Understanding that the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) are without self is not the elimination of self-view (ahaṃkāra-mamakāra-parityāga)

Some of us already understand in our minds that we are illusory, just a false shell—does this count as the elimination of self-view (ahaṃkāra-mamakāra-parityāga)? Understanding no-self, understanding that oneself is illusory, involves both the understanding of the mind consciousness and the understanding of the manas. The understanding of the mind consciousness is further divided into true understanding and false understanding; understanding that lacks genuine contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and deliberation is not true understanding. Moreover, understanding by the mind consciousness alone is still very superficial and often has little effect. The manas deep within does not understand and still takes the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) as self; therefore, it cannot solve actual problems, let alone attain liberation and escape saṃsāra. Because the manas can dominate and determine all bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the five aggregates, including the activities of the mind consciousness, if the manas still has the bonds of birth and death, it will drag the five aggregates and the six consciousnesses to continue transmigrating through birth and death.

True elimination of self-view requires the manas to acknowledge and confirm that the five aggregates are indeed illusory and impermanent; the manas must comprehend the principle that the five aggregates are not self. For the manas to acknowledge and confirm this, the mind consciousness must carry out deep, detailed, and comprehensive contemplative practice. Through such practice, the process and results of deliberation are transmitted to the manas; only then can the manas understand, and only then can it, through its own personal deliberation (manana), confirm the illusory nature of the self of the five aggregates. The mind consciousness must contemplate and examine that each of the five aggregates is illusory, and that each of the eighteen dhātus is illusory; the contemplation must be thorough—especially the illusoriness of the mind consciousness itself must be contemplated exhaustively—before the manas can acknowledge and confirm that the five aggregates are truly not self and that everything is illusory. Thereupon, the thoughts deep within will undergo a considerable transformation; only this counts as the elimination of self-view.