The Great Causes Discourse of the Madhyama Āgama

Original text:阿难。此中又言。受实非我之我。我之我亦非不得感受者。我应依我之领纳。即我之我是受法。对彼应如是言。友。一切感受完全消灭时。即无一切受。由此受之灭。还得有思惟。于此有我之我耶。世尊。实不然。是故阿难。依此不可能观察。受实非我之我。不得感受者。亦非我之我。我应我之领纳。即我是受法。 

Explanation: Ānanda, here it is further said that feeling is truly not the self, and I am also not the feelingless form, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness; I should rely on my own feeling, and thus my self is called the feeling-dharma. To a person who holds such a view, one should say this: Good friend, when all feeling has completely ceased, there is no feeling at all; since feeling has ceased, one should further contemplate—is there still a self here? Ānanda replied: Truly, there is not. The Buddha said: Ānanda, therefore, relying on this, it is impossible to observe that feeling is truly not the self, that the one who does not feel is also not the self, and that I should rely on my feeling, that is, I am the feeling-dharma. 

The self that sentient beings believe in is of five kinds. The first is the form-self, taking the physical body as the self, believing that I am the physical body and the physical body is me. The second is the feeling-self, taking feeling as the self, believing that I am feeling and feeling is me. The third is the perception-self, taking perception as the self, believing that I am perception and perception is me. The fourth is the volitional-formations-self, taking volitional formations as the self, believing that I am volitional formations and volitional formations are me. The fifth is the consciousness-self, taking consciousness as the self, believing that I am consciousness and consciousness is me. When sentient beings take feeling as the self, there will arise in their minds the view of a feeling-self. When sentient beings have a self and have not yet eradicated the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), they either take any one of the five kinds of self as the self and regard the rest as belonging to the self, or take all five kinds of self as the self—this is the domain of the view of self. 

Original text:阿难。是故比丘。不观察受是我。亦不观察。不得感受者是我。又不观察。我应依我之领纳。即我之我是受法。不观如是之我者。彼于世间之任何者。皆不执着。不执着故。无有恐怖。无有恐怖故。唯独般涅槃。自知生已尽。梵行已立。所作已作。更无后有。 

Explanation: Ānanda, therefore the bhikṣus do not regard feeling as the self, nor do they regard form, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness as the self, nor do they regard the self as relying on their own feeling, nor do they regard the self as the feeling-dharma. Those who do not take these dharmas as the self will, when facing any dharma, not give rise to grasping, and their minds will have no terror. Because there is no terror, they will only realize parinirvāṇa; they themselves can realize that birth has come to its end, the pure holy life has been established, the liberation to be cultivated in this life has been completed, and there will be no more existence in future lives.