Attachment to self (Buddhism)

Tsung-mi, a chronicler of Ch'an (Zen), indicated the process whereby, in the unenlightened aspect of alaya-vijnana, intrinsic enlightenment is gradually overlaid by delusion and, in the enlightened aspect, the delusion systematically removed. One becomes attached to one's self as the seventh stage in the downward process, corresponding to the third (attachment) and fourth (symbolic representation) of six coarse phenomenal appearances. This is comparable to identifying with the person in a dream. It is counteracted by awareness of the emptiness of self.