Saṃyukta Āgama (289), Part Three

(3) Original text: 愚痴无闻凡夫宁于四大身。系我我所。不可于识。系我我所。所以者何。四大色身。或见十年住。二十三十。乃至百年。若善消息。或复小过。彼心意识。日夜时克。须臾转变。异生异灭。犹如猕猴。游林树间。须臾处处。攀捉枝条。放一取一。彼心意识。亦复如是。异生异灭。

Explanation: The Buddha said: The foolish, unlearned ordinary being would rather take the physical body composed of the four great elements as self and belonging to self, than take the conscious mind as self and belonging to self. Why is this said? Because the physical body composed of the four great elements can only remain in the world for ten years, twenty years, thirty years, or even a hundred years before it perishes; if it is well cared for, it may perhaps last a little over a hundred years. But the mind-consciousness, day and night, at every moment, is flowing and changing in an instant; moment after moment it is undergoing change, arising here and ceasing there, arising in one place and ceasing in another. It is like a monkey wandering among the trees of a forest: in just a short while it roams over many places, climbing up trees and grasping at branches, letting go of one branch and seizing another, never at rest. What people call the mind-consciousness is also like this, arising and ceasing in different ways: arising at this time and ceasing at another time, arising in one place and ceasing in another, arising on this dharma and ceasing on that dharma, arising on that dharma and ceasing on this dharma, disappearing from this body and arising again in another body, day and night undergoing all kinds of transformations, never stopping for a moment—arising at different times, arising in different places, arising in different forms.

The most serious form of self-view in ordinary beings is taking the functions and activities of the conscious mind as the self, as belonging to the self; this self-view is the hardest to eliminate. The self-view of the physical body is somewhat easier to eliminate, because the phenomena of the body's arising, ceasing, and change are easy to observe, and the body can be distinguished from the conscious mind. The phenomena of the conscious mind's arising, ceasing, and change are not easy to observe and understand, because all the functions and activities of the five-aggregate body belong to the conscious mind; they are too dense and continuous, and so they feel real—one feels that it is oneself functioning, that it is one's own functioning, and it is very difficult to separate the functions of feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness of the conscious mind from oneself and see through them.

If one takes the conscious mind as self and as belonging to self, then at the time of death, one will want to grasp firmly at the conscious mind, single-mindedly wanting to keep seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing, fearing the gradual disappearance of seeing, hearing, perceiving, and knowing. Although one clearly perceives that the functions of the conscious mind are becoming weaker and weaker, and the body is becoming more and more useless, one simply does not want the conscious mind to cease, feeling intense pain and being unable to accept the phenomenon of death. Even so, the ordinary being still does not recognize that one's own conscious mind is impermanent, arising, ceasing, and changing, and still hopes that these functions will continue to operate.