Contemplating the Five Aggregates and Eliminating the View of Self (Part I) (Second Edition)
Section Three: The Five Aggregates Are Born from the Eighth Consciousness
1. The Aggregate of Form Is Born from the Eighth Consciousness
The aggregate of form is one of the five aggregates; it is subject to arising and ceasing, illusory, mutable, impermanent, and suffering; it is empty and unreal, conjured forth by the eighth consciousness. In accordance with sentient beings' karmic seeds and karmic conditions, the eighth consciousness manifests their physical bodies, and only then does the aggregate of form exist. The aggregate of form cannot come into existence by itself through some condition alone, nor is it produced single-handedly by the parents; the parents are only a contributing condition for the birth of the aggregate of form. It is the eighth consciousness that, availing itself of the condition of the parents, enters and dwells in the fertilized egg, and by relying on the sentient being's karmic seeds, uses the mother's blood to transform and fashion the embryo, thereby becoming the aggregate of form. The aggregate of form does not arise naturally, nor does it arise without cause or condition; rather, it is manifested by the eighth consciousness in accordance with conditions, and is one of the attributes possessed by the eighth consciousness.
Since form is conjured forth by the eighth consciousness, it is a part of the eighth consciousness, and stands in a relationship of neither one nor different with the eighth consciousness. Therefore, form is emptiness (Śūnyatā) — this is the nature of the eighth consciousness, the mind of emptiness. Here "emptiness" refers to the eighth consciousness, the mind of emptiness; form is the aggregate of form, and the aggregate of form is the eighth consciousness — the whole of it is manifested through the functions and activities of the eighth consciousness. The emptiness here is not empty space; "empty space" is a provisional term — where there is no matter, it is provisionally called empty space, and where matter is placed, there is no empty space. Therefore empty space has no place of coming and no place of going, has no substantiality, and is not a dharma that truly exists.
2. The Principle by Which the Five Aggregates Are Born from the Eighth Consciousness
Understanding the nature of the seven consciousnesses is extremely important. All activities of the five aggregates are produced through the joint and harmonious operation of the seven consciousness-minds and the eighth consciousness. When the seven consciousness-minds are applied to the physical body, there is the activity of the five aggregates; if the seven consciousness-minds do not operate in the physical body, the body is a corpse. When the consciousness-mind is in the physical body, the body is the aggregate of form; when the five faculties within the body contact the five inner sense-objects, and the manas simultaneously contacts the inner mental sense-objects upon those five sense-objects, the six consciousnesses arise; when the six consciousnesses further contact the six faculties and six sense-objects, the consciousness-mind can feel, and the aggregate of feeling arises. The aggregate of feeling is based primarily on the feelings of the mind consciousness, supplemented by the feelings of the first five consciousnesses; without the consciousness-mind there is no aggregate of feeling.
The six consciousnesses discern the six sense-objects; grasping (upādāna) at the marks of the six sense-objects is perception; the subsequent deliberation, subtle discrimination, judgment, planning, and so forth are all perception. The aggregate of perception is based primarily on the mind consciousness, and the five consciousnesses also have the aggregate-of-perception activity of discerning and taking marks. The aggregate of volitional formations is the operation of the consciousness-mind, flowing and changing thought after thought; all activities of body, speech, and mind are the aggregate of volitional formations. This includes the passage of time, changes of location and direction, the heartbeat, breathing, pulse, and blood flow of the physical body — whatever is operating and changing, whatever is not static, belongs to the aggregate of volitional formations. The aggregate of consciousness is the discriminating functional nature of the consciousness-mind.
If the seven consciousness-minds are not applied to the physical body, there is no activity of the five aggregates, the body is not a sentient being, and killing it does not constitute killing. However, if the eighth consciousness does not transmit the seeds of the seven consciousness-minds, the seven consciousness-minds cannot arise, let alone the activity of the five aggregates; if the eighth consciousness does not cooperate with the seven consciousness-minds, there is no activity of the five aggregates, and the body is a corpse, a piece of wood. From this it can be seen that the activity of the five aggregates is born from the eighth consciousness under the manipulation of the seventh consciousness.
3. The Meaning of the Emptiness of the Five Aggregates
The five aggregates are suffering, empty, impermanent, and non-self. The emptiness of the five aggregates does not mean that there are no five aggregates, or that the five aggregates vanish with not even an appearance remaining; rather, it means that the five aggregates exist in appearance but have no self-nature of their own, like a city conjured by a magician — without substance, without self-mastery, their essence being the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. All phenomena of the five aggregates are entirely manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; therefore the five aggregates are empty.
