To Truly Abandon the View of Self, Both the View Itself and Its Perceived Objects Must Be Relinquished

To eliminate the view of self through contemplation, one must neither regard the five aggregates—form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness—as the self (i.e., the manas), nor regard them as belonging to the self. It is incorrect to say that the aggregate of form is not the self yet can be possessed and used by the self, or to say that the aggregates of feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness are not the self yet can be possessed and used by the self. The view that form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness constitute the self is erroneous, as is the view that the self can possess form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. All such views must be eradicated and uprooted from the mind.

Where there exists the notion of "belonging to the self," there exists the notion of "self," indicating that the view of self has not been eliminated. Who is it that regards the functions of form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness as belonging to the self? It is the manas. Since beginningless time, the manas has continuously utilized and relied on these functions, believing itself to possess them. Because of this possession, it gives rise to self-conceit and self-attachment, perpetuating the cycle of birth and death without end.

When the manas desires to possess these functions, the eighth consciousness (alaya-vijnana) unfailingly and generously generates a physical body and the six consciousnesses for the manas, manifesting these functions. The manas then mistakenly takes these functions to be the self or belonging to the self, unaware that they all originate from the eighth consciousness. Consequently, the cycle of birth and death continues unceasingly. To liberate oneself from the suffering of this cyclic existence, it is essential to enable the manas to eliminate such thoughts and views, preventing it from regarding these functions as the self or belonging to the self. In this way, the manas becomes free from self. Gradually, it ceases to exploit these functions to create karmic afflictions, gradually diminishing its attachment and craving for them. Ultimately, the karmic causes for birth and death are eradicated.