and karmic power. When blessings are insufficient, wanting to be master and escape birth and death cannot yet be done; one is still bound by karmic seeds and karmic conditions and must undergo the karmic retribution of birth and death. At such times, the manas cannot be master.
6. Why Is the Five-Aggregate Body Not Self-Governing?
The self that cannot be master refers to the five-aggregate body, which is not at ease with respect to birth and death. The five-aggregate body cannot exist autonomously; it must depend on the Ālayavijñāna to exist, and the five aggregates also cannot cease autonomously; they must depend on the Ālayavijñāna and karmic conditions to cease. Having arising and ceasing means being non-autonomous and not at ease. The Ālayavijñāna, however, is forever autonomous and at ease, because He is unborn and unceasing and is not determined by other dharmas. On the other hand, the five-aggregate body does have a certain degree of mastery; it does not completely flow along with the karmic conditions of birth and death — otherwise our learning Buddhism would be useless and unnecessary. The seventh consciousness among the five aggregates is the master-making consciousness among the eight consciousnesses; it is master over the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the five aggregates, determining the creation of bodily, verbal, and mental actions. If the manas did not act as master, the five aggregates would have no bodily, verbal, or mental actions, and the Ālayavijñāna would rest.
As for karmic actions, the mind consciousness and the manas can work together to change the karmic retribution of birth and death, diligently cultivate to remove ignorance and afflictions, and liberate themselves from the bondage of birth and death — all of this involves initiative and the ability to be master and have the final say, and the ultimate result is the severing of all ignorance. Through cultivating the Buddha-dharma, the mind consciousness constantly perfumes the manas, allowing the manas bit by bit to break free from the bondage of karmic power, removing the fetters of ignorance and afflictions, and choosing to create wholesome karma and pure karma; future retribution will then become ever more excellent, all the way to becoming a Buddha and patriarch.
7. The Concepts of Grasping at Self and Grasping at Dharmas
Grasping at self is attachment to the self of the five aggregates, taking the five-aggregate body as self and mine. One who has severed this attachment is an arhat of the fourth fruit; the manas no longer craves and grasps the worldly dharmas of the three realms, and when the lifespan ends, he has the ability to extinguish himself and enter nirvāṇa without remainder, liberated from the suffering of the three realms. Grasping at dharmas, also called the dharma-grasping-at-self, is the manas grasping all dharmas or certain dharmas derived from the conjunction of the aggregates, sense bases, and realms as self and mine. This dharma-grasping-at-self can only be severed bit by bit by bhūmi bodhisattvas who have cultivated to the point of initial transformation of consciousness into wisdom.
8. The Meaning of Contemplative Practice
"Contemplation" (guan) means observation, contemplative illumination, reflection, investigation, thinking, deliberation (manasikāra/manana), musing, imagining, reasoning, and conjecturing. It is divided into contemplation of direct perception, inference, and non-valid cognition. Assumptions and imaginings of non-valid cognition may all be used; if the result is direct perception, it is correct contemplation; if the result is non-valid cognition, not conforming to facts and truth, it belongs to wrong contemplation — colloquially called blind imagining, wild random thoughts, and fanciful speculation. These all belong to thought activity that is unfounded and illogical.
Correct contemplation is contemplation that conforms to facts, contemplation with a correct direction, contemplation with a reasonable and practically feasible method. For example, in contemplation-of-an-image recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti), there is a Buddha image before one as a guide, a reference target, ensuring the direction of contemplation is correct; the result of contemplation depends on whether conditions such as meditative concentration, contemplative wisdom, and merit are complete. Another example is the sixteen contemplations in the Contemplation Sutra: each contemplation has the Buddha's guidance and explanation, a correct reference target, with clear goals and direction; the result of contemplation depends on whether one's individual conditions of concentration, wisdom, and merit are fulfilled.
"Practice" (xing) means movement, action, change, shifting, and flowing. Whatever moves and is not static belongs to the category of practice; it may also be said to be the process of a thing's development — whatever has not ended and is still changing and proceeding belongs to practice. The "practice" in contemplative practice mainly refers to the turning of mental activities and the operation of mental factors. The "volition" (cetanā) of the volition mental factor also contains the meaning of practice; it not only has the meanings of choosing, deciding, and creating, but mainly also has the nature of deliberation and weighing — colloquially called pondering, measuring, inferring, and weighing.
The "perception" of the perception mental factor also falls within the scope of practice and is not a static state. Perception has the functions of discerning, discriminating, taking marks, and grasping (upādāna). After taking a mark, the volition mental factor comes into play, deliberating on the dharma-mark that was grasped, weighing advantages and disadvantages, importance and urgency, and then choosing. When deliberation temporarily has no result, it is called being unable to make up one's mind — the manas temporarily has no position, no decision. The difference between deliberation and perception lies in depth: perception is a somewhat shallow level of discernment of a mark, tightly revolving around the object-aspect (nimitta), never leaving the object-aspect's side; after taking the object-aspect, feelings arise. Afterward, deliberation is still needed; the final deliberation also revolves around the object-aspect, considering how to handle and deal with it, weighing pros and cons, and then deciding on action.
Contemplative practice combined is the functional operation of the mind consciousness and the manas. Of course, contemplation with the mind consciousness can occur in shallow concentration — scattered contemplation without dhyāna — and the level of such contemplation is relatively shallow and not ultimate; it may lack logic, and even if it has logic it cannot substitute for the manas's contemplation; it merely serves to guide the manas's contemplative practice. In the end, the manas must contemplate by itself before one can be at ease, because the manas is the master, the master-making consciousness; only when the manas sees personally is it true seeing. But the manas's contemplative practice requires meditative concentration — the deeper the better; otherwise, with many dharmas as objects, one cannot contemplate single-mindedly, and there will be no wisdom of true contemplative practice.
