Contemplative Practice for Eradicating the View of Self in the Mind Consciousness (2)

Let us contemplate and engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā). The mind that is deliberating right now, the mind that is discerning objects—by what causes and conditions does it arise? Without these conditions, would my discriminating mind then cease to exist? Without these conditions, my present capacity for thinking would be gone, and my present capacity for discernment would be gone. By pondering back and forth in this way, one can come to know how illusory and how unreal this mind is! After contemplating slowly in this manner, one will no longer mistakenly take the mind consciousness—which can think and discern—to be the self. It is best to contemplate while in a state of meditative concentration (samādhi); such contemplation will then be very deep and subtle, and the mind consciousness and the manas will more readily accept this principle, no longer grasping at the mind consciousness as the self. In this way, the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) is eradicated.