Dhamma Talks - Non Self :: Buddhapadipa Thai Temple

Three characteristics of existence

All things, living and non-living, are subject to three characteristics i.e.

1. Impermanence, which means uncertainty, change and transience.
2. Suffering, which means all things, living and non-living are subject to suffering both mental and physical.
3. Non-self means all things, living and non-living, have no permanent entity. They arise interdependently, but they just misunderstand, and believe that there is something permanent inside.

These three characteristics reveal the truth that all things are composed interdependently, and are subject to the three characteristics. The Buddha realised these three characteristics before other phenomena, and spent his life teaching these three characteristics to the world. His teachings may be summed up as seeing these universal truths. These three characteristics are regarded as the natural rule; there is no exception in anything. To understand the three characteristics of existence can help mankind to treat things rightly, not to attach to things which cause desire; greed, hatred and delusion. Desire will lead mankind to doing bad things and to the misunderstanding that things are permanent, pleasant and there is an ego. So they become a slave to things and they are ruled by desire. They are never free from desire and get lost in the worldly conditions i.e. gain and loss, fame and defamation, blame and praise, happiness and pain. But right understanding about the universal truths will free mankind from the worldly conditions. This is called ‘real freedom’.

The belief in self

What people have understood, and believed, is that a human being has a soul inside, and this soul is permanent or unchangeable, eternal and perfect. The soul is behind everything in this world today, and there is a soul creator. Every soul will go back to the creator at the end of its life. The soul will live until it is purified and then it can be united with its creator. The soul is the source of self and the creator.

The first teaching that denied this belief is Buddhism. The Buddha taught that the soul was a delusion. It is not the truth, and this causes desire, selfishness, ego etc. It is said that all the problems, conflicts, wars etc. happen in this world because of this soul delusion.

Man makes a creator

In the human mind, there are two concerns: 1 to protect the self and 2 to maintain the soul. From this notion, human beings make up a creator to protect the self and to maintain the soul, until it can be united with its creator. This is because of ignorance, weakness, fear and desire; human beings cling to this belief strongly.

The Buddha’s teachings do not support this belief. On the contrary, the Buddha taught the world to eradicate ignorance, weakness, fear and desire, and pointed out that this belief was wrong view. The Buddha told people to come and see for themselves.

The teachings go against the common belief

The Buddha knew that his teachings went against the belief of the people at that time. That is why, after he had become enlightened, for four weeks he did not teach anyone. He thought, “The Dhamma, discovered when I became enlightened, is profound and deep. Ordinary people, who are overpowered by ignorance, weakness, fear and desire, cannot understand it”. With this thought, he hesitated to teach the world. But then he compared the people with four lotuses; when the first lotus comes out from the water and gets the sunshine, then it blooms easily, this is like people of genius who can easily understand what they learn, the second lotus is in the water, it needs some time to grow out from the water, and get the sunshine, and then blooms later, this is like the people who can understand what they learn after some explanations, the third lotus just comes out from the mud, it needs times to grow out from the water and get the sunshine then it blooms later, this is like the people who can understand what they learn after striving again and again, and the fourth lotus is in the mud, it has the lowest ability to grow so it is not able to grow, or is just the food of tortoises and fish, this is like the people who have difficulty in learning.

With this comparison, he decided to teach people what he had discovered. The first group whom he taught was a group of five ascetics.

The five aggregates

What is called self, or a human being, is a combination of five aggregates, which change all the time, and cause suffering, and there is no permanent entity in them. They arise interdependently, as taught by the Buddha, as follows: ‘with this as condition, that arises; when that ceases, so does this’. This rule is called the rule of cause and effect everything arises interdependently.

The two truths

When the truth is mentioned in Buddhism, it means two things; the conventional truth and the ultimate truth. In every day language, we say ‘I’, ‘You’ ‘person’ etc. but it doesn’t mean there is a self. It is just conventional language.

Fear what should not cause fear

People panic about the teaching of non-self, of the Buddha. They fear that their existing self will be destroyed. One time the Buddha was asked by his monk, “Lord Buddha, is there any case of someone’s suffering because he found that there was no self in him?” He answered, “Yes, there is. One man had an idea that the universe is self, and self is permanent, unchangeable and eternal. When he heard my non-self teaching which aims to eradicate the self, desire and emancipate the self-illusion, he suffered because he thought, ‘I will be destroyed, I will no longer exist after death’. With this notion, he suffered, lamented and worried, this is one example of a man who suffered because of non-self teaching, monks”. The Buddha also said, “The thought ‘I am not, I don’t exist’ frightens the world”. This is because we misunderstand the self which we are used to referring to in conventional language. There are many controversies about self.

The Buddha talked about ‘non-self’.

The Buddha said two things about non-self as follows;
1. A person consists of five aggregates. In the five, there is no permanent entity.
2. In this world either outside or inside, there is no permanent self.

In Dhammapada, the Buddha talked about non-self for example;-
“Compounded or conditioned things are impermanent”.
“Compounded or conditioned things cause suffering”.
“Dhamma, in both conditioned and unconditioned things, is non-self”.
In the first and second verse, the Buddha used the term of ‘Compounded or conditioned things’, but in the third one, the Buddha used Dhamma. Why did he use different terms? Here is the explanation; ‘Compounded or conditioned things’ means the five aggregates which have connection with either body or mind. ‘Dhamma’ has a broader meaning than the others, it includes everything. The third verse of the Buddha insists that there is no permanent entity in this universe.

In Alagaddupama sutta Mucchimmanikaya, the Buddha said to his disciples, “Behold monks, you can accept self or ego teaching, unless it causes you any sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair”, and he asked the monks, “Have you ever seen any self-acceptance without this entire mass of stress and suffering?” They answered him, “No sir, we haven’t”. He said, “So neither have I, monks”, and he asked them again, “Monks, have you ever seen anything unchangeable in this world?” They answered him, “No sir, everything changes, even we ourselves change all the time, physically and mentally”. He said, “That’s right, therefore, I taught non-self, to eradicate wrong view which causes sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair”.

