The View to Be Realized: from “The Treasury of Knowledge” by Jamgön Kongtrul

striped rope

The following is respectfully quoted from “The Treasury of Knowledge: Book Six Part Three” by Jamgön Kongtrul:

The View to Be Realized [iv]

The view is primarily the realization of the absence of self of persons.

The view for shrāvakas is primarily the realization that a self of persons (pudgalātman, gang zag gi bdag) does not exist. The self of persons imputed by tirthika practitioners to be permanent, single, clean, a creator, or independent does not exist. The mind that takes such a self of persons to exist is confused, because it is mind [perceiving] something that is not there, like someone taking a striped rope to be a snake.

The aggregates are not the self of a person, because they are impermanent, multiple and unclean. They are also not a creator because they are under the power of other things. There is also no self of a person apart from the aggregates, because “person” (gang zag) is [only] used to refer to the continuity of aggregates , which are filled with (gang) and degenerated by (zag pa) causal karma and mental afflictions. This accords with the statement in the Treasury [of Abidharma]:

No self exists–there are just aggregates.

[No self of persons exists apart from the aggregates,] because the mind that apprehends a self of persons comes into being when it observes the mere continuity of aggregates.

In this root verse the term “primarily” is used for the following reason. Texts such as the Sûtra teach that the shrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas do not realize the absence of a self-entity of phenomena (dharmanairāmya, chos kyi bdag med). Their view is that shrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas do not directly comprehend [the nonexistence of a self-entity of phenomena] through meditation. On on the other hand, some [texts] explain that shrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas do realize both [absences of self-entity]. Their view is that the attentiveness [developed] during study, reflection, and familiarization assists shrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas in abandoning the mental afflictions experienced in the three realms.

Consequently, some Tibetan scholars say that the view of Nāgarjuna and his sone [Āryadeva] is that shrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas realize the absence of a self-entity of phenomena, and the view of Asańga and his brother [Vasubandhu] is that shrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas do not realize this. These scholars maintain that they [i.e. Nāgarjuna and Āryadeva] assert that shrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas realize both absences of self-entity.

The Result to Be Attained [v]

Nirvāna is a nonarising, unconditioned phenomenon.
Vaibhāshikas assert that it is an implicative negation and Sautrāntikas that it is a nonimplicative negation.
[Nirvāna] with remainder [is divided into] eighty-nine conditioned and unconditioned [results], or into four results; [nirvāna] without remainder is the severing of continuity.

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