The Root of Eliminating Self-View Lies in Eliminating the Self-View of the Manas

All sentient beings take the five aggregates as self, so who do "sentient beings" refer to? Sentient beings refer primarily to the manas. The five aggregates take the manas as their principal; the manas commands the six consciousnesses, and together with the physical body it constitutes the body of the five aggregates. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra says: 了众生心行。Who is it that comprehends the mental activities of sentient beings? It is the tathāgatagarbha that comprehends the mental activities of sentient beings, and this "sentient being" is the manas. Because the tathāgatagarbha primarily comprehends the mental activities of the manas and helps to realize the manas' wishes and ideas, only afterward can there be the creation of bodily, verbal, and mental actions by the five aggregates and six consciousnesses, and only then does the worldly dharma of the three realms manifest.

This manas represents the sentient being. The manas takes the five aggregates as self: it takes the aggregate of form (rūpa) as self, takes the aggregate of feeling (vedanā) as self, then takes the aggregate of perception (saṃjñā) as self, takes the aggregate of formations (saṃskāra) as self, and then takes the six consciousnesses of the aggregate of consciousness (vijñāna) as self; moreover, it also takes the various functions and operations of the tathāgatagarbha as belonging to itself (the manas)—"all these dharmas were produced by me, and all belong to me." Therefore, this "self" refers primarily to the manas.

Then it becomes very clear now: whose self-view is eliminated in the elimination of self-view (ahaṃkāra-mamakāra-parityāga)? The elimination of self-view is mainly the elimination of the manas' self-view. The manas takes all these dharmas as self; the elimination of self-view means making the manas no longer regard the five aggregates as self (the manas). Eliminating this view held by the manas is the elimination of self-view. Therefore, the elimination of self-view must reach the manas; only when the manas is made to acknowledge that the five aggregates are not self can it be called the elimination of self-view.

This "self" refers to the manas, not to the six consciousnesses or the mind consciousness, because it is the manas that takes the aggregate of consciousness (the six consciousnesses), the aggregate of feeling, the aggregate of perception, the aggregate of formations, and the aggregate of form all as self. Therefore, the elimination of self-view means making the manas no longer take these dharmas as self. If the manas does not eliminate self-view, and only the mind consciousness eliminates self-view—the mind consciousness believing that the five aggregates are not self—is this the elimination of self-view? As it now appears, it is useless for the mind consciousness alone to believe it is not self; this is not the elimination of self-view. Only when the manas is made to acknowledge that the five aggregates are not the self of the manas is it the most fundamental and ultimate elimination of self-view.