One is one’s own refuge.

Some people, who are searching for self in the teachings of the Buddha, dispute the Buddha’s words ‘Atta hi attano natho’ (One is one’s own refuge or we are our own refuge). Those, who don’t understand the language, mistranslate this verse of the Buddha. Atta is mistranslated as ‘self’, in fact the word ‘atta’in Pali is a Reflexive, or emphasizing pronoun, such as myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself and themselves. The meaning of the verse is clear as is means that we must help ourselves, take responsibility for ourselves, our lives cannot completely rely on others.

In Mahaparinibbana sutta, the Buddha said to Ananda, who asked the Buddha who would be teacher or refuge of the Sangha in the future, when he passed away, “Attadipa viharatha attasarana anannasarana” which means ‘you are your own island or refuge; you must be your own refuge, don’t rely on others’. The word ‘atta’ doesn’t mean ‘self’. It means ‘island, refuge and light’. The Buddha said kindly and compassionately to Ananda, “Dhamma and Vinaya I taught clearly. This Dhamma-and-Vinaya will be the Sangha’s teacher, saviour, refuge and island, don’t use others as a refuge”. This word is regarded as the farewell of the Buddha.

The self-belief had been believed in before Buddhism, so people still doubted and questioned about it. There were many times, when people approached the Buddha to ask about his non-self teaching. This is one example, when the Buddha sat under a tree on the way from Baranasi city to Uruvela. There was a group of 30 young men who, with their wives, went for picnic. One young man had no wife so he brought a prostitute with him. Whilst all of them were careless, the prostitute stole their belongings and went away. When they realised that their belongings were stolen, they chased after her. On the way they saw the Buddha sitting under a tree, they asked him if he had seen the lady, carrying the belongings, passing by. The Buddha answered, “No, I haven’t seen anyone passing by”, and asked them why they hunted that woman. He was told all about it, and asked them, “Behold young men, what do you all think, between the lady and yourselves, which one is better to search for?” They answered him, “To search for ourselves seems to be better”. After that all the young men sat down and asked the Buddha to show them how to search for the self. The self, which is mentioned here, means ‘refuge’. It doesn’t mean the self.

Does the self exist?

“Does the self exist?” is one question which is always asked. The answer is ‘no’, but people are not sure about that, so they keep asking again and again to make sure. Vacchagotara is one who had doubt about the self. One time he approached the Buddha and asked him, “Does the self exist?” The Buddha didn’t answer him. He asked the Buddha again, “Does the self not exist?” The Buddha didn’t answer him then, either. When the Buddha didn’t answer him, he went away. After Vacchagotara had gone, Ananda asked the Buddha why he didn’t answer Vacchagotara’s questions. The Buddha said, “Behold Ananda, if I had answered that the self existed, it takes side with eternalism. Ananda, if I had answered that the self didn’t existed, it would have taken sides with annihilationism. Ananda, if the answer does not benefit Vacchagotara, and it makes him even more confused. I had better not answer”. Ananda understood why the Buddha didn’t answer Vacchagotara’s questions.

This is one of the ways that the Buddha answered questions. He would consider the backgrounds of the person who asked the question. If he didn’t have any background knowledge, it was useless to discuss or talk about it. That’s why, sometimes we, Buddhist monks, don’t answer all the questions put to us; we are not answering machines. We must consider the questions, if they are good, and the person who gives us the questions, if he has any background knowledge. If there is neither a good question nor background knowledge, we will go either way, keeping silence or giving other advice.

The answer must be based on loving kindness, compassion, development and wisdom. These are four ways that the Buddha treated questions:

1. Some questions the Buddha answered immediately.
2. Some questions the Buddha answered after analysing them.
3. Some questions the Buddha answered by asking questions back.
4. Some questions the Buddha did not answer.
There are many ways that the Buddha didn’t answer the questions; silence was one of them. The Buddha knew that if he had answered the question, it would have caused more confusion to Vacchagotara so he had better be silent.

This is not the first time that the Buddha was asked questions like this. His teaching of non-self was a new veiw of life, so many people had doubts about it, and went to ask him again and again. Some got the answer ‘non-self’ from monks which caused them worry and they could not move on. For this reason, it is good to be silent.

To understand the teaching of non-self is not easy, even the Buddha’s disciples found this. In Sangyuttanikaya, there was a Dhamma conversation, about this, between Bhikkhu Khemaka and his Dhamma fellows;

Khemaka was asked, “Does the self exist in the five aggregates?” and he answered them, “No, I haven’t seen it”. They misunderstood him and brought a charge against him, saying, “Have you attained arahanthood?” He said, “I haven’t become an arahant yet, but I cannot see any self in the five aggregates. It is just a combination of things and it works interdependently, for instance, the smell of a flower doesn’t come from only the petals, or the colour and pollen, but it comes from the whole flower”. He added, “To understand self or non-self is not necessary in order to become an arahant”. Then his Dhamma fellows understood him.

The standpoint of the non-self teaching

The teaching of non-self is a fundamental teaching of the Buddha. It excludes both eternalism and annihilationism. The standpoint of the non-self teaching is not to attach to any idea and to see things as they really are, without forming any opinion based on imagination or visualisation. The things, which we see in this world, are name and form (mind and body). They are just combined together, and they work interdependently. They change all the time according to the law of cause and effect; so they are impermanent, suffering and non-self. Understanding the truth of existence chases away ignorance and gives rise to the light of wisdom, as the Buddha said, “No light compares to the light of wisdom”.