Without Eliminating Self-View, One Cannot See the True Mind

The elimination of self-view (ahaṃkāra-mamakāra-parityāga) corresponds to the sixth abode stage, while seeing one's true mind corresponds to the seventh abode stage. Without eliminating self-view, one cannot awaken to the true mind. If one awakens to the true mind without having eliminated self-view, two "selves" will be present simultaneously, and with deeply entrenched arrogance, one will raise a great uproar.

If one has not realized the falsity of the self composed of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha), how could one accord with no-self? To feel such accord without any realization is merely the mind consciousness's self-assurance, without any basis—it belongs to sentimental conjecture and intellectual interpretation. The mind consciousness's delusive perception is precisely a manifestation of the nature of self-clinging; not understanding oneself and the actual situation, one puts a tall hat on oneself. Many people are like this: having realized nothing at all, they yet believe their mind has become empty, that the four marks are gone, that everything is like a dream and illusion, that they are about to attain nirvāṇa, that the "precepts of marks" no longer need to be cultivated and they can begin cultivating the "precepts of the mind-ground," and so on. Very quickly they become inflated with self-importance. This is an enormous misunderstanding of the cultivation and realization of the Buddha's Dharma.