The Importance of Contemplative Practice and Attaining the Experience of Selflessness

Sentient beings all take feelings and sensations as real, as the self, as belonging to the self, and then they pursue feelings and sensations, seeking to satisfy and comply with them, and for the sake of their own feelings and sensations they do not hesitate to perform all kinds of karmic actions, especially unwholesome karmic actions.

If we wish to be liberated from the suffering of birth and death, we must contemplate the illusory nature, the unreality, the幻化 nature, the emptiness (śūnyatā), and the non-self nature of feelings and sensations. In this way we can realize that feelings and sensations are indeed empty, illusory, and unreal, and we will no longer attach importance to them or pursue them. On the one hand, this eradicates the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi); on the other hand, the mind can gradually attain tranquility (praśama), and the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion gradually fade away. If one does not pursue feelings and sensations, one will not create the unwholesome karma of ignorance such as the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion.

How are feelings and sensations empty and illusory? Where do they come from? Feelings and sensations are mainly those of the six consciousnesses. In fact, the feelings and sensations of the manas behind them are also extremely important. If the manas had no feelings or sensations, it would not prompt the six consciousnesses to create karma tainted by greed, nor would it be possible for one to seek liberation and diligently cultivate and study the Buddha's teachings. The feelings and sensations of the six consciousnesses come, on the one hand, from the manas, being influenced and directed by the manas; on the other hand, when the six consciousnesses themselves discern the objects of the six sense objects (ṣaḍāyatana), they are influenced by those objects, developing greed or aversion toward them, and when the associated mental factors (caittas) arise, feelings of suffering or happiness are produced.

How do the feelings and sensations of the six consciousnesses arise? The tathāgatagarbha outputs the consciousness seeds, forming the six consciousnesses. Once the six consciousnesses are generated, they begin to operate, and the five universal mental factors and the five particular mental factors appear; thereupon they discriminate the six sense objects and grasp at them, and feelings and sensations arise toward those objects. Afterwards, these feelings and sensations are taken as real and as the self—what accords with oneself arouses greed, what opposes oneself arouses anger—and one then creates the karma of ignorance such as greed, anger, and delusion, after which the retributions of birth, death, and saṃsāra continue without end. Therefore, if we contemplate feelings and sensations as empty, the minds of greed and anger can be subdued. This matter is extremely important: realizing that the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) are without self, and that feelings and sensations are also not the self—this is the most important thing.