The emptiness of the five aggregates also does not mean dividing the five aggregates into extremely minute parts until finally they become nothing, become empty nothingness — it is not this principle. The five aggregates cannot be analyzed into dust-motes, because the five aggregates are composed of material form and mental dharmas; mental dharmas cannot be divided into dust-motes and then become empty nothingness. Even if the physical body could be divided into extremely minute dust-motes, the dust-motes could not become empty nothingness, for dust-motes and empty space cannot be converted into one another, because their seeds are different.
The emptiness of the five aggregates means lacking substance, meaning illusory, and also means belonging to the emptiness (śūnyatā) of the tathāgatagarbha. Likewise, the emptiness of the aggregate of form does not mean there is no form; rather, it means the aggregate of form lacks the substance of an inherent essence, is born of the tathāgatagarbha, is the emptiness (śūnyatā) of the tathāgatagarbha; the aggregate of form has no self-nature of material form, is an illusory dharma, a dharma of arising and ceasing, and therefore is empty. The definition of emptiness: first, unreality — lacking self-nature, being an illusory dharma; second, empty space — the meaning of having nothing at all; third, the meaning of the emptiness (śūnyatā) of the tathāgatagarbha.
The aggregate of form is born from the tathāgatagarbha; it cannot be self-existent or self-governing, cannot determine its own existence; its arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing must be determined by karmic seeds and the tathāgatagarbha. The aggregate of form is conjured forth and born by the tathāgatagarbha; its essence is entirely the tathāgatagarbha-nature, without any true nature of the aggregate of form itself. Just as clay figures all have the nature of clay, their essence being entirely clay, with no person in them and hence no nature of the clay figures themselves, so too the aggregate of form has no self-nature; it is all tathāgatagarbha-nature, and the whole of it is the tathāgatagarbha. Likewise, all dharmas of the three realms' world are tathāgatagarbha-nature, all are fashioned and completed by the tathāgatagarbha, their essence being entirely the tathāgatagarbha, no different from clay figures.
4. "One Cannot Know the True Face of Mount Lu, Only Because One Is Standing Within This Mountain"
If Mount Lu is used as a metaphor for worldly dharmas, sentient beings cannot see the false, illusory, unreal nature of the worldly, cannot see the suffering, empty, impermanent, non-self nature of worldly dharmas, precisely because their own minds are pressed too close to worldly dharmas, even completely melted into them, with no gap in between, so the mind is completely obscured by worldly dharmas. As a result, year after year, month after month, life after life, they rejoice, rage, grieve, and delight within worldly dharmas, are turned by the worldly, are bound by the worldly, and their own body and mind cannot attain ease and liberation. To attain liberation, what is to be done?
If Mount Lu is used as a metaphor for one's own deluded mind of the seven consciousnesses, how is one to recognize clearly the arising-ceasing, mutable, unreal nature of the deluded mind? To view one's own mind objectively and recognize clearly one's own mental conduct, one must take the mind out, then turn back to introspect one's own mind, pull back a certain distance, stand at a certain height, and objectively observe one's own mental conduct, or observe it as if it were another person's mental conduct; in this way one will be somewhat more objective and fair.
If Mount Lu is used as a metaphor for the five-aggregate body, then life after life, generation after generation, one dwells within the five-aggregate body yet does not know the five aggregates are non-self, does not know the five aggregates are impermanent, arising and ceasing, mutable, does not know the suffering and emptiness of the five aggregates. To newly and thoroughly recognize the true face of the five aggregates, one must observe the five aggregates according to the Four Noble Truths taught by the Buddha. If one wishes to recognize the true face of the five-aggregate body, one must study and cultivate the Mahāyāna prajñā, and investigate the tathāgatagarbha within the five-aggregate body; then one will recognize that the original face of the five-aggregate body is in fact the tathāgatagarbha, that the five-aggregate body is an illusory false appearance manifested by the tathāgatagarbha, with the truth hidden within the five-aggregate body performing its conjuring tricks, its traces unfathomable to worldly people.
