Meditations on Selflessness in the Four Buddhist Tenet Systems

According to the Gelug interpretation of Sautrantika:

• The coarse selflessness of a person is that there is no such thing as a person existing as a static, partless entity, independently of a body and mind.
• Likewise, the coarse selflessness of phenomena is that there is no such thing as something that exists as the possession of such an impossibly existing person.
• The subtle selflessness of a person is that there is no such thing as a person existing as a self-sufficiently knowable entity – knowable without simultaneously some aspect of its basis for imputation also appearing and being cognized.
• Likewise, the subtle selflessness of phenomena is that there is no such thing as something that exists as the possession of such an impossibly existing person.
• All phenomena have the individual defining characteristic marks that serve as the basis for not only establishing their existence as validly knowable phenomena, but also as belonging to appropriate categories and being the meaning and referent of appropriate names and words.

[1] Recall thinking of yourself as a self-sufficiently knowable entity – a person that could be known all by itself, without also simultaneously thinking of some aspect of your five aggregates that are the basis for the imputation of yourself – and recall being concerned about what people think of you, about what you should do in the future, about what kind of person you are, etc.

• Identify the disturbing emotions, destructive behaviors and suffering that you experience from such concerns – such as worry, stress, feeling all alone, and so on.
• Recall being unaware that such concerns only make sense if you think about yourself in terms of the present situation of your body, mind, emotions and so on. It is impossible to deal with these issues just in terms of “me.”
• Think of how much better you would be able to deal with such concerns if you thought of yourself together with some aspect of your aggregates, such as your behavior. If you are worried about what people think of you, you can change how they consider you by changing your behavior with them. It is impossible to change yourself without changing something about yourself, such as your behavior.
• Generate determination to be free of the suffering that this unawareness brings you and to be free of its cause, that unawareness.
• Focus on yourself as being imputedly knowable together with some aspect of your aggregates, remembering that to deal with yourself, you need to deal with the various aspects of your aggregates.
• Practice tong-len (giving and taking) directed at yourself, taking away from yourself that unawareness and that suffering, and giving yourself the correct understanding that you are imputedly knowable.
• Think of the suffering others experience from the same problem and how they would be better able to deal with their lives if they were rid of it.
• Generate the compassion for them to be free of it.
• Practice tong-len directed at them.
• Repeat the entire procedure in terms of thinking of others as self-sufficiently knowable people.

 [2] Identify the conventional categories into which you factually fit – for instance, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age group, birth family, marital or relationship status,  nationality, residence, native religion, present religion, occupation, etc. – and recall basing your entire identity on just one or two of these categories.

• Identify the disturbing emotions, destructive behaviors and suffering you experience as a result of thinking of yourself in this limited way – for instance, being aggressive or defensive in asserting this as your identity.
• Recall being unaware that you have the defining characteristics that factually fit you into many categories.
• Identify the disturbing emotions, destructive behaviors and suffering you experience as a result of denying, devaluing, ignoring or rejecting any of the categories that you factually fit into.
• Differentiate the categories that you accurately fit into from those that you just imagine you fit into, but which do not correspond to objective reality.
• Identify the disturbing emotions, destructive behaviors and suffering you experience as a result of fitting yourself into inappropriate categories – such as someone that nobody loves.
• Dismiss considering yourself as fitting into the inappropriate categories. Think of them as nonsense.
• Think of all the categories that you accurately fit into and see that they integrate into who you objectively are.
• Then repeat all the steps of the previous exercises, including tonglen and considering others who have the same unawareness. 

According to the Gelug interpretation of Chittamatra:

• The coarse and subtle types of selflessness of persons are the same as in Sautrantika.
• Chittamatra does not assert a coarse selflessness of phenomena, but rather it asserts two types of subtle selflessness of phenomena. The first is that when dependent (nonstatic) phenomena appear in the form of mental holograms in non-conceptual cognition, it is impossible to establish their existence in that cognition as coming from external natal sources separately from the karmic seed that is the natal source of the consciousness and mental factors cognizing them.
• The second type of subtle selflessness of phenomena is that when dependent (nonstatic) phenomena appear in the form of mental holograms in conceptual cognition, it is impossible that the defining characteristic mark that establishes them as knowable objects also has the power to establish them as belonging to the categories with which they are mentally labeled and as being the meaning and referent of the names and words with which they are designated. They are established as such merely by the power of being mentally labeled and designated as such.

[1] Recall hearing the sounds of what someone was saying to you and assuming that the person was hearing the same sounds as you were, because it was objective reality.

• Recall being unaware that what was appearing to you and to the other person – in this case, the sounds of what they were saying, your ear consciousness hearing it and the accompanying emotions – were all coming from a seed of karma on your own mind when, for instance, because of being distracted, tired or upset, you were hearing something different from what they later reported they were saying.
• Identify the disturbing emotions, destructive behaviors and suffering you experienced as a result of such unawareness – for instance, being upset and having an argument about whether or not the other person said what you heard.
• Think of how the sounds that were appearing in what each of you were hearing had their own subjective validity, that there was no one objective reality, and that if any misunderstanding and conflicts are going to be realistically resolved, each of these appearances need to be taken into consideration.
• Then repeat all the steps of the previous exercises regarding tong-len and others having the same unawareness.

