What the Manas Is, So Are the Five Aggregates and the Self

After the mind consciousness ceases, what remains is the "self" that sentient beings take to be themselves. This self is the true root of birth and death in saṃsāra, endowed with all ignorance and all afflictions. Because of this self, there are the boundless kalpas of painful retribution and painful feelings in future lives, as well as all the wholesome and unwholesome karmic actions and karmic seeds of future lives, and all the various causes, conditions, and karmic retributions.

Whatever this self is like, that is what I will be like: if this self has no ignorance, I will have no ignorance; if this self has no afflictions, I will have no afflictions. If I take rebirth with a self free of ignorance, I will be a Buddha; if I take rebirth with a self free of afflictions, I will be an arhat, a bodhisattva who has attained the bhūmis; if I take rebirth with a self endowed with all afflictions, I will be a thoroughly ordinary worldling; if I take rebirth with this self in which wholesome dharmas predominate, I will be a good person.

Whatever the original appearance of this self is, that is what I will be like. May this self be free of all afflictions, thereby sparing me many kalpas of time spent in cultivation. May this self have more wholesomeness and less unwholesomeness, so that I will have more wholesome retribution and less unwholesome retribution. I do not wish for this self to lack wholesome dharmas or be discordant with wholesome dharmas; I wish for this self to be endowed with all wholesome dharmas.

I wish for this self to have no view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi); I wish for this self to have no self-grasping; I wish for this self to have no arrogance of self; I wish for this self to have no greed, hatred, or delusion; I wish for this self not to be self-righteous; I wish for this self to remove all ignorance; I wish for this self to be endowed with all wholesome dharmas; I wish for this self to be endowed with merit; I wish for this self to have vast wisdom; I wish for this self to completely transform consciousness into wisdom; I wish for this self to be utterly without self; I wish for this self to be endowed with loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity; I wish for this self to have vast power of vows; I wish for this self to have compassion for all and never abandon a single sentient being; I wish for this self to be endowed with immeasurable virtues and abilities; I wish for this self to become the refuge of all sentient beings.

In short, I wish for this self to be exactly as I hope: to sever all evil and be endowed with all goodness.