ANATTA: NO-SELF

A very brief introduction to the Buddhist notion of Anatta (anatman) or No-Self (no-soul).

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• buddhism
• religion
• soul
• no-self
• no-soul
• anatta
• no
• self
• science
• buddha
• pali
• suttas

[filosophia22]

humans ARE the 5 aggregates, but these aggregates subsist off of Brahman.

This video's analysis of the Buddha's teachings are atheistic and unreal. The Truth is not Unreal, but rather Real. Though Soul is ambiguous, if you use it in a sentence you must understand its meaning, and that meaning is the "soul" of an individual.

True, life is impermanent, but who is it that is witnessing impermanence?

Buddhism is NOT nihilistic

[buddhabubbieboy]

You are already presupposing things. What is Brahman? Atheist is a person who is "without" belief in a god. And just because there must be "something" to witness impermanence does not automatically make it the "soul." Who or what witnesses it I don't know but I don't pretend to know that it is something I can name. My appeal with Buddhism is that it is not as dogmatic as other religions-and I have issues even calling Buddhism a religion. No more space or time to debate it but I have much to say.

[netelsg]

Robot can walk and talk like human because there is a Battery or power source connected to it which enable it to walk, talk and move its arms like humans. So, our spirit self or buddha nature is just like the battery or power source that allow a living human to talk and walk whilst a dead corpse without spirit can't. GOT IT !

[buddhabubbieboy]

So, do we reduce ourselves to this "power source?" Is this power source eternal?

[netelsg]

The teaching of "No Self" has mostly been misunderstood.

[diserydoo]

I think one must be carefull and look at the original teachings of Buddha. Yes, down the line of buddhism over time, the idea of an eternal Self had been resurected... But no little self or big SELF... that wasn't his teachings!!!

[DarkBeauty1989]

@gotami2500 No buddha taught there is a eternal soul (what goes on into the next life) but he did deny their idea of soul (reincarnation) which teaches the soul is the eternal self.Buddha was trying to tell them there is no eternal self but there is a eternal soul. But since they believed the soul is the self they were confused.

[HylianSpirit]

Look at your thoughts. Who thinks the thoughts? No one. Thoughts happen. Digestion happens. Organ function happens. Life happens.

Move your hands. Who is the puppeteer who moves the body? The do-er of do-ing. You won't find it anywhere.

Who stands behind the camera which is perception? Who is it who perceives? Where is the cameraman?

Life lives itself. There is no You. You are not the body, mind or the perception of either thereof.

Don't understand this. LOOK for yourself.

[danmeast]

No-Self is an idea that is impossible for anyone to verify, because it is impossible to experience not existing, for even if you did, you wouldn't remember it. The self is a transcendent conscious entity- the Buddha was pointing to a personal consciousness that exists independent of any impersonal processes that it experiences which will always be changing and passing away. The body is not the self, nor our consciousness of the physical, nor thoughts, sensations- we are a non-physical entity.

[kateadam28]

@gotami2500 haha you half right people do seem to love to cling to this idea but could it not be a simple as honestly expressing how you feel ?

So true self could be feeling then interpret ,then express?

[gotami2500]

Most people are so utterly desperate to cling to this "self" or "soul" or "eternal god" that they rationalize away the Buddha's plain statements...THERE IS NO PERMANENT SELF, SOUL, OR GOD. period.

[gotami2500]

love 'em all you want --

they still ain't stayin'!

[rhinohippo]

I know they are only five aggregates, but I like them, like them, yes i do

[oliness]

That's right, it's not so much that the self doesn't exist as that it doesn't exist separate from the world. We are bound up in a dependent-relationship with others - the real illusion is not that I exist but that I am completely apart from you and from the world in which I am a part.

[oliness]

Excellent video. What we imagine to be "me" is conditioned by what is outside of "me" - therefore there is neither a permanent essence to me or true split between self and other. Even when you are alone with your thoughts, the language you use to think came from the world - if you had been born somewhere else you may have had a different language and so "you" would be different. No individual can ever be truly apart from the world.