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The Discourse on the Snake Catcher
There are six bases of views:
- Form
- Feeling
- Perception
- Mental formations
- Consciousness
-
The world
These are the six foundations of wrong perception that should be let go of. Whether they belong to the past, the future, or the present, whether they are internal or external, coarse or subtle, beautiful or ugly, all these dharmas are “not mine, not me, not my self.”
Clinging to the six bases of views can cause fear for two reasons:
- Internally: “That which in the past did not exist, then came to exist, and now I no longer have it” → sorrow, lamentation, madness.
- Externally: “This is my self, this is the world, this is me, I will exist forever in the future” → loss of faith, suffering.
Nirvana is defined in four aspects:
- The holy life has been completed, what needed to be done has been done.
- The truth of reality has been realized.
- There is no more birth and death in samsāra.
- Fearlessness (no more fear).
The practitioner is likened to a warrior: one must fill in and cross the trenches, break through the ramparts, unlock the locks, and look into the mirror of holy wisdom to uproot delusion, becoming, craving, conceit, and the five strong fetters.