Wholesome Dharmas Are Not the Buddha-Dharma

Question: Did Lei Feng eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi)? Did he still have a "self" in his mind? Did those who heroically sacrificed themselves for others eradicate the view of self? Did they still have a "self" in their minds?

Answer: The Buddha-dharma is the dharma of learning from the Buddha, cultivating practice, and becoming a Buddha. The wholesome dharmas of worldly affairs and the wholesome dharmas of the human realm are not the Buddha-dharma. The non-Buddhist paths also contain wholesome dharmas. As long as one does not understand the principle of liberation, even wholesome dharmas cannot liberate sentient beings; they can only yield the karmic rewards of humans and gods, and when those rewards are exhausted, one still cannot escape the cycle of birth and death in the three evil destinies. To avoid the cycle of birth and death, one must also contemplate the birth-and-death bondage of wholesome dharmas through contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), contemplate wholesome dharmas as empty, and not cling to wholesome dharmas in the mind; only then can one attain liberation.

Furthermore, the subject and master who attains liberation is the manas. One must completely eradicate all views of self held by the manas toward the five-aggregate body—all non-true views and non-principled views—seeing no dharma whatsoever among the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) as self or as real; only then is there hope of attaining liberation. Carrying the view of self while practicing wholesome dharmas is still birth-and-death bondage. One must know that the true mind and self-nature that is truly liberated forever has no wholesome mind and does not practice wholesome dharmas, has no unwholesome mind and does not practice unwholesome dharmas, and has no worldly mind and does not practice worldly dharmas; therefore it is not bound by any of these dharmas—only that is a liberated mind. Clinging one-sidedly to wholesome dharmas or to any single dharma, one cannot attain liberation.