The Core Emphasis of Hīnayāna Contemplative Practice in Eradicating the View of Self

The Hīnayāna eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) is the realization and knowledge that the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) and eighteen realms are impermanent, empty, suffering, and not-self; that the self is impermanent, empty, and suffering, and therefore must be eradicated, and hence is destructible. What is destructible is not the truth, not reality.

"True reality" has two meanings: one refers to the truths and facts of the mundane world; the other refers to the eighth consciousness in the Mahāyāna dharma, which never arises nor ceases.

As for the Hīnayāna practice of eradicating the view of self, it suffices to know that there is an eighth consciousness that does not perish, which is distinct from the five aggregates and eighteen realms, and which is that upon which the five aggregates and eighteen realms depend. The focus of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and deliberation (manasikāra) is to recognize that, according to the truths of the mundane world, the five aggregates and eighteen realms are destructible and perishable dharmas, lacking any real nature; their true nature is precisely the mark of impermanence, the mark of suffering, the mark of emptiness, and the mark of destruction.

Why do many people's minds and thinking always fall into a certain pitfall and cannot get out? One reason is that they have been misled in some way and have formed preconceptions; another is insufficient capacity for logical thinking. Insufficient power of deliberation is related to insufficient power of meditative concentration (samādhi), and is related to the wholesome roots and merit accumulated in past lives; this requires one to gradually accumulate meditative concentration and wisdom, as well as wholesome roots and merit, bit by bit. If one did not possess a certain foundation of cultivation and study in past lives, one cannot progress very quickly in practice in this life. If one forcibly demands that oneself attain enlightenment extremely quickly, when the various causes and conditions are not yet ripe, and when one's mental disposition and so forth have not yet been transformed to resemble that of a bodhisattva, and one anxiously investigates the eighth consciousness without even eradicating the view that the five aggregates are not-self, this will harm rather than benefit one's progress on the Path, and will often have the opposite effect.