The Sequential Order of Eliminating Self-View (ahaṃkāra-mamakāra-parityāga) and Investigating Chan

Whether one should first eliminate the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) and then engage in Chan investigation, or directly engage in Chan investigation seeking realization and enlightenment, there is no fixed conclusion on this; it depends on one's spiritual faculties. The Dharma has no fixed method, and it varies from person to person. For most people, they should first seek to eliminate the self-view; once the false self is clearly understood, then in subsequent Chan investigation one will not confuse the false with the true, mistaking the false for the real. For those with better spiritual faculties, whose afflictions of self-view are relatively mild and whose meditative concentration (samādhi) is also very good, and who do not fall into the deliberation (manana) of the mind consciousness, they may directly engage in Chan investigation, first eliminating the self-view during the process of investigation, and then realizing the true. Because Chan investigation is precisely the investigation and verification within the body of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha), and cannot be separated from the five aggregates and the eighteen realms (dhātus); in the process of investigation, one can also discern, one by one, the unreal and perishable nature of the body of the five aggregates, thereby eliminating the self-view.

The Chan masters of antiquity all awakened in this way, but it cannot be guaranteed that there were no cases of intellectual understanding / interpretive awakening. Among the seventeen hundred Chan kōans, not all of them were cases of true realization. If one's meditative power is somewhat weaker, the functions of the mind consciousness will be stronger than those of the manas, and the result will be intellectual understanding. One sees the true mind only vaguely, as merely a rough shadow; the wisdom of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) cannot arise, afflictions cannot be lightened, and the self-view cannot be eliminated. This instead obstructs sudden awakening and the progress of the Path—haste makes waste, and the result is the opposite of what is intended.

Modern people's meditative concentration is generally much weaker than that of the ancients; the deliberation of the mind consciousness is not easily subdued, the function of the manas becomes feeble, and true realization becomes very difficult. Eliminating the self-view is also very difficult, while theoretical understanding is abundant, so intellectual understanding becomes easier instead. Therefore, we should all first practice contemplative practice on the non-self nature of the five aggregates as much as possible, and then engage in Chan investigation afterward; this is the more reliable approach.