The Observing Wisdom of the Mahāyāna Path of Seeing

In the process of Chan investigation with strong meditative concentration and deep questioning doubt, one gradually eliminates the five aggregates and the eighteen realms, denies their reality, and thereby confirms their selflessness, eradicating the view of self and attaining the pure Dharma eye of the Small Vehicle. With the obscuration of the five aggregates and the eighteen realms removed, the Mahāyāna path of seeing is then not far off. When the mind consciousness and the manas, through Chan investigation, realize the tathāgatagarbha, they can observe the simple functioning of the tathāgatagarbha, which does not discriminate among the six sense objects; in this way, one obtains the prajñā wisdom of the Mahāyāna path of seeing.

With this wisdom, one observes that the tathāgatagarbha is a mind-substance that neither arises nor ceases and is devoid of self, yet can give birth to the five-aggregate body, which arises and ceases and possesses the nature of self. At the same time, one can also observe how the tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the five aggregates, realizing that the five aggregates are indeed empty and selfless, and clearly knowing why they are empty and selfless. Such wisdom is far deeper, sharper, and more ultimate than the wisdom of eradicating the view of self in the Small Vehicle. As for eradicating the fundamental obstructions of afflictions and the obstruction of the knowable, that is a matter of subsequent cultivation, a matter that comes after the first dhyāna arises, and also a matter for after the ten stages of dedication and the ten practices.