For myself i have seen sakkaya ditthi is indeed the first main imperfection to be removed on the Path (Patisambhidamagga, Treatise on Knowledge, §355-358, Nanamoli).
I belief, sakkaya ditthi refers to attachment due to (wrong) identity view.
The mind becomes attached to the perception of a gross body, to feelings, to other perceptions, to mental formations and things like seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching due to the deeply ingrained (unaware operating) habit to see/view (and therefor experience) those phenomena as ‘who i am’, or as ‘mine’.
In short: mind gets attached through the proces of mine-making and full identifation with what is being experienced. The moment the body, for example, is seen (and therefor experienced) as ‘mine’ an identity view is created. This is true for all the khandha’s. Full identification with the khandha’s or seeing them as ‘mine’, is indeed the formation of an identity view.
That’s why the Buddha says: “this is not mine, not who i am, not myself’, refering to the khandha’s. To counteract this deeply ingrained habit of sakkaya ditthi, of grasping those khandha’s as ‘mine’ or ‘who i am.
This is attachment due to viewing. Forming such identity views is a habit.
One does not do this consciously or deliberatly but it is going for many many lives.
As long as there is the habit to see (and therefor experience) this body, these feelings, these perceptions, these mental formations and consciousnesses as ‘who i am’ or as ‘mine’, mind is hooked to it due to viewing. There cannot be any stress-release this way.
I do not agree stress-release comes with staying away from dasa akusala. That is not my own experience. As long as there is sakkaya ditthi, and one identifies with khandha’s or views them as ‘mine’, there is stress, fire like you see in your post Lal.
So it all begins here, with removing sakkaya ditthi, with this deeply ingrained habit of seeing/viewing those khandha’s as mine or as who i am. Sakkaya ditthi refers also to other self-views but i belief these are the most common.
My own experience is that one starts to see sakkaya ditthi actually operating when one experiences during meditation certains cessations, such as the cessation of thoughts, of volitional activity, or maybe, for example, the cessation of the perception of a gross physical body or breath.
While one experiences such things one can see sakkaya ditthi. For example, one is used to experience a gross phyiscal body and when this perception ends, fear arises. This is because one for many many lives has lived with the idea…”i am this perception of a gross body’. So one feels like one looses control. One experiences it like oneself is gone when the perception of a gross body is gone! As if one looses oneself!
This is exactly the effect of sakkaya ditthi.
With sakkaya ditthi it is not possible to attain Nibbana. Why? Because one cannot let go. One is afraid to let go, because one is identified with certain experiences such as feelings, certain perceptions, mental formations, consciousness etc. Therefor mind reacts with fear on cessation.
Siebe