The True Meaning of the Non-Self of the Person (pudgala-nairātmya)

The view of no-self in persons is the insight held by both Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna noble ones; they have, to varying degrees, realized that the five aggregates are not self and not different from self. Those who have completely realized that the five aggregates are without self are the arhats of the fourth fruit, the pratyekabuddhas, and the great bodhisattvas of the eighth bhūmi and above. The opposite of no-self in persons is the view of self in persons—taking the five-aggregate body as having a nature of self, as being "me." This is the view of ordinary sentient beings, and it belongs to wrong view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi), which can summon the suffering of birth, death, and saṃsāra through the six realms. If sentient beings take the five-aggregate body as the five-aggregate body, regarding it as truly existent, that is the ignorant and death-bound wrong view; if sentient beings do not take the five-aggregate body as the five-aggregate body, but instead regard it as born from the eighth consciousness, as the functions and operations of the eighth consciousness, with its essence being the eighth consciousness itself, then such a being has eliminated the self-view that the five aggregates are "me," and has realized that the five aggregates are not self—the five aggregates have no real attributes of their own; all their attributes belong to the eighth consciousness. This is the insight of the Mahāyāna bodhisattva. In this way, the delusions of birth, death, and karma in the six realms of saṃsāra are gradually brought to an end, and one can attain liberation from the cycle of the three realms—yet the bodhisattvas will not leave the three realms.

A bodhisattva who has eliminated the self-view has realized no-self in persons: not taking a person as a person, not taking the aggregate of form (rūpa) as the aggregate of form, not taking the aggregate of feeling (vedanā) as the aggregate of feeling, not taking the aggregate of perception (saṃjñā) as the aggregate of perception, not taking the aggregate of formations (saṃskāra) as the aggregate of formations, not taking the six sense faculties as the six sense faculties, not taking the six sense objects as the six sense objects, and not taking the six consciousnesses as the six consciousnesses—rather, regarding all of them as attributes of the eighth consciousness, as the functions and operations of the eighth consciousness. The five aggregates and eighteen realms are precisely the eighth consciousness itself; therefore, "the five aggregates are not self" does not mean that the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness.

Thus the true meaning of no-self in persons is not that a person is not the eighth consciousness, but that a person lacks any attributes of "person"—a person is not the self called "person"; the attributes of a person do not hold up, the functions of a person are not real, and the functions of a person are impermanent, subject to arising and ceasing, subject to change—and they are also bestowed by the eighth consciousness. After eliminating the self-view in this way, one no longer takes the five-aggregate body as "me" or as possessing self, and no longer regards the five-aggregate body as belonging to "me"; then there is no so-called "self" in the mind. It is precisely because sentient beings take the five aggregates as self that they have self-grasping and thus the suffering of birth, death, and saṃsāra; if sentient beings all recognize the five aggregates as the eighth consciousness, they will realize no-self, and there will no longer be a "self" in their minds. Once there is no "self" in the mind, the grasping at self will gradually lessen, until finally self-grasping is completely eliminated. Where there is no grasping, there is no birth and death, and one will be freed from the suffering of saṃsāra.