The Most Critical Point of Attaining the Fruit Lies in Changing One's Views

Eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) first requires changing old ideas and concepts, establishing new ideas and concepts, and building a new cognitive framework. One must have a clear understanding of the phenomena of impermanence, fully and lucidly recognizing the impermanence of the world of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha)—its arising, ceasing, and transformation—and thereby establish that conditioned things which arise and cease are empty and not-self. However, establishing such ideas and concepts is extremely difficult. Phenomena are easy to observe, but ideas are not easy to change; establishing correct and reasonable views is many times harder than contemplating the impermanence of worldly phenomena. Impermanence is actually easy to observe; it is precisely because we are habituated to "existence" that it is hard to confirm emptiness, and even when we know emptiness, we still cannot confirm not-self—all because the old, ingrained notion of "self" is not easy to break through. 

This requires deliberate training to change our ideas. How does one train? For example, take a toy car, take it apart and reassemble it, assemble it and take it apart again, and then observe: in all of this, is there a real toy car? Is a thing assembled from a pile of metal sheets a toy car? Does such a thing as a "toy car" actually exist? The toy car is a dharma produced by causes and conditions; it cannot act autonomously—it arises, abides, changes, and perishes, arising and ceasing, transforming. It is in itself empty, lacking any nature of self. One can likewise take a plastic doll apart and reassemble it, observing the conditioned nature of the doll's formation, and the impermanence and emptiness (śūnyatā) of the doll itself—its arising, ceasing, and transformation. Through repeated experimentation and observation, one gradually breaks the notion of "existence," establishes the notion of emptiness, and forms new ideas and cognition. Only in this way can the view of self be eradicated.