The View of Self as Taught in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra

Original text:大慧。身见有二种。谓俱生及妄想。如缘起妄想。自性妄想。

Explanation: In the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, the Buddha said that the view of the body (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) has two kinds: one is the innate view of the body, the view of the body that the five aggregates possess from birth, which is the manas's view of the body, and this needs to be eradicated; the other is the imagined view of the body. "Imagined" (妄想) means false and unreal, not true and correct; "thinking" (想) means discriminating and grasping as a mark, grasping it as real, grasping it as self and what belongs to self. Therefore, when there is imagination, there is also the view of the body, and the imagined view of the body also needs to be eradicated.

There are many kinds of imagination, such as the imagination of dependent origination: not viewing the dharmas born from various causes and conditions as they really are, falsely grasping these dependently originated dharmas as self and what belongs to self, not knowing that these dharmas are all born of causes and conditions, all false, impermanent, subject to arising and ceasing, subject to change, and suffering, and are not self or what belongs to self. The imagination of dependent origination includes not only the mind consciousness's imagination, but even more the manas's imagination; the imaginations of both must be eradicated, so that one no longer imagines that dependently originated dharmas are self and what belongs to self—they fundamentally are not.

The imagination of self-nature is the belief that all dharmas have their own inherent nature, have real existence, can be relied upon, can be depended upon, and thus one grasps them as self and what belongs to self. Within this imagination there is both the mind consciousness's imagination and, even more, the manas's imagination; only when the imaginations of both are eradicated is one one who has eradicated the view of self. Among the various imaginations, the manas's imagination is primary and the mind consciousness's imagination is auxiliary.

Original text:譬如依缘起自性。种种妄想自性计著生。以彼非有、非无、非有无。无实妄想相故。愚夫妄想。种种妄想。自性相计著。如热时焰。鹿渴水想。是须陀洹妄想身见。彼以人无我。摄受无性。断除久远无知计著。

Explanation: For instance, relying on the self-nature of dependent origination, after grasping that dependently originated dharmas have self-nature, various kinds of imagination arise, universally discriminating and clinging to dependently originated dharmas, imagining that dependently originated dharmas are non-existent or non-non-existent, neither existent nor non-existent, both existent and non-existent. Because these notions are all unreal imagined illusions, they are all the imaginations of ignorant ordinary beings. Ignorant ordinary beings give rise to various imaginations about dependently originated dharmas, clinging to the notion that dependently originated dharmas have an inherently real self-nature, grasping all the appearances of dependently originated dharmas as real, as self and what belongs to self.

It is like the illusory shimmering water appearing on the sand when the weather is hot, which the thirsty deer imagines to be real water it can drink. Ordinary beings, like the thirsty deer, take the unreal, illusory body of the five aggregates to be the real self and what belongs to self, and constantly grasp at it, craving birth and greedily clinging to existence. The srotāpanna who has eradicated the view of self, regarding this imagined view of the body, contemplates as they really are that the body of the five aggregates has no self and nothing belonging to self, and truly awakens to the fact that the body of the five aggregates has no inherent self-nature, thereby eradicating the ignorance and grasping nature toward the body of the five aggregates that he has had since beginningless kalpas.

The imagined view of the body described above still takes the manas's view of the body as primary and the mind consciousness's view of the body as auxiliary, because the text repeatedly speaks of "various imaginations clinging to self-nature," "clinging to the marks of self-nature," and "long-standing ignorance and clinging." These all refer to the manas's imagined view of the body; from the manas's imagined view of the body arises the mind consciousness's imagined view of the body. The mind consciousness's imagined view of the body is not long-standing; it lasts only one lifetime and then ceases. The manas does not cease, causing the mind consciousness of the next life to again give rise to the imagined view of the body. Therefore, if in cultivation one does not properly deal with the deep-rooted problem of the manas, what one cultivates is merely superficial, and it will arise again, rendering the effort wasted.