Eliminating Self-Grasping and Eliminating Dharma-Grasping

Self-grasping (ātma-grāha) is the clinging attachment to the five aggregates as self, refusing to let go. When self-grasping is eliminated, one attains liberation, no longer bound by the five aggregates, no longer bound by the eighteen realms, and no longer bound by any dharma whatsoever in the threefold world. One possesses the wisdom to transcend the threefold world—this is the realm of the fourth-fruit arhat. After they have eliminated self-grasping, they no longer cling to the five aggregates as self; when their lifespan ends, they can extinguish themselves and enter nirvāṇa without remainder (anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa).

Grasping at dharmas, also called grasping at the dharma-self, is the attachment to the notion that there is a self, or that something belongs to self, among all the dharmas derived from the combination of the aggregates, sense bases, and realms. When bodhisattvas on the bhūmis cultivate one portion of the patience with the non-arising of dharmas, they realize one portion of the selflessness of dharmas and eliminate one portion of grasping at dharmas. Because bodhisattvas on the bhūmis retain a residue of affliction to moisten rebirth and preserve the five-aggregate body, they deliberately do not completely eliminate self-grasping, and instead begin to eliminate grasping at dharmas, realizing that within all dharmas produced by the combination of the aggregates, sense bases, and realms, there is no self and nothing belonging to self. When grasping at dharmas is completely eliminated, they perfectly accomplish buddhahood.