Who Eradicates the View of Self? Whose View of Self Is Eradicated?

Is the "self" that takes the six consciousnesses of the consciousness aggregate as the self the true self, the eighth consciousness, or the false self, the manas? Does the eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) mean having the manas eradicate the view that the consciousness aggregate is the self, or having the eighth consciousness eradicate the view that the consciousness aggregate is the self? At the very end of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), is it the manas that comes to realize the consciousness aggregate is without self, or the eighth consciousness? The result of eradicating the view of self is having the manas realize that the consciousness aggregate and the five aggregates are not the self and do not belong to the self—not having the eighth consciousness realize that the consciousness aggregate and the five aggregates are without self and without what belongs to the self. The view of self and the view of what belongs to the self have nothing to do with the eighth consciousness.

Contemplating the consciousness aggregate as suffering, empty, impermanent, and without self should mean contemplating the impermanent nature of arising, ceasing, and change of the consciousness aggregate, as well as the selflessness and unreality of the consciousness aggregate—that it is not the false self, the manas, and does not belong to the false self, the manas; in fact, there is no such false self or illusory self at all; everything is empty. It is not about contemplating that the consciousness aggregate and the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness.

Who is it that carries out this contemplative practice? It is not the eighth consciousness that contemplates; rather, it is the manas that personally contemplates on the basis of the mind consciousness's contemplation. In the end, the manas comes to understand that the consciousness aggregate is not the self and is not different from self, and that the self and the consciousness aggregate do not mutually exist in or contain each other.

"Different" means the consciousness aggregate is not the self but belongs to the self. "Not different" means the consciousness aggregate is neither the self nor what belongs to the self; both the self and what belongs to the self must be eradicated.

Who is it that realizes the consciousness aggregate is without self and not the self? Who is it that realizes the aggregate of form is without self? Who is it that realizes the aggregate of feeling is without self? Who is it that realizes the aggregate of perception is without self? Who is it that realizes the aggregate of volitional formations is without self? Who is it that eradicates the view of self that takes these aggregates as the self? Whose view is the view of self? To which "self" does the "self" in the view of self refer? The view that the five aggregates are the self is a wrong view/false view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi); the view that the five aggregates are not the self is right view. Who has the wrong view, and who has the right view? Whose self's wrong view is eradicated? Which self is given the right view? Who is it that considers the five aggregates not the self? Who is it that considers the five aggregates the self? Which self does the "self" in "the five aggregates are the self" refer to? Is this view a right view or a wrong view?

Whether it is right view or wrong view, the eighth consciousness has neither. The eighth consciousness itself does not give rise to views; it does not study Buddhism or cultivate practice; it has no view-afflictions or afflictive defilements, and thus there is no need for it to eradicate view-afflictions or afflictive defilements. Therefore, at the beginning of contemplative practice, it is the sixth and seventh consciousnesses that contemplate; at the end of contemplative practice, the sixth and seventh consciousnesses no longer take the five aggregates as the self, and they also know there is no so-called self—the five aggregates and the eighteen realms are without self.

If one says that the conclusion of contemplative practice is that the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness, then before attaining realization of the fruits, he would have considered the five aggregates to be the eighth consciousness. Yet sentient beings, since beginningless kalpas, have never had such an awakening; they do not know there is a true self, the eighth consciousness, and all of them consider the five aggregates to be the false self, belonging to and used by the self. Whoever has the view of self, that one should eradicate the view of self. The mind consciousness and the manas have the view of self; therefore, in eradicating the view of self, one must eradicate the view of self of the mind consciousness and the manas. Eradicating the view of self is discarding the false. Seeing the mind is recognizing the true. Only after the manas and the mind consciousness have discarded the false can they go on to recognize the true.