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+## VII. Dependent Origination and No-Self
+
+### The Five Aggregates Are Not the Self; Where Am I?
+
+Q: I teach psychology at a university. I ask students to look for the *self* through behavior, thoughts, and feelings. Many psychological problems arise precisely because people are unaware of these, cannot express them, or have repressed them. If the five aggregates are also not the self, how should we interpret the self?
+
+A: Buddhism speaks of no-self (*anatman*), yet it also speaks of the conventional self. It does not deny the conditioned body of the five aggregates; it only denies that within them there is a permanent, unchanging self-nature that exists independently of conditions. In other words, it negates our mistaken cognition of things, not the phenomena themselves. The Consciousness-Only school teaches the three natures (*trisvabhava*): the falsely conceived nature (*parikalpita*), the dependent nature (*paratantra*), and the perfectly realized nature (*parinishpanna*). It is like someone seeing a rope in the moonlight and mistaking it for a snake, becoming frightened. The snake is a subjective illusion that does not exist at all—that is the falsely conceived nature. The rope represents the conditioned phenomenon—that is the dependent nature. Emptiness does not deny the rope; it denies the illusion of the snake, telling us that everything is a conditioned appearance.
+
+We view the world through colored glasses; what we see cannot be separated from our own cognitive patterns and is influenced by concepts, emotions, experience, likes, and dislikes. Just as when we like someone, everything they do looks agreeable, whereas when we dislike someone, everything they do looks disagreeable. We deeply believe in this feeling and think the world is exactly as we see it. In fact, the world as it appears to our cognition is not the objectively existing world. The Dharma keeps telling us what the world of facts is really like. Once we step out of mistaken cognitive patterns and see the truth as it is, we can immediately realize emptiness within conditioned phenomena. Otherwise, the illusion of attachment to self and dharmas gives rise to the cognitive obstructions and the afflictive obstructions. Then, continuing to view the world through these two attachments and two obstructions, what we see becomes further obscured.
+
+How do we know ourselves and interpret the self? Although the conventional self can be sought within the five aggregates, if we stop there we will not find the truth. Only by penetrating the five aggregates and seeing that form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are merely conditioned appearances can we see our original face. This must be realized through practice, not through conceptual thinking and judgment.
+
+### What Is the True Self?
+
+Q: After listening to the lecture, I feel that my so-called afflictions are produced by mistaken cognition under the workings of the six sense bases and the five aggregates. But this raises another question: if none of these is the self, what is the true self?
+
+A: "Who am I?" is the central question addressed by Buddhist practice. We take the body, appearance, wealth, status, and so on as the self, but if we examine them with wisdom, we find that they are only temporary conditions in relation to us. This mistaken identification with the self is the root of all suffering. Every day many disasters occur in the world; usually we just hear about them and may not feel much. But as soon as we attach the label "mine" or "me," they immediately affect us and can even overwhelm us. When Buddhism speaks of no-self, it does not mean that you do not exist; it denies the mistaken identification with the self and guides us to truly find ourselves.
+
+Regarding the understanding of the self, the Dharma approaches it from two angles. First, at the cognitive level, it guides us to see what is *not* the self, thereby removing interference. Second, through meditation we free ourselves from stray thoughts, bring the mind back to the present, and develop meditative stability through sustained, steady concentration. On this basis we can then practice insight and see the true nature of the five aggregates and all dharmas. More importantly, we can further awaken wisdom. Once awakened, we can not only know "who I am" but also discover the ability to save ourselves and find the greatest value of life.
+
+### The Self, Manas, Alaya, and Buddha-Nature
+
+Q: What are the Manas consciousness and the Alaya consciousness? What is their relationship to the self? What is their relationship to Buddha-nature?
+
+A: Manas and Alaya come from the Consciousness-Only teaching of the eight consciousnesses and belong to the subconscious—the part we normally cannot perceive. Manas is the root of self-attachment; it grasps the Alaya consciousness as "self," giving rise to all afflictions connected with this. Why does it grasp Alaya as the self? Because the Alaya consciousness has a storage function, preserving all the information accumulated in the continuity of life. Everything we have thought, said, and done since beginningless time does not simply end when it happens; it leaves impressions in the mind, forming various mental forces. For more on this, you may refer to my book *Cognition and Existence*. It is a commentary on the *Thirty Verses on Consciousness-Only*, giving a detailed explanation of the eight consciousnesses and how they function.
