Ordinary sentient beings are not enlightened. They perceive themselves as having selves, and they interact with and give rise to physical and mental phenomena. What is this self? Previously we said that all physiological, mental and psychological phenomena arise because of causes and conditions. It is the aggregate of these phenomena which is called the self. Even though we may intellectually accept that the self is illusory, we still cling dearly to our illusions, and perceive the self as being real. If, however, we accept the premise that the self is an illusion, and recognize that we have many attachments, then we will have a solid foundation on which to build our practice and experience emptiness.

The self exists as a consequence of causes and conditions, both in a temporal sense (the continuum of past, present and future) and a spatial sense. A cause cannot turn into a consequence unless it interacts with causes and conditions. These causes and conditions interact in a spatial sense. Therefore, we must intellectually grasp that the self is the consequence of causes and conditions; and we must practice so that we can experience the self arising from causes and conditions in a temporal as well as a spatial sense.

To say that the self is an illusion is not to say that the self is an hallucination. The self is not a mirage. We say that the self is illusory because it is forever changing in relation to causes and conditions and causes and consequences. It never stays the same. As such, we say that the self is an illusion. For the same reason, all phenomena are considered illusions. All things change from moment to moment, evolve, transform into something else. The self, therefore, is a false existence ceaselessly interacting and changing amidst a false environment.