All Dharmas Are Without Self (II)

All dharmas are without self, including the selflessness of persons and the selflessness of dharmas. The selfless nature of the eighth consciousness is one aspect of the selflessness of dharmas realized in the Mahāyāna. The selflessness of persons is what the Āgama sūtras teach—the five aggregates and eighteen realms realized by arhats as not being the self. Viewed from the perspective of the five aggregates: the aggregate of form arises from nonexistence and is subject to arising and ceasing, impermanent—it is not the self; the aggregate of feeling flows and shifts from moment to moment, ever changing—it is not the self; the aggregate of perception arises and ceases impermanently, flowing and shifting from moment to moment, ever changing—it is not the self; the aggregate of formations undergoes arising, abiding, alteration, and cessation, unable to endure for long—it is not the self; the aggregate of consciousness arises and ceases, changes instant by instant, arising then ceasing, ceasing then arising—it is not the self. The five aggregates are produced from causes and conditions; they are not the self.

Viewed from the perspective of the eighteen realms: the first five sense faculties arise from nonexistence and pass from existence to cessation; they cannot be grasped and are not the self. The sixth faculty, the manas, is a flowing forth of seeds of consciousness, arising and ceasing instant by instant, and it too can be extinguished when an arhat enters nirvāṇa—it is not the self. The six consciousnesses are just the aggregate of consciousness, arising, ceasing, and changing—they are not the self. The six sense objects—material objects, sounds, scents, flavors, tangibles, and dharmas—arise from nonexistence and pass from existence to nonexistence, arising and perishing through conditions, ever changing—they are not the self. The dharmas of the eighteen realms arise and perish through conditions, are impermanent and ever changing—they are not the self.

This is the selflessness of persons with respect to the five aggregates and eighteen realms in general. The selflessness of dharmas in the Small Vehicle means that among all the dharmas produced through the successive combination of the five aggregates, six sense bases, twelve sense fields, and eighteen realms, there is no self. For example: the eye seeing forms, the ear hearing sounds, the six faculties contacting the six sense objects, walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, dressing and eating, speaking and laughing, doing good and doing evil, inwardly thinking, comprehending, analyzing, investigating, and so on—all these activities of the seven consciousnesses: all these dharmas are not real; they arise and perish through conditions, are impermanent and ever changing, unable to endure for long. None of these dharmas possesses any self-nature; none of them is the self.

The selflessness of persons and the selflessness of dharmas realized by Mahāyāna bodhisattvas involve contemplating, from the perspective of the tathāgatagarbha, the illusory and unreal nature of the self composed of the five aggregates and eighteen realms, contemplating that all dharmas derived from the combination of the aggregates, sense fields, and realms are functions and operations of the tathāgatagarbha, without any substantial entity. This includes not only the selflessness of persons and the selflessness of dharmas of the Small Vehicle explained above, but also the realization of the selfless nature of the eighth consciousness, as well as the emptiness of the grasping subject of the seven consciousnesses and the emptiness of the six sense objects that are grasped—that is, both the grasping subject and the grasped object are empty. As for the part concerning the emptiness and selflessness of the person composed of the five aggregates and eighteen realms, it is because the eighth consciousness gives forth the seeds of the five aggregates and the seeds of the eighteen realms that all the activities of the five aggregates and eighteen realms can be sustained.