+
+Regarding the Alaya consciousness, the old and new translations of the Consciousness-Only school offer different interpretations. The old translation holds that the Alaya consciousness has defiled aspects, namely the deluded consciousness, which is the basis for the development of the deluded system; at the same time, it also has pure aspects, equivalent to Buddha-nature, which is the basis for becoming a Buddha. In the Consciousness-Only classics translated by Tripitaka Master Xuanzang (the new translation), Buddha-nature is basically not discussed.
+
+### Cloning Is Only a Different Mode of Birth
+
+Q: What does Buddhism think of human cloning? Does this count as a form of life?
+
+A: Human cloning is banned worldwide, for it raises numerous moral, ethical, and other problems, with consequences too dreadful to contemplate. Although Buddhist scriptures do not address this issue, the Dharma is not separate from worldly principles; since it is so harmful to sentient beings, Buddhism naturally opposes it. But in principle, a cloned human is also an independent living being, only one born in a special way. When it appears as a living being, it is not only cells at work; there is also a consciousness that goes to be reborn, carrying the life information stored by that consciousness, and only thus can a complete life be formed. Just as when a certain cat is cloned, it is not the original cat but actually another life. It is only because of this mode of birth that there is greater similarity at the material level of life, that is, in genetic information.
+
+### Samsara and Liberation
+
+Q: I have doubts about the reality of rebirth. Did the early Buddhist teachings already include the doctrine of rebirth? Does "dependent origination, nature of emptiness" mean that only by returning to emptiness can we attain ultimate liberation?
+
+A: Rebirth is a shared premise of Indian culture. India has many religions, but they generally accept rebirth, holding that it extends through the three periods of time and includes the six realms; its essence is suffering. The meaning of life lies in liberation from rebirth. This understanding is not mere speculation but is known through meditative realization. When the Buddha attained awakening, he too saw sentient beings ceaselessly revolving in rebirth. Therefore this is a fundamental teaching of the Dharma, consistent from early Buddhism to Mahayana Buddhism.
+
+Having received a materialist education, modern people take this as the only standard for understanding the world and believe only what they see. But science tells us that besides visible matter, the universe contains much more invisible dark matter and dark energy. By comparison, visible matter accounts for only about five percent. Moreover, science is still developing; even from this angle, we cannot use our present cognition to casually deny what we cannot see. In fact, our cognitive system has great limitations and distortions.
+
+Regarding rebirth, I usually suggest three angles of reflection: first, innate talent; second, affinity or karmic connection; third, destiny. Many people sense that humans have innate talents, that affinities exist between people, and that people are subject to destiny, yet cannot explain why. The doctrine of rebirth can answer these questions. Without rebirth, many phenomena would be inexplicable.
+
+"Dependent origination, nature of emptiness" tells us that all phenomena arise from the convergence of conditions and contain no unchanging essence. The Dharma speaks of two kinds of dependent origination: impure dependent origination and pure dependent origination. The life of an ordinary being is based on delusion and afflictions, continually creating suffering and rebirth. But liberation from rebirth does not mean that everything is annihilated or that one enters a state of nihilistic emptiness. Because we also possess Buddha-nature, when pure seeds manifest, they will bring about a perfect state of life.
+
+### A Dependent-Origination View of Life
+
+Q: Buddhism holds that there is no eternal self in the world; body and mind are composed of the five aggregates of form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness, whose essence is emptiness. Is consciousness also empty? If so, what exactly wanders through the six realms of rebirth?
+
+A: Indian traditional religions believe in a fixed, unchanging *atman*; Western religions also hold that the soul is an eternal, unchanging entity. Buddhism speaks of no-self, denying the conventionally posited self in conditioned life. It regards life as a conditioned phenomenon composed of form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness, in which no "self" can be found as a substantial entity. Consciousness, too, is dependently originated.
