Various Manifestations of Self-View and Self-Grasping

If a person is determined to be themselves, insists on being different from everyone else, is unconventional and independent, refuses to be manipulated or arranged by anyone, and is unwilling to comply with anyone—is such a person one who has eliminated self-view and is without self, or one with especially heavy grasping at self? A person who has a self in mind will emphasize their own feelings and sensations, care about their own privileges and attributes, care about their own uniqueness, and be unwilling to merge themselves into the crowd, unwilling to hide and extinguish the self, firmly grasping at self in mind and refusing to let go. A person who is unwilling to comply with anyone's requests, unwilling to be managed or arranged, does not obey leadership, and cannot practice self-discipline is a person with very heavy self-view; even if they can practice self-discipline, they are still a person with heavy self-view.

The great arhat Mahāmaudgalyāyana, who had completely eliminated grasping at self, after attaining the fruit had no sense of self-existence in his mind at all; he completely complied with the minds of sentient beings. If sentient beings wished him to act in a certain way, he did so; if they did not wish it, he did not. Even if sentient beings made unreasonable and overbearing demands, he obeyed without any complaint, never going against them. After eliminating self-view, one is a person without self; inwardly there is no self, nor the notions of a person, sentient beings, or a life span. But a person who is single-mindedly determined to be themselves—is this not running exactly counter to that? It is absolutely running counter to it. If there is no self, what self is there to be? This is increasing self-view and grasping at self; thus self-view and grasping at self lead to endless birth, death, and transmigration. Those who indulge their own willfulness are bound to suffer.

A person who strongly emphasizes their own sense of self-existence and is unwilling to comply with even the slightest wish of sentient beings is an intense egoist. A person who never yields or softens, never makes concessions, has an extremely strong nature of self; a person who sees everything as inferior to themselves and speaks sharply to others is a person with extremely severe grasping at self. Those with heavy grasping at self find it very difficult to eliminate self-view. If a person always insists "I am right and you are wrong," is clear-cut about conflicts and disputes, does not know how to yield or comply, and does not display kindness and magnanimity, that is a person with extremely severe self-view and grasping at self, lacking the bodhisattva's disposition of complying with sentient beings.

If a person lives caring only about their own feelings, focusing on their own sensations, pursuing inner comfort, being wild and unrestrained, regardless of the people and affairs around them, regardless of how the world is, subject to no constraints whatsoever—such a person has extremely heavy self-view and grasping at self, and is moreover a person of the utmost, utmost severity. For such a person, eliminating self-view in this life is extremely difficult.

Everyone should frequently turn back and introspect upon themselves, always examining and reflecting within. To achieve self-reflection and self-examination, one must pay more attention to one's own inner world. Every single thought should be introspected and checked; upon discovering thoughts that do not accord with the Path, quickly turn them around and extinguish them, never allowing them to run rampant—this is cultivation. A true bodhisattva neither follows convention nor violates convention. How to grasp the proper measure in between depends on the bodhisattva's cultivation and skillful wisdom. Ordinary bodhisattvas do not possess such skillful means and worldly wisdom for dealing with the world, so they encounter some obstacles in their dealings.