The Enjoyment of Liberation Merit After the Abandonment of Self-View

Simultaneously with the severance of self-view, the view of what is seen by the self is also severed. The crucial point lies in whether the manas affirms or denies the selflessness of the five aggregates. Mere intellectual assent by the mental consciousness is insufficient and does not constitute genuine severance of self-view. One must utterly and completely cease, in the deepest recesses of the mind, regarding the five aggregates as the self or as belonging to the self, and cease regarding the six dusts (objects of the senses) as one's own. Only then can it be achieved. During contemplative investigation, the mental consciousness must engage in profound and meticulous contemplation. This serves to guide the manas, enabling it to comprehend the principle. Once the manas comprehends the principle, it will alter its own conceptual framework, thereby effecting a profound transformation throughout the entire body and mind. From then on, the manas gradually ceases to cling to the functions of perception, feeling, thought, and volition of the six consciousnesses as the self or as belonging to the self, and ceases to cling to the aggregate of form as the self or as belonging to the self. After attaining the realization of the Mahayana path, one gradually relinquishes the functions of the five aggregates and the eighteen realms to the eighth consciousness, their true master. Only then can the successive stages of the Mahayana be traversed one by one, wisdom continuously deepening and sharpening, and body and mind increasingly liberated.