The True Meaning of Anātman

The non-self of the person is the realization of both Hinayana sages and Mahayana sages, who have attained to varying degrees the understanding that the five aggregates are neither identical to nor separate from the self. Those who have fully realized the non-self of the five aggregates are the fourth-fruit Arhats, Pratyekabuddhas, and Mahayana Bodhisattvas of the eighth ground and above. In contrast to the non-self of the person is the view of a personal self, which considers the five-aggregate body as possessing self-nature and being a self. This is the knowledge and view of ordinary sentient beings, belonging to wrong views, which can lead to the suffering of birth-and-death within the six realms. If sentient beings regard the five-aggregate body as the five-aggregate body, believing it to be truly existent, this is the ignorant wrong view of birth-and-death. If sentient beings do not regard the five-aggregate body as the five-aggregate body but instead see it as produced by the eighth consciousness, as the functional manifestation of the eighth consciousness, and essentially the eighth consciousness itself, then such sentient beings have eliminated the self-view that the five aggregates constitute the self, realizing that the five aggregates are not the self and possess no real attributes of their own, being instead attributes of the eighth consciousness. This is the view of Mahayana Bodhisattvas. Through this realization, the karmic bonds of birth-and-death within the six realms gradually cease, enabling liberation from the cycle of the three realms, though Bodhisattvas themselves do not depart from the three realms.

Bodhisattvas who have severed the view of self have realized the non-self of the person. They do not regard the person as a person, the aggregate of form as form, the aggregate of sensation as sensation, the aggregate of perception as perception, the aggregate of mental formations as mental formations, the aggregate of consciousness as consciousness, the six sense faculties as the six sense faculties, the six sense objects as the six sense objects, or the six sense consciousnesses as the six sense consciousnesses. Instead, they regard all of these as attributes of the eighth consciousness, as functional manifestations of the eighth consciousness. Precisely because the five aggregates and eighteen elements are the eighth consciousness itself, the statement "the five aggregates are not the self" does not mean that the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness.

Therefore, the true meaning of the non-self of the person is not that the person is not the eighth consciousness, but rather that the person lacks the attributes of a person, that the person is not the self as "this person," that the attributes of the person are not established, and that the functionality of the person is unreal, being impermanent, subject to birth and cessation, and mutable—attributes also bestowed by the eighth consciousness. After severing the view of self in this way, one no longer considers the five-aggregate body to be the self or to possess a self, nor does one regard the five-aggregate body as belonging to oneself. Consequently, the notion of "I" ceases to exist in the mind. Sentient beings cling to the five aggregates as the self, giving rise to self-attachment and the suffering of birth-and-death. If sentient beings recognize the five aggregates as the eighth consciousness, they will realize non-self, and the notion of "I" will no longer exist in their minds. Once the mind is free from the notion of "I," attachment to the self gradually diminishes until self-attachment is completely severed. Without attachment, there is no birth-and-death, and one is liberated from the suffering of cyclic existence.