5. A Brief Explanation of the Difference Between a Living Person and a Dead Person
When a person is alive, there must be the activity of the five aggregates. On the aggregate of form: breathing, heartbeat, pulse, blood flow, urination and defecation, temperature and softness, tears, mucus, sweat, the peristalsis of the stomach and intestines, and the operations and activities of the physical body, and so forth. On the aggregate of feeling: feelings of suffering, bliss, sorrow, joy, and neutral feeling (upekṣā-vedanā) — now happy, now distressed, now neither suffering nor happy; the feelings of the mind are always changing without stop. On the aggregate of perception: being able to discriminate flowers, grass, trees, people and animals, gold, silver, and jewels, a person's cultivation and temperament, learning and bearing, sounds from all directions, fragrant and foul odors, sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty, hot and cold, touch and pain, hunger and thirst, warmth and satiety, soft and hard, thick and thin, heavy and light, deliberation, reasoning, judgment, recollection, planning, and so forth, and at all times grasping (upādāna) at all marks. On the aggregate of volitional formations: being able to run and walk, move about in going, standing, sitting, and lying down, raise hands and move feet, laugh, jest, rage, and scold, eat and dress, engage in production and occupation. On the aggregate of consciousness: the eye can see, the ear can hear, the nose can smell, the tongue can taste, the body can feel touch, the mind can think about dharmas.
A living person has the activity of the eighteen realms: the eye faculty, ear faculty, nose faculty, tongue faculty, body faculty, and manas all have their corresponding operations. When contacting form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas, there is the eye consciousness discerning form, the ear consciousness discerning sound, the nose consciousness discerning smell, the tongue consciousness discerning taste, the body consciousness feeling touch, and the mind consciousness thinking about dharmas. All these creations of conditioned dharmas are upheld and sustained by the Ālayavijñāna, the eighth consciousness.
The eighth consciousness has the function of upholding the body. From the fertilized egg onward, He upholds it. The sperm and egg are each single cells, not life-forms, each able to survive only about seven days on its own; after they meet, the seventh consciousness brings the eighth consciousness to enter and dwell within, and only then is the fertilized egg a life-form with the activity of life. The seeds of the four great elements — earth, water, fire, and wind — within the eighth consciousness correspond to the nutrients in the mother's body, and the eighth consciousness can absorb the nutrients from the mother's body and transform them into the fertilized egg, changing every seven days; if the eighth consciousness departs, the fertilized egg immediately dies. After birth, the eighth consciousness further absorbs the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind from milk and food to transform and generate the body; the infant gradually grows, then gradually ages until death. All these phenomena are the result of the eighth consciousness's upholding and fashioning; they are born from the eighth consciousness.
It is said in the Cheng Weishi Lun (Compendium of Mahāyāna Teachings on Consciousness-only):（阿赖耶识）能潜转身中作事业故。This means He can cooperate with the operation of the first seven consciousnesses to produce all the activities of the five-aggregate body. At death, when the eighth consciousness departs and no longer upholds the physical body, urine and feces will flow out, the body will become stiff and cold, breathing, pulse, and heartbeat cease, blood flow stops, intestinal peristalsis stops, and all the body's activities cease.
The six faculties no longer contact the six sense-objects, the inner six sense-objects cannot appear, the six consciousnesses are no longer born, and the seven consciousnesses depart. Thereupon the body becomes a corpse; the corpse has eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear, a nose but cannot smell, a tongue but cannot taste, a body but does not feel touch — it becomes a piece of wood, a stiff corpse, unmoved no matter who beats it, curses it, cries, or wails. From this it can be seen that the difference between a dead person and a living person lies in whether or not there is the eighth consciousness; the principle that sentient beings are created by the eighth consciousness can be glimpsed here, and from this we should know the point of entry for investigating Chan.
6. The Difference Between the Physical Body and Material Form
The physical body is one kind of material form; like material form, it is generated from the seeds of the four great elements. The differences are: first, the physical body has eight consciousnesses, and therefore has the activity of the five aggregates, whereas material form has no consciousness-mind and no activity of the five aggregates. Second, the physical body is born and upheld solely by an individual sentient being's tathāgatagarbha, whereas material form is born and upheld jointly by the tathāgatagarbhas of sentient beings with shared karma. In the physical body there is the activity of the eight consciousnesses, which produces feelings; all feelings are the functional activities of the consciousness-mind, coming from nowhere and going nowhere. The consciousness-mind is born from the eighth consciousness; when feelings cease, they likewise have nowhere to go — the seeds of consciousness simply cease and return into the eighth consciousness. If the eighth consciousness is likened to a great ocean, then the body and all material form are the spray and foam upon the sea.
