The Importance of Eliminating Self-View (ātma-dṛṣṭi)

There is a philosophical idea in the West that says: "I think, therefore I am." Here, the "I" refers on the one hand to the self of the manas that is capable of deliberation, and on the other hand to the self of the mind consciousness that is capable of thinking. I am thinking, I am discerning, I am analyzing, I am planning, I am judging, I am pondering, I am knowing, and so on. This "I" is the "I" of the mind consciousness; He is always knowing: today what am I doing? I am eating, I am walking, I am discerning, I am reading, I am contemplating, I am thinking, I am engaged in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), I am investigating Chan, I am bowing to the Buddha, I am working, and so on.

Now, this entire "I" can only arise through the convergence of various causes and conditions, and must necessarily be constrained by many causal conditions. This "I" is therefore certainly a false self that constantly arises and ceases, and is not the true self at all. This "I" is an empty shell conjured up by the eighth consciousness, and all the functions and roles it appears to possess are bestowed upon it by the eighth consciousness. If the eighth consciousness had no seeds of consciousness, or if the eighth consciousness did not cooperate with its activities, then all these functions and roles, such as its capacity for discrimination, would vanish and cease to exist. Thus the mind consciousness is subject to arising and ceasing, is illusory and false, a conjured-up emptiness, and is not the self.

We should clearly recognize: the "I" who is speaking right now, the "I" who is thinking about things, the "I" who is doing things—all are produced by causes and conditions, all arise and cease, and therefore none of them is the self. In this way we eliminate the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) that takes the mind consciousness as the self. All the philosophers and thinkers in the world take the thinking mind consciousness as the self, which shows that they are all ordinary beings (pṛthagjana) whose self-view has not been eliminated. Even the devas—the devas of the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm, these three realms, including the devas of the Heaven of Neither Perception nor Non-Perception at the very highest level—likewise take the mind consciousness as the self, as a real, eternal, imperishable self. Therefore they must all undergo endless birth and death, the cycle of saṃsāra, and suffer incessantly. From this we can see how important the elimination of self-view is!

No matter what price we must pay in this life, we must eliminate the self-view. Once the self-view is eliminated, we will benefit immeasurably, life after life. Therefore, in our minds we should discard worldly dharmas as much as possible; these worldly dharmas can only be dealt with perfunctorily—they must not be taken seriously, must not be clung to, and still less grasped at. Discard as much as your mind is able to discard; to discard them completely and utterly would be best. Then turn back and grasp the Buddha-Dharma. You may grasp at the Buddha-Dharma—no matter how tightly you grasp at it, it does not matter, because the problem of birth and death has already been resolved, and the Buddha-Dharma can moreover enable us to accomplish the Buddha-way. What could be more worthwhile!