How to Observe Where the Self-View (ātma-dṛṣṭi) Manifests

To locate where your self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) lies, you can observe it through your own cravings and pursuits. Excessive demands are greed; unreasonable demands are greed; seeking what should not be sought is greed. Why are there so many pursuits? Because there is a self in the mind—one sees the physical body as self, sees the aggregate of feeling (vedanā) as self, sees the aggregate of perception (saṃjñā) as self, sees the aggregate of formations (saṃskāra) as self—and thus one craves and pursues for the sake of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha). If there were no self in the mind, one would have few desires and know contentment, stopping at what is appropriate, would not seek and grasp excessively, and would certainly not use unwholesome means, unreasonable methods, or even ways that harm others to pursue one's own benefit. 

A person without self in the mind will not rack their brains to pursue things, but lives in accord with conditions, and certainly will not pursue things by any means necessary. A person without self handles matters from the standpoint of others, considering their interests and being mindful of their feelings. However, such consideration does not necessarily mean complying with others' unreasonable demands; rather, it takes others' long-term and ultimate benefit as the starting point, and one's intentions and actions may not necessarily be understood or approved of by others. 

A person with self in the mind, one with heavy self-view, will inevitably also have heavy self-grasping. In dealing with people and affairs, everything proceeds from one's own mind, valuing the self above all, taking one's own views and opinions as the standard, not soliciting others' opinions and views, not considering others' feelings—often acting according to one's own habits first and explaining later, beheading before announcing, regardless of whether one has encroached on others' interests. If others do not comply, such a person becomes exasperated and resorts to retaliation to reclaim their own interests and vent the resentment in their heart, heedless of the consequences. In this way, in the course of struggling against others, each time one wins, one takes a step backward on the path of cultivating and realizing no-self, sinks one step deeper into the pit of the suffering of birth and death, and the suffering in this life and future lives becomes heavier. 

Skillful observation is a very important link in cultivation. With skillful observation, one can weigh the true gains and losses in all matters; long-term benefit is always more important than immediate benefit, and long-term effects far outweigh short-term effects. A person with heavy self-view is short-sighted, often seeing only the tiny bit before their eyes, their vision blinded by the extremely small immediate benefit—this is what is called karmic obstruction. 

What is karmic obstruction? The ignorant karmic causes from past lives intensify one's self-view and self-grasping, obstructing the arising of wisdom, so that one cannot see the truth of things clearly and does not know what one's true benefit really is, treating what is of no benefit as a great benefit to pursue. The result is running in the opposite direction—gains that do not make up for the losses.

Sentient beings all feel that the term "ignorance (avidyā)" is rather subtle, while the term "foolishness" is rather crude. In fact, both terms mean the same thing. The Buddha used the word "foolishness" to summarize the mental nature of sentient beings, and that is already quite subtle. Sometimes the Buddha would even shout at his disciples: "Hey! You fool!" In fact, no matter what language is used, it cannot fully express the foolishness and stupidity of sentient beings—nothing one says hits hard enough, nothing one says moves sentient beings at all, so one is left speechless. Even using Mount Sumeru as a crowbar could not pry loose the foolishness, stupidity, and dullness in sentient beings' minds.