How to Contemplate the Non-Self of the Five Aggregates

Question: For example, someone hits me (my physical body), someone curses me, and so I become very angry. I contemplate it this way: what he hits is only the physical body, not me; the pain is only a feeling, not me; the true me is the eighth consciousness. What gets angry is only the manas, and what he curses is only the manas, not me. 

Answer: You should think this way: the physical body is struck—what is the physical body? The physical body is a flesh body composed of the four great elements, a body like wood, formed by cells accumulating into muscles, bones, blood, and so on combined together. This body is subject to arising, ceasing, and change; it is something that has been transformed into being; it is impermanent and empty, and it is not me. If this body were me, then when this body perishes, do I perish? In fact, I do not perish; I still have a next life, and countless more lives. Therefore this body is not me.

To contemplate that the physical body is not me requires very deep meditative concentration (samādhi). Contemplate this physical body as if it were mechanized, like a robot; the arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing of this physical body is not controlled by me, and therefore it is not me. This is a general principle; the details must be contemplated one by one yourself, and the various understandings must be verified and confirmed by yourself.

Next, contemplate the aggregate of feeling. Someone hits me and curses me, and I get angry—anger is my feeling. Is this feeling real? Where does this feeling come from? The feeling is the feeling of the mind consciousness; feeling pain is the feeling of the body consciousness; in any case, all feelings are the feelings of the six consciousnesses. Are the feelings of the six consciousnesses me? Are they real? This feeling is produced by consciousness seeds, arising and ceasing, changing moment by moment; feeling is also illusory, empty, and conjured, disappearing in a moment; therefore feeling is not me. Right now being hit and cursed feels bad, but in a while, if you get rich or win a lottery, the feeling becomes good, and you become happy—the feeling has changed. So this thing that is constantly arising, ceasing, and changing, that cannot be fixed, that cannot exist forever, is simply not real—it is not me!

Then there is your perception: you understand what the person cursing you is saying, and you know what his words mean—all of this is the discerning nature of the mind consciousness, which is the aggregate of perception. Where does this aggregate of perception come from? It is produced by consciousness seeds, which form the aggregate of consciousness; once the aggregate of consciousness operates, there is the discerning nature. This discerning nature is subject to arising, ceasing, and change; it does not endure permanently, it is conjured and empty; therefore the aggregate of perception is also not me. Anything that is not eternally enduring, that did not originally exist, that arose after birth—all of it is not me. This aggregate of perception: when you fall asleep, you know nothing, and you do not know however others curse you; therefore it is subject to arising and ceasing, illusory, not permanently enduring, not fixed and unchanging, and therefore not me.

Next, the aggregate of volitional formations: these are the actions and activities of the six consciousnesses, including bodily formations, verbal formations, and mental formations. All the thoughts and ideas in the mind, the discerning nature, the feeling nature—everything that arises and ceases, changes thought after thought—belongs to the aggregate of volitional formations. The operation of this mental consciousness of the aggregate of volitional formations is also subject to arising, ceasing, and change; it is not fixed and unchanging, not forever enduring, and therefore it is also not me. The aggregate of consciousness of the six consciousnesses, the operation of consciousness itself, including the mental factors (caittas), are all subject to arising, ceasing, and change. So, to summarize the five aggregates: not a single dharma is fixed and unchanging; all are subject to arising, ceasing, and change, constantly shifting—now existing, now not existing, now like this, now like that—none of them is fixed; all are dharmas that have been brought into being, and none of them is real.

Then, anger is a kind of feeling. Is the dharma of anger real? It is not real! In a while you are no longer angry—it is always changing. Therefore all the functions of mind and consciousness are entirely illusory; there is no real dharma! If after death there is no operation of the mental consciousness in the physical body, and someone strikes your physical body, do you still feel pain? No! Do you still get angry? You simply do not get angry at all. Therefore, when the mental consciousness leaves the physical body, the physical body is just like a piece of wood—it is simply not me. Even the mental consciousness in the physical body is not me, let alone the physical body, which is even less me. Since there is no me, who is angry, and who is not angry?