Contemplating the Five Aggregates and Eliminating the View of Self (Part I) (Second Edition)

Chapter 3: The First Part of Contemplative Practice on the Five Aggregates

When engaging in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the illusoriness of the five aggregates and the eighteen realms, before the contemplative practice, one must thoroughly understand the concepts and contents of the five aggregates and the eighteen realms, and develop meditative concentration. Then, for each of the aggregates within the five aggregates, one should deliberate one by one on their nature of suffering, their emptiness (śūnyatā), their impermanence, their nature of arising and ceasing, their nature of mutability, and their nature of non-self. The scope of the five aggregates must be searched out completely, and one should try to contemplate all of them. At the very moment of the arising of bodily, verbal, and mental actions, one should separate out the various functions and roles of each of the five aggregates, and then observe their nature of suffering, their emptiness, their impermanence, and their non-self. The eighteen realms are the same: each realm must have its content clearly distinguished, and one should contemplate and deliberate on each one individually regarding its nature of suffering, its emptiness, its impermanence, its nature of arising and ceasing, its nature of mutability, and its nature of non-self. Finally, one arrives at a conclusion: the five aggregates and the eighteen realms are not self, not different from self, and not mutually contained—in this way one can achieve the eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa). If one's meditative concentration is not good enough and the power of wisdom (prajñā-bala) is not strong enough, one can practice according to the contemplative method of the four establishments of mindfulness taught by the Buddha; both concentration and wisdom will increase simultaneously, and the results are remarkable.

The five aggregates are form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness, divided into two parts: the physical body and the conscious mind. The function of the physical body is the aggregate of form, and the functions of the conscious mind are the four aggregates of feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness. The eradication of the view of self thus includes two parts: eradicating the view of self regarding the physical body and eradicating the view of self regarding the conscious mind.