The Sequential Order of Eliminating Self-View (ahaṃkāra-mamakāra-parityāga) and Investigating Chan

Whether one should first eliminate the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) and then engage in Chan investigation, or directly engage in Chan investigation seeking direct realization—there is no fixed conclusion on this; it depends on one's spiritual faculties. The Dharma has no fixed method; it varies from person to person. For most people, they should first seek to eliminate the self-view. Once the false self of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) is clearly understood, then in subsequent Chan investigation one will not confuse the false with the true, mistaking the false for the real. For those with better spiritual faculties, whose self-view afflictions are relatively slight and whose meditative concentration (samādhi) is also excellent, and who do not fall into the deliberation (manana) of the mind consciousness, they may directly engage in Chan investigation, eliminating the self-view in the course of investigation and then realizing the true.

Because Chan investigation is precisely the investigation and verification within the body of the five aggregates, which cannot be separated from the five aggregates and the eighteen realms (dhātus). In the process of investigation, one can also discern, one by one, the arising-and-ceasing, unreal nature of the body of the five aggregates, and thereby eliminate the self-view. The Chan masters of antiquity all awakened in this way. However, this does not guarantee that there were no cases of intellectual understanding/interpretive awakening. Among the seventeen hundred Chan kōans, not all were cases of direct realization. If one's meditative power is a bit weaker, the functioning of the mind consciousness will be stronger than that of the manas, and the result will be interpretive awakening. In interpretive awakening, one sees the true mind only dimly and vaguely, as merely a rough shadow; the wisdom of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) cannot arise, afflictions cannot be lightened, and the self-view cannot be eliminated. This actually delays one's progress on the Path—haste makes waste, and the result is the opposite of what is intended.

Modern people's power of meditative concentration is generally much weaker than that of the ancients. The deliberation of the mind consciousness is not easily subdued, so the function of the manas becomes weak, making direct realization very difficult. Eliminating the self-view is also very difficult. With much theoretical understanding, interpretive awakening comes easily, while direct realization is even harder. Therefore, we should all first engage in contemplative practice to observe that the five aggregates are without self, and then engage in Chan investigation afterward; this is the more reliable approach.