Why Is the First Eradication of the View of Self So Difficult?

The manas establishing the manas itself is the self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana). The manas grasps its own ever-present, everywhere-dominating nature of decision-making as "self," not knowing that this too is arising-and-ceasing, illusory, and unreal. Does the mind consciousness grasp the manas's ever-present, everywhere-dominating nature of decision-making and its nature of constant deliberation (manasikāra) as self, as real? Ultimately, whose mind consciousness is capable of grasping the manas's functions and operations in this way? If the mind consciousness does not know that these functions and operations all belong to the manas, and instead takes them to be its own functions and operations, this is erroneous grasping, and the mind consciousness also lacks wisdom.

When the mind consciousness takes its own ability to discern the six sense objects and discriminate among the six sense objects as real and as self, this is the mind consciousness's self-validating cognition (svasaṃvedana). This is a mistaken recognition, and this mistaken recognition leads the manas to mistakenly recognize it as well. In order to correct this mistaken recognition of the manas, one must first let the mind consciousness reflect that the mind consciousness's functions and operations are not real and are not self, in order to permeate the manas. Once the manas has been permeated and no longer takes the mind consciousness's functions and operations as real and as self, the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) is eradicated.

These false selves are mainly what the manas believes in: the manas believes the physical body belongs to it, the manas; that the functions and operations of the six consciousnesses belong to it, the manas; that the six sense objects belong to it, the manas; that the five sense faculties belong to it, the manas; and that the manas's own functions and operations belong to it, the manas. Only the manas is most qualified to say that all dharmas are "mine," because all dharmas truly do serve the manas, including the mind consciousness and the five consciousnesses, and even including the tathāgatagarbha. That is why the self of the manas is so self-assured, so obstinate, so stubborn, so proud and coy, so blind, and so irreversible—and that is why the initial eradication of the view of self is so difficult. After taking up Buddhism, one does not remain submerged in and surfacing from the ocean of birth and death for so long; in the end one emerges from the sea, stands up, walks toward the shore, reaches the shore, and enjoys ease and freedom, liberated from sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress (śoka-parideva-duḥkha-daurmanasyopāyāsa).