7. The Five-Aggregate Body Comes from the Tathāgatagarbha
When we look up at the white clouds in the sky, we find that the clouds can continuously transform into all kinds of patterns; sometimes the clouds transform into the shape of flowers, sometimes into the shapes of cats, dogs, and so forth. Do the flowers and cats and dogs thus conjured have self-nature and reality? Are those beautiful patterns flowers and cats and dogs, or are they white clouds? What should we take these drifting things in the sky to be in order to accord with fact? What is the true characteristic of the flowers, cats, and dogs? We need only deliberate and compare a little to easily know: those things are in substance all white clouds; there are no flowers and no cats or dogs; all the material is white clouds; therefore the cats and dogs are of the nature of white clouds.
By the same reasoning it can be proven that the five-aggregate bodies of sentient beings are all tathāgatagarbha-nature; all the material comes from the tathāgatagarbha; the whole of it is thusness (tathatā), which is the one true dharma realm. The cats and dogs are a metaphor for the five-aggregate body; the white clouds are like the tathāgatagarbha. Make the analogy, deliberate carefully, and one can clearly understand this principle. Many people only recognize the cats and dogs and the flowers, not the white clouds; even more people only recognize the five-aggregate body, not the tathāgatagarbha. If one can recognize the tathāgatagarbha, one can both see the mind and eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) — two gains in one stroke.
The Buddha-dharma is right there ready-made, simple and plain, clear and obvious — it is really just a layer of window paper. As long as the finger points to the right spot, one poke and everything is accomplished. Those with insufficient merit (puṇya) fail to poke where it should be poked, yet poke hard where it should not be poked. In the end, with no way left to retreat, they poke that final spot. In the end, there is no one who cannot become a Buddha; it is only a matter of becoming one sooner or later — some wish it early, some are indifferent.
8. It Is the Tathāgatagarbha That Plays with and Turns All Dharmas
With insufficient meditative concentration (samādhi) and insufficient merit (puṇya), both the eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) and seeing the mind are very difficult, and seeing the Buddha-nature is harder still. In the contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) for eradicating the view of self, one must first contemplate the unreality of one's own physical body, contemplate its arising-ceasing changes, and then contemplate the arising-ceasing changes of the consciousness-mind. The functions the consciousness-mind gives rise to are feeling, perception, volitional formations, and discernment; all these functions must be contemplated — contemplate their arising and ceasing, impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and non-self; the scope of contemplation should be as comprehensive as possible.
The full range of the eighteen realms must all be located, each one carefully observed for its arising-ceasing impermanent nature; contemplate the places where faculties and sense-objects contact each other. When the contemplation is thorough and penetrating, one will be able to attain realization in the future. If the contemplation at this point is not thorough, at most there will be intellectual understanding, and the enlightenment will not hit the mark, will not reach the root. The six consciousnesses also have contact; the six consciousnesses contact the six sense-objects. When all these dharmas have been contemplated, the eradication of the view of self can be thorough, and seeing the mind will also come quickly.
Within the world, it is in fact the tathāgatagarbha itself that plays with and turns everything: the faculties are He, the sense-objects are He, the consciousnesses are also He. Apart from this there is nothing at all; all dharmas are He Himself. After attaining the bhūmis, one will discover: all states of experience are He, all material form and mental dharmas are He; apart from Him, there is nothing else whatsoever.
9. How to Understand the Nature of the Five Faculties
The five faculties refer to the eye faculty, ear faculty, nose faculty, tongue faculty, and body faculty. The five faculties are divided into the outer five faculties and the inner five faculties: the outer five faculties are the superficial sense faculties, and the inner five faculties are the supreme faculties (indriya); each has its own organic structure and its own functions, but all are generated and upheld by the tathāgatagarbha. The nature of these five faculties is fundamentally the tathāgatagarbha-nature; they are all born and transformed out of the tathāgatagarbha, and therefore are subject to arising and ceasing and mutation, impermanent, empty, suffering — that is, non-self. If we observe the birth of these five faculties, from nonexistence to existence, and their ceasing after having existed; observe the composition of the five faculties; then observe the changes of the five faculties; and finally observe the loss and cessation of the five faculties — we can know that the five faculties are subject to arising, ceasing, mutation, and impermanence.
This is observation from the perspective of the Small Vehicle before enlightenment. After enlightenment, one must further observe the five faculties from the perspective of the Great Vehicle: observing that the tathāgatagarbha, instant after instant, outputs the seeds of the four great elements to assemble the five faculties; that the moment-to-moment mutability of the five faculties is the tathāgatagarbha, in accordance with various conditions, maintaining and transforming the five faculties — when conditions change, the five faculties change. The function of the five faculties is to take in the external five sense-objects; the five faculties are like a video camera, a tool responsible for receiving and transmitting. How exactly to receive and transmit, how to work, depends on the consciousness-mind to control; the consciousness-mind is like the person operating the camera — without a person, the camera is just a pile of materials, of no use whatsoever; without the tathāgatagarbha and the manas, the five faculties are just a pile of dead flesh, without the slightest value.
