Siebe said: “Why is mind, or why are we, not the experienced body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousnesses?”
This is the key to simplify the subtle points involved in this discussion. That is indeed what one feels until the Arahant stage; until then there is always one or more khandhas that “feels like mine”).
Most people (including most scientists) today believe that one’s body is one’s “self”, i.e., rupakkhandha to be “self”. That is the hardest one to get rid of first and is removed only at the Anagami stage, NOT at the Sotapanna stage.
When one “sees” (with wisdom) the anicca nature, one starts comprehending that it is not fruitful to take any of the five khandhas as “mine”. That “vision” or “understanding” starts at the Sotapanna Anugami stage and is permanently established in one’s mind at the Sotapanna phala moment. This is called “dasasanena pahatabba” in the “Sabbasava Sutta (MN 2)“. That is the beginning of the Noble Path.
But “seeing” and actually experiencing that to be true are two different things (which may not be apparent to most people, but it is a critical point in Buddha Dhamma). If one truly “knows” that one’s khandhas are not one’s own, then one would not desire any sense pleasures that are associated with the rupakkhandha. A Sotapanna has not experienced the lifting of the burden associated with the cravings for sense pleasures. That is removed via two stages (Sakadagami, Anagami) by contemplation AND by experiencing the “niramisa sukha” by actually removing such cravings gradually (“bhavanaya pahatabba” in the Sabbasava Sutta).
Since sense pleasures in the kama loka are associated mainly with the solid body (rupakkhandha), by the time one gets to the Anagami stage, one does not take one’s body to be “one’s own”. He/she has given up that notion and that is why an Anagami will never again be born with a solid body suitable to experience sense pleasures (I,e., will never be born again in kama loka).
But an Anagami still enjoys the “pure mental pleasures”, especially learning Dhamma and possibly jhanic pleasures. So, it is best to not even worry about removing the cravings for “mental pleasures” until one gets to the Anagami stage. When those are also removed, then there is nothing left to be taken as “me” (asmi mana). That is why asmi mana and any left-over avijja are removed only at the Arahant stage.
“Khemaka Sutta (SN 22.89)” indeed shows this difference between Sakkaya Ditthi and Asmi Mana, and Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation provided by Siebe above is clear on that.
It is not easy to understand the difference between “dassana” or “vision” and actually experiencing the results by “living it” (bhavana), which is what is meant by “bavanaya pahatabba”).
Bhavana is not merely contemplation: “bhavanaya bahuleekataya” means practicing it and “living it” all the time, as much as possible. One lives it by doing Anapana or Satipatthana all the time (i.e., by being mindful and constantly “putting out fires in the mind”; see “Satipatthāna Sutta – Structure“).