Why Can Contemplative Practice Eradicate the View of Self?

To illustrate this issue of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) with an example: children all love toys. Some children, upon getting a toy, cling to it and cannot put it down, loving it for years without tiring of it—their intelligence is rather worrying. Other children, upon getting a toy, are curious: they take it apart and put it back together, take it apart and put it back together again, until finally they see clearly that the toy is nothing special, lose interest, and switch to another toy. They take this same attitude toward all other toys—taking them apart and examining them from the inside out until they see them clearly—and once they see them clearly, they lose interest. As they grow older and gain more experience, they no longer have any interest in any toy whatsoever. This shows that such a child's mind is mature. 

Sentient beings are just like children: they also love the toy of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha), clinging to it and unable to put it down for many lifetimes and many kalpas, bound tightly by the five aggregates and suffering every kind of pain. How can one be liberated from this bondage? One must be like the child with a mature mind: take the world of the five aggregates apart and break it down, see through the true substance of the five aggregates, and know that the five aggregates are suffering and empty—apart from that, there is nothing else. If sentient beings have the mind of the Mahāyāna, and see through the true substance of the five aggregates as the empty tathāgatagarbha, realizing there are fundamentally no five aggregates at all, then this mind is the most mature of all.

Because most sentient beings are infatuated with the five aggregates, immersed in them and unable to extricate themselves—like children infatuated with toys, their minds immature and not knowing how to take the five aggregates apart—the Buddha established an expedient method, teaching long-term, meticulous, and reasoned observation, beginning contemplation with the breathing of the four foundations of mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna). The purpose is to start with the breath in order to take the five aggregates apart; this is the simplest and most effective method. Some people contemplate the breath, and as they contemplate on and on, the five aggregates are broken open a little. From this point, they see through the aggregate of form, understanding that the aggregate of form is suffering and empty, and apart from this there is nothing at all—and thus they eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi). Some people, at the same time as eradicating the view of self, exert a bit more effort and take the other four aggregates apart all together as well, seeing through the entirety of the five aggregates as suffering, empty, and non-self, and thus eradicate the view of self. Those with even better minds see the five aggregates clearly and thoroughly, from the inside out, and directly realize the arhat of the fourth fruit. 

Therefore, this contemplative practice is an excellent method for taking the five aggregates apart and attaining liberation, allowing these children—sentient beings—to mature in mind sooner, so that they may become weary of the five aggregates and be liberated from the suffering of birth and death. The key is to know how to contemplate, and to contemplate in accordance with reason; this also depends on sentient beings' minds and their power of meditative concentration (samādhi). It is certain that sentient beings differ in meditative concentration and wisdom, but there is no need to hurry. As long as one engages in contemplative practice every day, practicing over a long time, sooner or later one will see the five aggregates thoroughly and no longer be deluded or entangled by them—liberation is only a matter of time.