Saṃyuktāgama Volume I (9)

Thus have I heard. At one time, the Buddha was dwelling at Śrāvastī, in the Jeta Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika's Park. At that time, the Blessed One addressed the bhikṣus: "Form is impermanent. What is impermanent is suffering. What is suffering is not-self. What is not-self is also not belonging to a self. One who contemplates thus is said to possess true and correct insight. Similarly, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness are impermanent. What is impermanent is suffering. What is suffering is not-self. What is not-self is also not belonging to a self. One who contemplates thus is said to possess true insight. Noble disciples, contemplating thus, become disenchanted with form; disenchanted with feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness. Being disenchanted, they become dispassionate. Through dispassion, they are liberated. In one who is liberated, there arises the knowledge of liberation: 'Birth is exhausted, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more coming to any state of being.'" Hearing the Buddha's words, the bhikṣus rejoiced and respectfully carried out the teaching.

Explanation: To correctly contemplate the five aggregates, one should not regard the aggregate of form as the self, nor should one regard it as belonging to a self. Both the notion of 'self' and 'what belongs to the self' constitute self-view, and both must be abandoned. In the mind, there should be no concept of 'I am form' nor the notion of 'form belonging to me'. In daily life, one will then refrain from engaging in unwholesome actions for the sake of the form aggregate, such as clinging to the various sensations of the body, or giving rise to aversion when the body fails to obtain desired objects. Even more so, one should abstain from creating unwholesome karmas such as killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and so forth.

Dependent upon the 'I' is the 'mine'. If there is no 'I', then there is no 'mine'. Both the notion of 'self' and 'what belongs to the self' are neither real nor reliable; they cannot be depended upon. When both are extinguished, liberation is attained.