Elimination of self-view (ahaṃkāra-mamakāra-parityāga) is not an easy matter

Beginners in Buddhism all have doubts. If doubts are not resolved, they will obstruct the advancement of one's practice on the path. Therefore one should find ways to resolve them: first, by seeking instruction from others to dispel the doubts; second, after receiving instruction, one must think it through oneself, search for evidence, and personally resolve the doubts.

When there are clearly so many doubts, instead of resolving them, one merely cultivates meditative concentration to cover them up—how could that ever dispel the doubts and attain wisdom?

In order not to take the body as self, some go imagining that insentient objects are their body, engaging in all sorts of imaginings, yet never contemplating why the physical body is not the self. In this way there is still a self of the physical body, and there is still bondage with no liberation. Then, without having eliminated the self-view of the physical body, they go on to imagine that the functions and activities of the conscious mind are not the self. Such imaginings are still craving for pleasant feelings—replacing the currently painful feelings with the pleasant feelings of another kind of imagination. They never carefully contemplate, through contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), why all feelings are not the self, are not real, and why they arise, cease, change, and are impermanent. Not contemplating thus in accordance with reality, but instead escaping from reality and indulging in imagination, is also a kind of craving and bondage. What follows is all the same: imagination and sentimental intellectualization, without any contemplative practice, experience, or process. This is not true practice; it is escaping from reality.

Those who are good at mathematics, physics, and chemistry have excellent logical thinking, which is precisely suited to be applied to contemplative practice in the Buddhadharma—quite practical. Literati and scholars, on the other hand, study Buddhism entirely through research and sentimental intellectualization; they do not understand contemplative practice and cannot think in accordance with reality. As a result, because literati have good comprehension and research abilities and good writing skills, although they have realized nothing at all, theoretical essays emerge one after another, dazzling people's eyes and leaving them all bewitched.

How many people in this world have opened their eyes, possessing eyes like Sun Wukong's fiery golden gaze that can see through all disguises and restore all truths? Practicing Buddhism is not about pursuing some fruit of attainment, seeking some fruit to eat; rather, it is about genuinely attaining the wisdom of liberation, so that the mind-ground reaches liberation. This is the fundamental goal and purpose of practice. Pursuing fruits of attainment and empty fame is to abandon the root and chase the branches: originally there was no liberation, and now an additional bondage is added, tying yet another rope around oneself—why the torment? Pursuing vanity—is that not still a self? How could self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) ever be eliminated? Sentient beings in the Dharma-ending age have meager merit (alpa-puṇya), and their practice is all done upside down. Clearly they are supposed to eliminate self-view, yet at every moment they increase it; clearly they are supposed to be without self, yet everywhere there is self. They have not even understood the real meaning of practice, nor do they wish to. Studying Buddhism is still for the sake of a self—"I will do this and that"—which runs directly counter to the Path: the more one pursues, the faster one runs; the more one fabricates, the farther one strays from the Way. Eliminating self-view is truly difficult, by no means an easy thing. It is not like some people who read a few books, mull things over a bit, and then stuff the fruit of no-self into their pocket. It is still far too early, still far away—the Long March of eighty-four thousand li has only just begun. Being anxious to attain fruit is still a self, not beyond my own mind. "I want to attain the fruit, I want to attain the fruit"—with this self, how could the fruit be attained? "I want to become a sage, I want to become a sage"—with this self, how could one be a sage?