It is taught that bodhisattvas should overcome two hindrances: afflictions (klesa) and knowledge (jneya). It is done through gaining insight into the emptiness of persons (pudgala) and phenomena (dharma). This can be translated to ordinary language as: emotional and conceptual attachments; meaninglessness/unimportance of persons and things.
Personal feelings
The more obvious type of attachments are about people and things we take personally. The strongest emotions of love and hate occur in relation to other people. That's why the precepts are primarily about organising one's behaviour towards fellow humans. As long as one is disturbed by various feelings, the mind is not calm, and an agitated mind is unfit for gaining insight. Therefore the prerequisites of wisdom are moral discipline and meditation. Discipline placates the outward actions, meditation calms down the inner disturbances. Then one can begin to look into the nature of body and mind, and see them to be nothing but momentary conglomerations of conditioned experiences, in other words: the four elements (the body consisting of solidity, liquidity, heat, movement), the five aggregates (physical impressions, basic feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness) and the six sensory areas (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tangible, mental experiences). That's all how the threefold training works.
What is good to understand is that no self in practice means not taking things personally. When something is considered the self (I am X) or belonging to the self (my X), it means attachment. The basic signs of that attachment are the feelings of defensiveness, fear, longing, craving, anger and love. Although the statement 'I am liberal' is fairly innocent, in the right circumstances lot of emotions and actions can occur from that single assertion of self, when one feels the need to prove something, defend something, convince someone, etc. Similarly, saying that 'this is my laptop' sounds commonplace and uninteresting, only until the moment when it is in danger of being damaged or when it is stolen.
While it doesn't make much sense to remove the pronouns from our vocabulary, what one can learn is that the self and its possessions are nothing more than concepts. That way the whole business loses its importance and it becomes clear how it's always us who make a fuss of everything based on misconceived ideas. And even when the loss of a beloved person hurts, or when we experience some illness, the feelings are not held on by baseless thoughts. (see: SN 42.11, SN 36.6)
All is meaningless
The second hindrance is the one from concepts. This is eliminated by realising that not only there is no self inside/outside/as the body, but even the parts making up the body are without any substance to grasp. In other words, whatever that can be attached to are concepts, conceptual creations, words and names, mental fabrications. And since they are just concepts, not real objects, they have no importance, no value, no actual meaning. That is, we hold on to an idea because we believe that it carries a meaning, that it is somehow true, that it refers to something real, or the idea itself is the truth. But actually all words gain meaning only from their context, and that context itself is made up of meaningless concepts. It's not that there are no thoughts at all, but they are definitely without any value of their own. Since one thought is pointless, more of the same cannot create true meaning either. That's why the scriptures and treatises talk about the world as illusion, dream, mirage, magical apparition and such.
Already such
It should be understood that there is nothing to make empty, there is no new reality to discover. Our entire world of experiences is already such that it is without anything that can be truly clung to. If we just sit down a little and calmly see whatever experience happens, they always and inevitably just come and go. Bodily feelings, emotions, thoughts - come and go. And if you imagine that somehow there is a present moment that is real, just try to find it. The present moment is as theoretical as the past and the future. Or if you believe that there is a mind, an awareness, a watcher behind all experiences, just try to find it. That is really nothing but a concept. It's not just that there is no need to find something, there is nothing that could be found. Relax. No need to improve things, since they are already such.
Drink tea
Since the present mind, the past mind and the future mind are all ungraspable, with what mind are you going to drink tea? This whole post is made of words. Meaningless words that magically seem to be meaningful. Cause and effect are unavoidable, even if they are just meaningless concepts. That way we can do good without any worry. Save all beings without any concept of anyone saving anybody. That's the bodhisattva life.
Personal feelings
The more obvious type of attachments are about people and things we take personally. The strongest emotions of love and hate occur in relation to other people. That's why the precepts are primarily about organising one's behaviour towards fellow humans. As long as one is disturbed by various feelings, the mind is not calm, and an agitated mind is unfit for gaining insight. Therefore the prerequisites of wisdom are moral discipline and meditation. Discipline placates the outward actions, meditation calms down the inner disturbances. Then one can begin to look into the nature of body and mind, and see them to be nothing but momentary conglomerations of conditioned experiences, in other words: the four elements (the body consisting of solidity, liquidity, heat, movement), the five aggregates (physical impressions, basic feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness) and the six sensory areas (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tangible, mental experiences). That's all how the threefold training works.
What is good to understand is that no self in practice means not taking things personally. When something is considered the self (I am X) or belonging to the self (my X), it means attachment. The basic signs of that attachment are the feelings of defensiveness, fear, longing, craving, anger and love. Although the statement 'I am liberal' is fairly innocent, in the right circumstances lot of emotions and actions can occur from that single assertion of self, when one feels the need to prove something, defend something, convince someone, etc. Similarly, saying that 'this is my laptop' sounds commonplace and uninteresting, only until the moment when it is in danger of being damaged or when it is stolen.
While it doesn't make much sense to remove the pronouns from our vocabulary, what one can learn is that the self and its possessions are nothing more than concepts. That way the whole business loses its importance and it becomes clear how it's always us who make a fuss of everything based on misconceived ideas. And even when the loss of a beloved person hurts, or when we experience some illness, the feelings are not held on by baseless thoughts. (see: SN 42.11, SN 36.6)
All is meaningless
The second hindrance is the one from concepts. This is eliminated by realising that not only there is no self inside/outside/as the body, but even the parts making up the body are without any substance to grasp. In other words, whatever that can be attached to are concepts, conceptual creations, words and names, mental fabrications. And since they are just concepts, not real objects, they have no importance, no value, no actual meaning. That is, we hold on to an idea because we believe that it carries a meaning, that it is somehow true, that it refers to something real, or the idea itself is the truth. But actually all words gain meaning only from their context, and that context itself is made up of meaningless concepts. It's not that there are no thoughts at all, but they are definitely without any value of their own. Since one thought is pointless, more of the same cannot create true meaning either. That's why the scriptures and treatises talk about the world as illusion, dream, mirage, magical apparition and such.
Already such
It should be understood that there is nothing to make empty, there is no new reality to discover. Our entire world of experiences is already such that it is without anything that can be truly clung to. If we just sit down a little and calmly see whatever experience happens, they always and inevitably just come and go. Bodily feelings, emotions, thoughts - come and go. And if you imagine that somehow there is a present moment that is real, just try to find it. The present moment is as theoretical as the past and the future. Or if you believe that there is a mind, an awareness, a watcher behind all experiences, just try to find it. That is really nothing but a concept. It's not just that there is no need to find something, there is nothing that could be found. Relax. No need to improve things, since they are already such.
Drink tea
Since the present mind, the past mind and the future mind are all ungraspable, with what mind are you going to drink tea? This whole post is made of words. Meaningless words that magically seem to be meaningful. Cause and effect are unavoidable, even if they are just meaningless concepts. That way we can do good without any worry. Save all beings without any concept of anyone saving anybody. That's the bodhisattva life.
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