10. The Four Foods Are All the Meritorious Functions of the Tathāgatagarbha
Sentient beings of the desire realm nourish themselves with gross food (kavaḍaṅkāra-āhāra); food must be chewed into segments and then swallowed, digested, and absorbed before the physical body can sustain its life activities; therefore the physical body is illusory and unreal. Sentient beings of the desire realm need the six faculties to contact the six sense-objects before the body can be nourished and strengthened; otherwise they cannot survive; therefore the five aggregates are illusory and unreal. Sentient beings of the desire realm need the seven consciousnesses to engage in ceaseless deliberation (manasikāra/manana) and operation before they can survive; therefore the five aggregates are illusory and unreal. Sentient beings of the desire realm need the seven consciousnesses to engage in ceaseless discernment of the six sense-objects before they can survive; therefore the five aggregates are illusory and unreal.
Sentient beings of the form realm's first dhyāna heaven have no gross food, but have contact-food (sparśa-āhāra): they need to contact sense-objects to survive, otherwise they would perish. The four faculties — eye, ear, body, and manas — need to contact the four sense-objects, and the eye consciousness, ear consciousness, body consciousness, and mind consciousness also need to contact the four sense-objects; this is contact-food. There is volition-food (manasaṃcetanā-āhāra): the mind consciousness and manas need mental activity, deliberating upon all the dharmas they contact, in order to continue operating. The beings of the first dhyāna heaven have no nose consciousness or tongue consciousness; the five consciousnesses — eye, ear, body, mind consciousness, and manas — need to deliberate upon dharmas in order to survive in the first dhyāna heaven, otherwise they cannot survive. There is consciousness-food (vijñāna-āhāra): the five consciousnesses must discern the four sense-objects of the heavenly realm. With these three foods, the beings of the first dhyāna heaven can survive and maintain the existence of their physical bodies; therefore the five aggregates of the beings of the first dhyāna heaven are illusory.
From the obtaining of gross food all the way to the nourishing of the physical body, it is all the merit of the tathāgatagarbha; it is the tathāgatagarbha that nourishes and maintains the physical body. Contact-food, volition-food, and consciousness-food are likewise all the merit of the tathāgatagarbha. In the final analysis, all sentient beings survive by relying on the tathāgatagarbha; apart from the tathāgatagarbha, they could not exist for even a single instant. The six faculties, six sense-objects, and six consciousnesses are all manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; the four foods are also manifested by the tathāgatagarbha; everything sentient beings need is manifested by the tathāgatagarbha. Therefore sentient beings are illusory, unreal, empty and phantom-like, and non-self. Deliberating deeply on the four foods that sustain beings, one can also eradicate the view of self and attain liberation.
11. The Physical Body Is an Attribute of the Tathāgatagarbha
If we break the body down to its smallest cellular components, within the cells there are various particles; the particles are constituted of the four great subtle elements, and the four great subtle elements are composed of the seeds of the four great elements within the tathāgatagarbha. The seeds of the four great elements are formless and featureless, coming from within the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha outputs the seeds of the four great elements, forming particles; the particles then aggregate into the tiniest matter, then aggregate into somewhat larger matter visible to the naked eye, then gradually aggregate into the initial physical body, and finally, when the body is complete, one emerges from the mother's womb.
From this we can know that the physical body is empty, subject to arising and ceasing, and non-self; it is born from the tathāgatagarbha and upheld by the tathāgatagarbha; it is entirely tathāgatagarbha-nature. This body is nothing more than the transformation of the seed-functions of the tathāgatagarbha; it is a portion of the tathāgatagarbha's functions, an attribute of the tathāgatagarbha, without any attributes or self-nature of the physical body itself. Ordinary people can only deliberate upon these contents mentally, unable to engage in direct-perception contemplation, because they lack the corresponding meditative concentration, their power of wisdom (prajñā-bala) is also insufficient, the manas cannot exert force, and they cannot personally participate in deep and subtle contemplation and deliberation; unable to realize this principle, they cannot eradicate the view of the body and the view of self from this point, nor can they realize the tathāgatagarbha.
