What Exactly Is Asmi-Māna?

There are seven types of arrogance: arrogance, excessive arrogance, arrogance beyond arrogance, self-arrogance, superior arrogance, inferior arrogance, and perverted arrogance. All arise from the so-called self; thus, self-arrogance is fundamental, giving rise to the others. Therefore, the other types of arrogance must be severed first through cultivation, while self-arrogance is severed last. In the Hinayana path, self-arrogance is severed at the stage of the fourth-fruit Arhat, but the habit-energy of self-arrogance remains. In the Mahayana path, self-arrogance is severed at the first-ground Bodhisattva stage, but the habit-energy remains. This habit-energy of self-arrogance is only completely severed when one cultivates to the eighth-ground Bodhisattva stage, demonstrating how deeply ingrained this habit-energy is.

What is the habit-energy of self-arrogance? For example, when a repulsive insect falls from a tree onto one's body, an ordinary person will instinctively and immediately shake it off without thinking, without contemplation; they can react quickly and subconsciously. This is the mental faculty's habitual instinct to protect the self, thoughtlessly avoiding danger and rejecting what one dislikes. This is the habit-energy of self-arrogance. Why do all sentient beings have this habit-energy? Because the mental faculty of sentient beings, since time without beginning, has persistently clung to the five aggregates as the self. This habit-energy is deeply ingrained. Even after severing the view of self and eliminating self-arrogance, deep within the mental faculty, the concept and thought of the five-aggregate self remain; habitually, the shadow of the five aggregates has not yet been eradicated. Only seventh and eighth-ground Bodhisattvas can sever this habit-energy of self-arrogance. Arhats can prevent self-arrogance from manifesting actively; it is from the first-ground Bodhisattva stage onwards that one gradually begins to sever the habit-energy of self-arrogance and the habit-energy of afflictions like greed, hatred, and delusion. When Arhats sever afflictions, they sever the active manifestation of afflictions; all habit-energies only begin to be gradually severed from the first-ground Bodhisattva stage onwards.

The afflictions in our minds are extremely deep and numerous, very difficult to sever. Actually, to say it's difficult is not entirely accurate; if we cultivate with vigorous diligence, afflictions will melt away like snow under the rising sun. Thus, difficulty and ease entirely depend on one's own mind. Like those who have realized the Way describing the difficulty or ease of Chan enlightenment: Pang Yun said: "Difficult, difficult, difficult! Like spreading ten dan of sesame oil on a tree!" Then Pang Po said: "Easy, easy, easy! Like the meaning of the West on the tips of a hundred grasses!" Lingzhao said: "Neither difficult nor easy; hungry, I eat; tired, I sleep." Three people have three different feelings, three different views on enlightenment. Therefore, the difficulty or ease of all dharmas lies in the person, in whether their faculties are sharp or dull; difficulty and ease are relative concepts, illusory appearances, not truly existing realities.

The supreme bodhi can destroy all wrong views in the world. Where do wrong views come from? They also arise from the view of self. Before ordinary people attain the fruition, they all believe there is an "I" existing – the physical body is me, the five aggregates are me. All kinds of knowledge and views starting from the standpoint of "I" belong to wrong views. Cultivating and realizing the Buddha Dharma can destroy all wrong views and eliminate all the sins of sentient beings. Upon attaining the first fruition (Sotāpanna), one severs three fetters including the wrong view about self. The karmic retribution for the three evil paths created since time without beginning is eliminated, and one will never fall into the three evil paths in the future. The remaining karmic retribution is only experienced within the human realm, suffering among humans. However severe the suffering among humans, it is happier and involves lighter suffering than being in the three evil paths.

Those who have not realized the first ground are called ordinary beings or prithagjana (differently born). Those who attain the first ground are Sages, having eliminated the nature of prithagjana and no longer creating evil karma leading to birth and death. Sentient beings who have not severed the defiled karmic seeds of birth and death all belong to the category of prithagjana. After this lifespan ends, there will be another life, born at another time, in another place – perhaps in the heavens, the human realm, hell, or as a hungry ghost – hence called "differently born" at different times and places. Both first-ground Bodhisattvas and ordinary prithagjana have segmenting birth-and-death. For example, a human lives for eighty or a hundred years, or perhaps eight hundred or a thousand years; after the lifespan ends, there is the next life. Birth and death occur in segments, hence called segmenting birth-and-death. If a first-ground Bodhisattva takes birth in the heavenly realm, the lifespan is extremely long; if born in the human realm, the lifespan is the same as ordinary sentient beings, also involving segmenting birth-and-death; if born into the animal realm by vow, the lifespan is as short as an animal's, also involving segmenting birth-and-death. Besides segmenting birth-and-death, there is also transformative birth-and-death. Transformative birth-and-death means the lifespan is extremely long, but within the Tathagatagarbha mind, the defiled seeds of birth and death have not yet been completely eliminated. One can still experience the karmic results of birth and death; the illusory appearance of birth and death cannot be permanently extinguished. The seeds of arising and ceasing within the mind cannot be severed before attaining Buddhahood; therefore, there exists transformative birth-and-death.