Let go of the small self, attain liberation and freedom

Worldly disputes leave everyone physically and mentally exhausted. Let us not dispute any longer—let go of the self! When you are well and I am well, everyone is well—how delightful that would be! Why must it be that one does well while others do not? Why? The "I" in each person's mind is as heavy as a boulder, so heavy that it presses down until one can hardly breathe. Day after day, month after month, year after year, life after life, existence is lived in hardship, exhaustion, and heaviness. From now on, we should learn to use the tool of no-self to chip away, bit by bit, at this boulder of self, turning the great stone into a small stone, the small stone into gravel, and letting the gravel gradually leave the mind and disappear. In this way, the mind becomes light, without any sense of heaviness; the mind becomes liberated and at ease; the mind becomes joyful, happy, and peaceful.

So many people go around all day saying that the great Way is utmost in simplicity—where is the simplicity? The simplicity is right here: as long as you let go of the self and remove the self, you reach no-self. But putting it into practice is not simple. Why? Because habitual tendencies are deeply rooted, and the obscurations of one's own mind are too severe, making it very hard to let go of the self. Even seeing through the self is that difficult, let alone letting it go.

The goal of studying Buddhism and cultivating practice is to realize no-self and liberation. So why should we still pursue our own personal self-interest? Does this not run directly counter to our original aspiration? The reason one cannot realize the fruit of no-self in studying Buddhism is that there is an "I" in the mind, which does not accord with no-self. The existence of self is a stumbling block and an obstruction in the path—why not remove it as quickly as possible?

Those with wisdom should not, while pursuing the fruit of no-self, still be self-centered, protecting and shielding the various forms of self, pursuing the private interests of the small self, and thereby going against and contradicting the Path—that would not be wise. How could one be so contradictory? Is it not caused by the afflictive habitual tendencies of grasping at self accumulated over beginningless kalpas? If one does not know of or observe this affliction and filth within one's own mind, does not find ways to counteract it, and always complies with one's own mind and self-nature, then when will one ever attain the liberation of no-self? Which is more liberating, at ease, and comfortable: liberation, or self-bondage? Comparing the two, which would you choose? So many people think clearly but act muddledly, and that is why they cannot realize the principle of no-self and cannot attain the fruit of liberation.