- Self

No More Self!

Every one of us has a self-concept. People attach great importance to the “self” and develop egoism. This results in antagonism among people. Some who thinks, hold the self view encourage people to have self-cognition, as well as mutual respect for one another.

However, from the Buddhist perspective, the endless problems in this world cannot be resolved if we acknowledge the existence of “self”. This is because once we attach importance to the “self”, we will tend towards self-inflation and self-augmentation. In this way, we will easily offend people or create unhappiness to them.

Buddhism does not acknowledge the existence of “self”. Human life is a combination of various causes and condition. Buddha told us that the human’s life is merely a false “self”. It is not a real, substantial “self”.

The two main constituents of human life form are mind and matter. In the absence of these, the human life form cannot come into existence. If the “self” really exists, then is mind the “self” or is matter the “self ”?

If mind is the “self”, then there is no need for matter, if matter is “self”, then there is no need for the mind.

In reality, the mind and matter of human life form cannot be separated. Since the human life form is a combination of various causes and conditions, how could the “self” exist?

Denial of “self” is the key to resolving problems. Therefore, Buddha taught us the truth of selflessness. This is to enable us to understand the cause of human selflessness, so that we put less emphasis on the self-concept and live harmoniously with others.

Beneath the Bodhi Tree

For 45 years, the Buddha spoke about the way of seeing the world by sharing his personal experience he gained beneath the Bodhi tree 2,500 years ago. Then, he experienced not only an exalted state of mind, but also an entire new perspective on life as presented in his later teachings.

The Buddha taught that the mind filtered and shaped everything one knew about the world and that deep concentration (Samadhi) is needed for the mind to be still and detached in order to investigate inwardly the real nature of the mind.

He further taught that the so-called “self ” of a living being, especially that of  human consists of

1. a physical body/form (rupa) – that occupies space, carries a weight, causes friction, has colour, shape and subject to decay and death.

2. a range of emotions/feelings (vedana) – that fluctuates from moment to moment.

3. perception (sanjna) – a cognitive function of the mind that captures a mental image to form concepts.

4. mental formation/volition ( sanskara) - in the form of the action of the mind either good or bad.

5. consciousness (vijnana) – that encompasses awareness arising from contact with objects/phenomena.

The Buddha categorised all these five constituents of the self, “I”, as the Five Aggregates (skandhas).

The Buddha said, it is this deluded “I” that is alternating between craving and aversion, caused by ignorance. He used the metaphor of “three fires” for these three mental disturbances that set the mind always ablaze.

These three mental disturbances are also known, for good reasons, as the three poisons, the three defilements or the three unwholesome roots. When gripped by these “three fires ”, one repeatedly suffers over and over again in his rounds of rebirth in the samsara. And it is by extinguishing these “three fires” that one could stop this repeated suffering and gain spiritual liberation.

The Buddha elucidated that samsaric suffering had underlying causes and conditions. Unlike many other religious teachers who answered the question of suffering with one’s relation to a divine creator, he instead directed his followers to investigate into the nature of experience itself and to see that whatever thing that ties people to suffering in samsara all comes from ignorance of the mind. He emphasized that the mind is always changing – pulled by craving and aversion as a result of ignorant conditioning. He exhorted that everything in one’s experience is impermanent, subject to change and without substantiality, and thus there is no independent and permanent “self” (atman) nor divine creator at the heart of one’s existence or death. One’s life is shaped by natural laws operating in the cosmos and one such law is the Law of Karma, which is the moral law of cause of effect.

The Buddha was enlightened to the Dhamma, but while deciding whether to teach it to others, he reflected thus: How could experience that went against the stream of normal instincts and aspirations be verbalized when it is beyond words? Who could understand the teachings of reality? Would it not be better off to rest in deep meditative bliss in the forest as a solitary Buddha (Pacceka   Buddha) ?

But it is the great compassion of the Buddha for the suffering sentient beings that finally made him decide to share his enlightened experience gained under the bodhi tree with those who have little dusts in their eyes.