12. The Physical Body Composed of Particles Is Illusory
The cells of sentient beings' physical bodies can also produce bioelectric energy, called bioelectricity in physiology. Bioelectricity continuously releases energy to sustain the needs of the physical body. Within the cells there are various granules composed of the four great elements: nucleons, neutrons, protons, atoms, electrons, ions, and so forth. The arising, ceasing, and metabolism of these granules can form a kind of energy needed by the body, including thermal energy, kinetic energy, electrical energy, and so on. When energy is released, the material components of the four great elements in the body are consumed and must be continually replenished; hence there is the need for food and drink. To consume less food, one must have less activity of the consciousness-mind: enter deep dhyāna, with the mind tranquil and the consciousness-mind minimally active, and energy consumption is reduced.
The devas of the form realm and formless realm, by contrast, take the bliss of dhyāna as their food; they do not need food and drink, do not need material form. If sentient beings of the desire realm eat without cease, craving food and flavors, and cannot give rise to the meditative concentration of the form realm, they will not attain form-realm concentration. For those who are fastidious about food, whose appetite for eating has not been subdued, the manifestation of the first dhyāna is impossible.
A living being is a life-form; a life-form is the five-aggregate body. The five-aggregate body is constituted of the seeds of the four great elements and the seeds of consciousness; when the seeds of consciousness act upon the four-great-elements physical body, there is the activity of the five aggregates. Among these, the seeds of the four great elements arise, cease, and change instant by instant — the physical body is empty and unreal; the seeds of consciousness arise, cease, and change instant by instant — empty and unreal; all are tathāgatagarbha-nature. The five-aggregate body thus arises, ceases, and changes instant by instant, as unreal as flowers in the sky. Starting from here, after the view of self becomes faint, if one further cultivates the Small Vehicle, one can more easily eradicate the view of self.
13. The Five Aggregates and the Conditions They Rely Upon Are All Conjured by the Tathāgatagarbha
External form is conjured jointly by many tathāgatagarbhas, while the physical body and inner form are conjured solely by one's own tathāgatagarbha. The eye faculty is born from the tathāgatagarbha; the eye consciousness is born from the tathāgatagarbha; the function of the eye consciousness seeing form is the joint action of the tathāgatagarbha, the seventh consciousness, the sixth consciousness, and the eye consciousness, displaying inner form within the eye consciousness and mind consciousness. Among these, the four consciousnesses each have their own functions, and also have harmonious joint functions. Faculties, sense-objects, and consciousnesses — all three are manifested, upheld, and supervised by the tathāgatagarbha. Apart from these three, there are no sentient beings and no five aggregates. Then what are the five aggregates and sentient beings? Where is there a self, where are there five aggregates? Which is the self? Seeing forms, hearing sounds, smelling odors, tasting flavors, feeling touch, thinking dharmas — all seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing; all functions of feeling; all thoughts and sentiments — what are they?
Find all the dharmas upon which the five aggregates depend; contemplate what these dharmas are, and what these dharmas in turn depend upon. Whatever has dependence is unreal, lacking self-mastery, not self-governing, suffering and empty and impermanent, arising and ceasing, conjured, illusory, and non-self. Following this line of thought, enter meditative concentration and contemplate, sort out the thinking, and let the manas perceive, awaken, and personally verify; finally, within the mind there will arise a voice: "All these dharmas truly have no reality; it is all a farce. Where is there a self? Which one is the self? None of them." Then one weeps bitterly, body and mind drop away, and there is nothing whatsoever to impede.
There is a process in this. When the manas is gradually about to recognize this fact, the mind will feel great pain and distress: the self one has clung to for so long is about to vanish before one's eyes; of course the mind feels hollow and fearful, like standing at the edge of a cliff, terribly worried about falling — hesitating, anxious, afraid; knowing there is nothing at all, yet fearing that nothing can be grasped; that state of mind is extremely agitated and turbulent. After a period of time, one can accept it, settle into peace, and return to normal. This is the process that one who is about to eradicate the view of self for the first time in this life must undergo; for one who has eradicated the view of self over many lives in past existences, it will be very easy — joyful and delighted.
What each person can contact is one's own private possession; private possession represents a second conjuring — illusion upon illusion. Whether external and shared or internal and private, all is conjured and illusory, without reality — all are images formed in a mirror. Of course, truly realizing the mirror-image contemplation requires the fullness of the mind at the first bhūmi, by which time all the dharmas cultivated at the first bhūmi have already been completed.
