Why Contemplative Practice (Vipaśyanā-Caryā) Can Eliminate Self-View (Ātma-Dṛṣṭi)

To illustrate this issue of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) with an example: all little children love toys. Some children, once they get a toy, cannot put it down, cherishing it for years without tiring of it—their intelligence is questionable. Other children, upon getting a toy, are curious: they take it apart and reassemble it, assemble and disassemble it, until finally they see clearly that the toy is nothing special, lose interest, and switch to another toy. They take this attitude toward all toys—taking them apart and breaking them down, examining them thoroughly from the inside out. Once they see through them, they lose interest. As they grow older and gain experience, they no longer have any interest in any toy whatsoever. This shows that such a child's mind is mature. 

Sentient beings are just like little children; they too love the toy of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha), unable to put it down for many lifetimes and many kalpas, bound tightly by the five aggregates, enduring every kind of suffering. How can one be liberated from this bondage? One must be like the child with a mature mind: take the world of the five aggregates apart and break it down, see through the true substance of the five aggregates, and know that the five aggregates are suffering and empty—apart from that, there is nothing else. If sentient beings have the mind of the Mahāyāna, and see through the true substance of the five aggregates—that they are the empty tathāgatagarbha, and that there are fundamentally no five aggregates—then this mind is the most mature of all.

Because the majority of sentient beings are attached to and infatuated with the five aggregates, immersed in them and unable to extricate themselves—like little children infatuated with toys, their minds immature and not knowing how to take the five aggregates apart—the Buddha established an expedient method, teaching long-term, meticulous, and reasoned observation, beginning contemplation with the breath of the four foundations of mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna). The aim is to start with the breath in order to take the five aggregates apart; this is the simplest and most effective method. Some people contemplate the breath, and as they contemplate on and on, the five aggregates break open a little. From this small opening, they peer through the aggregate of form (rūpa), seeing clearly that the aggregate of form is suffering and empty, and that apart from this there is nothing at all—and thus they eliminate the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) of the body. Some people, at the same time as eliminating the view of the body, exert a bit more effort and take the other four aggregates apart all together as well, seeing through the entirety of the five aggregates as suffering, empty, and not-self (anātman), and thus eliminate self-view. Those with even better minds see the five aggregates thoroughly, clearly, and completely, from the inside out, and directly realize the fourth fruit of arhat.

Therefore this contemplative practice is an excellent method for taking the five aggregates apart and attaining liberation, allowing these children—the sentient beings—to have their minds mature sooner, so that they may become weary of the five aggregates and be liberated from the suffering of birth and death. The key is knowing how to contemplate, and the contemplation must accord with reason; this also depends on the minds and meditative concentration (samādhi) of sentient beings. There are certainly differences among sentient beings in samādhi and wisdom, but there is no need to hurry. As long as one engages in contemplative practice every day, contemplating over a long time, sooner or later one will see the five aggregates through completely and no longer be deluded or entangled by them. Liberation is only a matter of time.