The Anātman of Manas

The non-self nature of the mental faculty manifests in four aspects: first, not recognizing the mental faculty as real; second, not recognizing the five aggregates as real or as the self; third, not recognizing the functions of the six consciousnesses as real or as functions belonging to the mental faculty itself; fourth, not recognizing the functions of the eighth consciousness as functions belonging to the mental faculty itself.

When severing the attachment to the self, one must realize that neither the five aggregates nor the eighteen realms constitute the self. Gradually, one begins to relinquish attachment to the five aggregates and eighteen realms, observing that this function of the aggregates is not the self, that function is not the self, and none of the functions of the five aggregates are the self. Through this gradual process, the mental faculty’s attachment to the five aggregates is severed, enabling one to become a fourth-stage arhat. After the mental faculty relinquishes attachment to the five aggregates and achieves preliminary non-leakage, its characteristic of parikalpita-svabhāva (imagined nature) is partially eliminated. Before attaining the fourth stage of arhatship, one continuously subdues the mental faculty’s attachment to the self, beginning gradually from the first fruition as a first-stage practitioner until the fourth-stage arhat completely severs self-attachment.

Upon reaching the first bodhisattva ground, one begins to sever the attachment to dharmas (phenomena) incrementally. To sever this attachment, one must attain the wisdom of non-arising Dharma patience, realizing the non-self nature in all dharmas and recognizing that nothing possesses autonomy, as all phenomena are manifestations of the eighth consciousness. By observing that no phenomenon truly contains a self and that nothing is the self, the mental faculty acknowledges that none of these phenomena are the self nor belong to the self. Only through this gradual realization can the mental faculty relinquish its grasping toward all dharmas. When the mental faculty achieves complete non-self, free from attachment to any phenomenon, and the mind becomes pure emptiness, only then can one attain Buddhahood.