The Root of Eradicating the View of Self Is to Eradicate the View of Self of the Manas

All sentient beings take the five aggregates as the self, so who do "sentient beings" refer to? Sentient beings mainly refer to the manas. The five aggregates are centered on the manas; the manas commands the six consciousnesses, and together with the physical body forms the body of the five aggregates. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra says: "knowing the mental activities of sentient beings." Who knows the mental activities of sentient beings? It is the tathāgatagarbha that knows the mental activities of sentient beings, and this "sentient being" is the manas. Because the tathāgatagarbha mainly knows the mental activities of the manas and helps to realize the manas' wishes and thoughts, only then can there be the creation of bodily, verbal, and mental actions by the five aggregates and the six consciousnesses, and only then can the worldly dharmas of the three realms manifest.

This manas represents sentient beings. The manas takes the five aggregates as the self: it takes the aggregate of form as the self, takes the aggregate of feeling as the self, then takes the aggregate of perception as the self, takes the aggregate of volitional formations as the self, and then takes the six consciousnesses of the aggregate of consciousness as the self; it also takes the various functions and operations of the tathāgatagarbha as belonging to itself (the manas) — "all these dharmas were produced by me, and all belong to me." Therefore, this "self" mainly refers to the manas.

Then, whose view of self is eradicated in the eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa)? Now it is very clear: the eradication of the view of self is mainly the eradication of the manas' view of self. The manas takes all these dharmas as the self; the eradication of the view of self means making the manas no longer regard the five aggregates as the self (the manas). Eliminating this view of the manas is the eradication of the view of self. Therefore, the eradication of the view of self must reach the manas; only when the manas acknowledges that the five aggregates are not the self is it truly the eradication of the view of self.

This "self" refers to the manas, not to the six consciousnesses or the mind consciousness, because it is the manas that takes the aggregate of consciousness (the six consciousnesses), the aggregate of feeling, the aggregate of perception, the aggregate of volitional formations, and the aggregate of form all as the self. Therefore, the eradication of the view of self means making the manas no longer take these dharmas as the self. If the manas does not eradicate the view of self, and only the mind consciousness eradicates the view of self — the mind consciousness believing that the five aggregates are not the self — is this the eradication of the view of self? Now it appears that the mind consciousness believing "not the self" is useless; this is not the eradication of the view of self. Only when the manas acknowledges that the five aggregates are not the self, the manas, is it the most fundamental and ultimate eradication of the view of self.