+
+But no-self does not mean that when a person dies, it is like a lamp going out. Buddhism regards the continuation of life as being like a flowing stream, with the eighth Alaya consciousness running through it. This process is "similarly continuous, neither severed nor permanent." "Similarly continuous" means that the physical body changes constantly from childhood to adulthood to old age. Yet it is continuous from one moment to the next; a child does not suddenly become an unrecognizable old person. Besides changes in the physical body, our concepts, mental states, and personality also renew themselves through the accumulation of life experience without interruption. One could say that the Alaya consciousness is like a super hard drive that stores information at every moment, its contents constantly changing. All our thoughts, speech, and actions do not simply end when they occur; they also form seeds in the mind that become the driving force for the continuation of future lives.
+
+Although life has no unchanging entity, because it has the Alaya consciousness as its support, we are not born as a blank slate; rather, we start from past accumulation, and our present accumulation determines what tomorrow will be. Out of responsibility toward ourselves, we should also be careful in speech and conduct. Practice is the process of continually transforming the content of life. This is the dependent-origination view of life, which differs both from the eternalism of ordinary religions and from the annihilationism of materialism.
+
+### How Do Karmic Results Extend to Future Lives?
+
+Q: How do the karmic rewards experienced by humans as a result of their good and evil actions extend to future lives?
+
+A: Any action has two kinds of results: besides the visible phenomenal cause-and-effect, there is also the invisible mental cause-and-effect. In terms of phenomenal cause-and-effect, there are present reward, next-life reward, and later reward. For example, if one does something bad, the result may ripen in this life, in the next life, or after many lives. Because from cause to result requires the impetus of conditions—that is, the maturation of relevant conditions. But sooner or later, it will certainly bear fruit. There are similar situations in daily life: some criminals are caught immediately, while others are not solved until decades later. The difference is that legal punishment may have loopholes, but karma absolutely cannot be escaped. This is because it is the law of how things develop, not something anyone can evade or manipulate.
+
+In terms of mental cause-and-effect, there are also immediate and future results. When a mind of compassion arises, the inner state is warm and joyful, and it also causes the quality of compassion to grow. Continually strengthening compassion elevates life and enables this force to extend into the future. In daily life we can see that some people are compassionate from childhood and willing to help others; this is the continuative result of such mental conduct.
+
+### One Receives the Karmic Results Oneself
+
+Q: The *Maharatnakuta Sutra* says, "Even after a hundred kalpas, the karma one creates does not perish; when conditions meet, its result is received by oneself." When I went to Mount Jiuhua, I saw the ten kings of the underworld enshrined there. Then is falling into hell equivalent to settling one's past karma? If it has been settled, does the karma come to an end? Is cause-and-effect the same as what Confucianism says: "A family that accumulates goodness will have surplus happiness; a family that accumulates evil will have surplus misfortune"?
+
+A: This verse tells us that if we do not apply remedies, all the karma we created in the past must be experienced. Falling into hell is only the maturation of a certain portion of evil karma; once these karmic rewards are exhausted, they end and do not continue endlessly. It is like paying off a debt: once the relevant debt is repaid, the matter is closed. But since beginningless time, sentient beings have created boundless, immeasurable karma; it is like owing many debts. Falling into hell only repays the largest debt, not all of them. Sentient beings drift along with their karma, and karmic rewards ripen gradually; they cannot be settled all at once. Without intervention, karma will naturally mature when conditions are complete and bring about its karmic result. If we fear future suffering, first we should refrain from creating evil karma from now on, and second we should apply repentance as a remedy, transforming heavy karma into light karma or even eliminating it completely.
+
+The idea of cause-and-effect is related to the Confucian saying, "A family that accumulates goodness will have surplus happiness; a family that accumulates evil will have surplus misfortune," but the two are not exactly the same. Cause-and-effect is based on the continuity of the individual life, not on the family as a unit. Of course, what kind of family we are reborn into and whether we encounter favorable or unfavorable circumstances are also determined by our own karma. From this angle, the Confucian view also makes sense.