The Purpose of Studying the Dharma Is to Attain Non-Self

Many people speak daily merely for the sake of speaking, to express themselves and display themselves, speaking without restraint. The "self" in their hearts is very heavy, yet they never turn the light inward to examine their actions of body, speech, and mind. What exactly is cultivation cultivating? When told to speak less, they become unhappy. They shout "no-self" every day, yet the "self" in their hearts remains heavy. Examine yourselves: what exactly have you cultivated? Does it have any real power?

Examine your own mind: why is there the emotion of unhappiness? If there were truly no "self" in the heart, if the "self" were not heavy, could unhappiness even arise? What pleases the self brings joy; what displeases the self brings sorrow, worry, resentment, and suffering—this is the full-blown "self." This is entirely opposite to "no-self." The ultimate purpose of cultivation is to attain "no-self," to melt away the "self" in one's heart day by day. This is the best cultivation. Studying thousands of sutras and treatises aims precisely at achieving "no-self," not for the sake of studying the Dharma itself. The purpose of studying the Dharma is to realize "no-self." If one studies the Dharma daily merely for the sake of one's own "self," to show off oneself, isn't that going directly against the path of cultivation?

The reason the self-attachment of the seventh consciousness (manas) is heavy is the clinging to the notion of "I." It constantly seeks to assert itself, to express itself, to emphasize how one is this or that. When told they are mistaken, that it's not like that, they immediately defend themselves or walk away in anger—these are all serious manifestations of the "self-mind." If one truly wishes to cultivate swiftly and rapidly advance on the path, one should examine daily whether the afflictive mental factors have diminished compared to before; whether emotional outbursts have decreased; whether the mind of arrogance and self has lessened. This is true cultivation. It is not about accumulating a heap of intellectual knowledge only to increase the self-mind and arrogance. That is studying wrongly; it is studying in the opposite direction.