[2] Recall thinking that the sounds of what someone was saying to you were such and such words, with such and such meaning and had such and such intention and emotions accompanying them, and assuming that the other person understood them the same as you did. Recall also fitting some of those sounds of words into such categories as “criticism,” “insult” and “rejection” and assuming that the other person fit them into the same categories.

• Recall being unaware that the other person meant and understood them differently: they thought that what they said were different words or had a different meaning and fit into different categories, such as “playful joke.”
•  Identify the disturbing emotions, destructive behaviors and suffering you experienced as a result of such unawareness and misunderstanding.
• Think of how the words and meanings that you and they assigned to the appearance of the sounds that each of you heard – and the categories that you and they fit these appearances into – were merely conceptually labeled. Although the sounds had the defining characteristics that made them sounds and specifically the sounds of words having meaning; nevertheless, those defining characteristics didn’t have the power to make the sounds be understood as the sound of certain specific words, with a certain specific meaning and as fitting into certain specific categories like “insult” or “joke.” Consider how even if the other person fit the sound of the words into the category “insult,” you could have avoided being hurt and getting angry by having fit them into the category “nonsense.”
• Then repeat all the steps of the previous exercises regarding tong-len and others having the same unawareness. 

According to the Gelug interpretation of Svatantrika, specifically Sautrantika-Svatantrika:

• The coarse and subtle types of selflessness of persons are the same as in Sautrantika.
• The selflessness of phenomena is that it is impossible that their individual defining characteristic marks have the power by themselves to establish their existence as validly knowable phenomena or as belonging to a certain category or as being the meaning or referent of a certain name or word and it is likewise impossible to establish these by the power of mental labeling alone.
• The existence of all phenomena as validly knowable phenomena, belonging to certain categories and being the meaning and referent of certain words, can only be established in terms of their being the referent objects of conceptual cognitions that validly label them with these categories and validly designate them with these words on the basis of their having the appropriate characteristic marks to be validly labeled and validly designated as such.

Recall a task that you had to do and how you regarded it as a truly horrible problem or thought that its being a problem was purely a figment of your imagination and it was not a problem at all.

• Recall being unaware that the task had the characteristic mark of being either a horrible problem or a challenge that would help you grow; it all depended on your attitude toward the task and how you labeled and approached dealing with it.
• Identify the disturbing emotions, destructive behaviors and suffering you experienced as a result of such unawareness – for instance, being paralyzed and unable to deal with the task because either you believed it really was a horrible problem from its own side or because you trivialized the task and did not take it seriously because you thought that its being a horrible problem was just in your head.
• Because the task had the defining characteristic of what some people would consider a horrible problem and what others would consider a challenge for growth, think about the benefit of labeling and dealing with it as a challenge for growth.
• Then repeat all the steps of the previous exercises regarding tong-len and others having the same unawareness. 

According to the Gelug interpretation of Prasangika:

• The coarse selflessness of persons is the same as the subtle selflessness of persons asserted by Sautrantika.
• The subtle selflessness of persons is the same as the selflessness of all phenomena.
• The selflessness of phenomena is that it is impossible to establish their existence as validly knowable phenomena or as belonging to a category or being the meaning or referent of a word by the power of their defining characteristic mark. Such a mark merely enables the mental factor of distinguishing to differentiate one phenomenon from all others. The conventional existence of all phenomena, including persons can only be established by the power of mental labeling with categories and designation with words.
• More specifically, the conventional existence of all phenomena as validly knowable phenomena, belonging to certain categories and being the meaning and referent of certain words, can only be established in terms of their being the referent objects of conceptual cognitions that validly label them with these categories and validly designate them with these words – as corroborated by accepted conventions and so long as not contradicted by valid cognition of conventional truth (what something appears to be) and valid cognition of deepest truth (how something actually exists). 

Recall a task that you had to do and how you regarded it as a truly horrible problem because you thought it had the characteristic marks of a horrible problem and, based on that, you labeled it with the category of “horrible problem” and named it as a “horrible problem.”

• Recall being unaware that it is impossible to find any characteristic mark on the side of the task that has the power to establish it as a “thing,” or as fitting it into a certain category or as being the meaning and referent of a word – even in conjunction with mental labeling and designation.
• Identify the disturbing emotions, destructive behaviors and suffering you experienced as a result of such unawareness – for instance, becoming overwhelmed and stressed, because you believed that the task was inherently impossible, and being angry with your boss for asking you to do it.
• Deconstruct the task and see that it has arisen dependently on many causes and conditions and that it relies on many parts and is merely the referent object of the mentally labeled category “task” and the word “task.” There is no findable, self-established referent “thing” – “THE TASK” – backing up this referent object.

• Without making a big solid “thing” out of the task, consider how much happier and at ease you would be if you just dealt with it part by part, step by step.
• Then repeat all the steps of the previous exercises regarding tong-len and others having the same unawareness.