Transforming the Wrong Views of the Manas Requires Long-Term Cultivation

The wrong view of taking the five aggregates as self belongs to the mental factor of delusion (moha). The manas innately possesses delusive ignorance, taking the body of the five aggregates as self, and the mind consciousness accordingly also has delusive wrong views. Through cultivation one can break through the delusive ignorance of these two consciousnesses, thereby eliminating self-view and realizing the fruits of the path; thereafter, the mental factor of delusion is transformed by one degree.

So does that mean that if we simply tell the manas that the body is false and unreal, that feelings and sensations are also unreal and not self—if we find some way to make the manas believe that none of this is its own and none of it is real—then self-view can be eliminated? The manas's ignorance is heavy; it does not believe whatever the mind consciousness tells it. It needs sufficient evidence and data, and then, based on these data, it carries out its own review and deliberation (manana), making its own judgment personally. When its delusion is severe, even with conclusive evidence and abundant facts, it cannot quickly confirm them and is unwilling to acknowledge the fact that the five aggregates are without self. Long-term immersion is needed, transforming bit by bit—three feet of ice does not form in a single day, and thick, long-accumulated ice cannot be melted by a few days of sunshine.

Someone may ask: after eliminating self-view, will one gradually lose one's own awareness, no longer feeling cold and heat, pain and itch, and so on? It is not so. Eliminating self-view only removes incorrect wrong views; it cannot extinguish perception. Extinguishing perception requires extremely deep fourth-dhyāna meditation, which can be achieved even without eliminating self-view. Only within the fourth dhyāna, when the domain of the aggregate of form (rūpa) and the domain of the aggregate of feeling (vedanā) have been broken through, can the feelings and sensations of the physical body be emptied out. Otherwise, even an arhat still has various sensations in the physical body; it is just that without attachment, the sensations are not so painful—at the very least, the feeling of the mind consciousness is not so distressed, while the feeling of body consciousness is about the same as that of ordinary beings.