How does Buddhism view the self? As mentioned, thank you

Master Shengyan said:

From self-affirmation, self-improvement, to self-dissolution, they are the three stages of practice from 'self' to 'selflessness'. In fact, before we affirm ourselves, we cannot reach the state of selflessness, so we must start with the practice of ‘self-affirmation’.

Self-affirmation means 'affirming what you have done'. You must take responsibility for what you have done in the past or present; you should also have a certain direction and plan for the future. .

So, what is self? The self includes all of me from the past to the present, and from the present to the future, with the present and present self as the foothold. Therefore, the past is the self, the present is the self, and the future is the self. And what is the past, present and future? From the scope of time, the 'past' can be last year, the previous life, or the previous life long ago; the 'present' can be said to be this life, today, or this second or this moment; The same goes for the 'future', which can be long or short.

In the entire process that is based on the present and extends infinitely, one must always be responsible for oneself. Responsibilities and obligations arise when ‘oneself’ establishes a relationship with ‘others’, and only then will there be self-existence and self-value; but even if you are alone, you should take responsibility and obligations for yourself. Therefore, we must stand on our own current footing and be responsible for ourselves and others. In this way, we are responsible for cause and effect. If you accept the causes you create and the consequences you sow, you can understand: "Good will be rewarded with good, and evil will be rewarded with evil." Working hard to do good and eliminate evil is a manifestation of responsibility.

Being responsible for oneself requires practicing controlling oneself and not being tempted by the environment. For example, if someone invites me to smoke, I have never smoked before, so I am not tempted. If I had smoked for many years, I would probably be itching to smoke, and at this time I would have to learn to control myself.

Everyone likes the pleasures of the five desires in the world, and it is easy to be tempted and make mistakes, so you must be able to judge for yourself: ‘Should you do it? Can it be done? ’ So that you can master yourself. However, most people do not understand themselves. They often do something wrong without realizing it, and they do not admit it when they say something wrong. Their concepts and ideas are clearly wrong, but they still have to defend themselves cleverly. Such self-stubbornness and persistence is not self-affirmation, because you affirm yourself but deny others. If you want to drive others away, others will drive you away. As a result of the confrontation, others will also deny you. In the end, I was isolated instead, which not only failed to affirm myself, but also dug my own grave and brought disaster on myself.

So to affirm yourself, you must start by understanding yourself. What are your shortcomings? Any bad thoughts? Shortcomings and bad thoughts are not terrible. As long as you correct the shortcomings, get rid of the bad thoughts, and turn evil into good, it is self-affirmation.

But our thoughts are often wandering and difficult to control, so it is difficult for us to think when we should think and not think when we shouldn’t; do it when we want to do it and don’t do it when we don’t. . This is due to habit and is also the result of the natural and constant emergence of internal troubles.

Therefore, we must usually do some work to cultivate our moral character, such as chanting Buddha's name, chanting sutras or meditating. Usually when we are not practicing, we don’t know that our minds are actually thinking wildly. For example, when I was chanting sutras and reciting the Buddha's name, I discovered that I often had wandering thoughts and other delusional thoughts in my head. These types of thoughts are especially easy to appear during practice and are also especially easy to be discovered. Through practice, we can cultivate our awareness and further correct our shortcomings after being aware of them. This is the process of self-affirmation.

Self-affirmation must be about affirming one's own strengths and weaknesses. After affirming one's own strengths and weaknesses, one can achieve self-growth.