Contemplating the Five Aggregates and Eliminating the View of Self (Part I) (Second Edition)

**Section 2: Master Fu Dashi's Description of the Śrāvaka's First Fruition and the True/False Mind**

**I. Master Fu Dashi's Verse:**

*Forsaking the mundane, entering sainthood's door,

Afflictions gradually fade, lighter than before.

Severing attachment to self, a crucial chore,

Commencing realization of the unconditioned core.

Attachment to sense-dust and the body's view,

Now, at last, their fallacy I knew.

Seven rebirths in heavens and human realms through,

Drawn to quiescence, returning home I never knew.*

**Explanation:**

After sentient beings cultivate the Four Noble Truths of Suffering, Origin, Cessation, and the Path, and realize the emptiness of self (pudgala-śūnyatā), they thereby forsake their identity as ordinary beings and enter the stream of the holy path at the first fruition (Srotāpanna). Based on this, they further cultivate. Gradually, the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion fade and become thinner, leading to the attainment of the second fruition (Sakṛdāgāmin). Then, upon attaining the first dhyāna, they sever the mind of sensual desire, then sever the mind of anger, attaining the third fruition (Anāgāmin), where the mind gains liberation. Continuing further in their cultivation, attachment to self gradually diminishes until it is completely severed. They eradicate the subtle sense of self-conceit (asmimāna) and extinguish all craving for dharmas within the realms of desire, form, and formlessness, attaining the fourth fruition of Arhatship. From then on, they have no attachment to the three realms and only teach sentient beings according to conditions. At the end of their lifespan, they "extinguish the body and annihilate consciousness" (nirupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa), extinguishing the five aggregates (skandhas) and the false self of the eighteen elements (dhātus), leaving only the unchanging, unborn, undying essence of the Ālaya-vijñāna (storehouse consciousness), abiding in a state of quiescent non-action.

When sentient beings sever the view of self and attain the first fruition, they reflect on how they, life after life, clung to the objects of the six sense-dusts (rūpa, śabda, gandha, rasa, sparśa, dharma), deludedly attached to them, mistaking the physical body as the self and the seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing nature possessed by the body as the self. For the sake of this illusory, empty body, they created various karmic actions, continuously revolving in the six paths of rebirth. Now, they finally know the falseness of this body, the falseness of bodily, verbal, and mental actions, and the falseness of all dharmas. However, if they do not diligently cultivate further and become complacent with their current state, at the end of their lifespan, they will be reborn in the heavens of the desire realm, then return to the human realm. After going back and forth seven times, they will attain the fourth fruition of Arhatship. At the end of that life, they enter the remainderless nirvāṇa (nirupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa). After entering remainderless nirvāṇa, only the Ālaya-vijñāna remains—utterly devoid of anything, utterly devoid of any action, an empty state, a state of non-state. There is no so-called Arhat existing, nor do they know to return to the human realm to study the Mahayana Dharma and strive for Buddhahood as soon as possible. To depart like this is truly regrettable!

**II. Master Fu Dashi's Verse:**

*Bodhi transcends words and speech,

None has ever attained it, truth we teach.

Relying on the truth of twofold emptiness,

Attain the Dharmakāya, the King's completeness.

A mind with clinging is wholly false,

Absence of grasping, truth does it call.

If you realize the non-duality of phenomena,

Transcend the six dusts with ease, set phenomena free.*

**Explanation:**

Here, "Bodhi" and "the non-duality of phenomena" (non-non-dharma) both refer to the true suchness nature (bhūtatathatā). The true suchness nature is beyond words and speech, yet words and speech cannot exist without it. Regardless of whether one realizes the true mind nature or not, there is no person who attains Bodhi. Firstly, because Bodhi is inherently complete, not obtained from outside; even upon realization, it is merely the discovery of one's own treasure. Secondly, regardless of attaining Bodhi or not, the person is empty (pudgala-śūnyatā).

To realize the Dharmakāya (Dharma Body) of the Buddha stage, one must rely on the principles of the emptiness of self (pudgala-śūnyatā) and the emptiness of dharmas (dharma-śūnyatā) to cultivate and realize it, ultimately accomplishing the stainless consciousness (amalavijñāna) of the Buddha's Dharmakāya. Within all worldly dharmas, if there is a mind of discrimination or a mind of clinging and attachment, it is certainly a false mind. Do not mistake such a false mind for a truly indestructible dharma or an unborn, undying self. The mind that has no attachment to, no clinging to, and no discrimination of dharmas within the three realms is the unborn, undying true mind. Only by realizing the mind devoid of the characteristics of the three realms' dharmas, distinct from the mind of the seventh consciousness (manas), can one transcend the six dusts and resolve the matter of birth and death.