The Question of the Stages of Eradicating the View of Self and Chan Meditation

Whether one should first eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and then engage in Chan investigation, or directly engage in Chan investigation seeking realization and enlightenment—there is no fixed conclusion on this; it depends on one's spiritual faculties (indriya). The Dharma has no fixed method; it varies from person to person. For most people, they should first seek to eradicate the view of self, clearly understanding the false self of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha), so that in subsequent Chan investigation they will not confuse the false with the true, taking the false as real. For those with better spiritual faculties, whose afflictions of the view of self are relatively mild and whose meditative concentration (samādhi) is also excellent, who do not fall into the deliberation of the mind consciousness, they may directly engage in Chan investigation, eradicating the view of self during the process of investigation and then realizing the true.

Because Chan investigation is precisely the investigation and verification within the body of the five aggregates, which cannot be separated from the five aggregates and the eighteen realms (dhātus). During the process of investigation, one can also discern one by one the arising-and-ceasing, unreal nature of the body of the five aggregates, thereby eradicating the view of self. The Chan masters of ancient times who awakened to the Way all did so, but it cannot be guaranteed that there were no ones who merely had intellectual understanding. Among the seventeen hundred Chan kōans, not all were cases of true realization. If one's meditative power is somewhat weaker, the functions of the mind consciousness will be stronger than those of the manas, and the result will be intellectual understanding. With intellectual understanding, one sees the true mind only vaguely, as merely a rough shadow; the wisdom of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) cannot arise, afflictions cannot be lessened, and the view of self cannot be eradicated. This instead delays one's progress on the Path—haste makes waste, and the result is the opposite of what is intended.

Modern people's power of meditative concentration is generally much weaker than that of the ancients; the deliberation of the mind consciousness is not easily subdued, so the function of the manas becomes feeble, making realization very difficult. Eradicating the view of self is also very difficult; with much theoretical understanding, intellectual understanding comes easily, while true realization is even harder. Therefore, we should all first engage in the contemplative practice of the five aggregates being without self, and then engage in Chan investigation—this is the more reliable approach.