How to Assess the Degree of Elimination of Self-View (ātma-dṛṣṭi)?

In the secular world, some people who have never encountered the Buddha-Dharma also believe that the body is subject to arising and ceasing, is impermanent, is not real, and is merely a false shell that they use. Have they eliminated the identity view (satkāya-dṛṣṭi)? Some of them do not care about what they eat, wear, live in, or use, and even when their body is ill they pay no attention to it—have they eliminated the identity view? No, none of them have. They do not care about the body because certain causal conditions restrict them, such as poverty, stinginess, and so on, or because they have pursuits in other areas and for the time being cannot attend to the physical body. Once the conditions are complete, they will still treasure the physical body greatly, craving and clinging to it, and indulging in its pleasures.

Eliminating the identity view requires a comprehensive examination: examining from the perspective of precepts, meditation, and wisdom; examining from the perspective of the thirty-seven factors of the path; examining from the perspective of mental thoughts; and examining from the perspective of mental activities—one must not generalize from a partial view. Although some people do not care about certain matters concerning the body, it may be because their living conditions are inadequate, or because of inner foolishness, or because they have shifted their attention to other matters related to the body, having pursuits in other areas with some special purpose in mind; for the sake of the body they would even create karma leading to the three evil destinies, and they are unwilling to give up the material life they possess. Therefore, they have not eliminated the identity view.

All bodily, verbal, and mental actions will form seeds, just like files/records. Those with supernatural powers can consult them at any time; these files never disappear, whereas karmic seeds can disappear. There are karmic seeds of attachment and karmic seeds of non-attachment; the tathāgatagarbha's records differ, and thus the retributions differ. In other words, when doing one thing, if the mental activities differ, the tathāgatagarbha's records differ, the karmic seeds differ, and the karmic retribution differs.