Editor's Preface The present volume on anattaa concludes the treatment of The Three Basic Facts of Existence (or The Three Characteristics) within The Wheel series. Though the Buddha's teaching on not-self has been treated quite often in these publications it was felt that some more material from sources not easily accessible to the general reader should be offered here. From different angles, these essays and translations will throw light on that central teaching of Buddhism, anattaa. As the earlier books on anicca and dukkha, this volume, too, concludes with a concise and systematic treatment of the subject by the late venerable Ñanamoli Thera, which is a valuable guide to the source material as well as to a deeper study of this profound doctrine. The diverse renderings chosen by the individual authors for the key term anattaa or nairaatmya (Skt.) have been retained. Hence it should be understood by the reader that egolessness, soullessness, impersonality and not-self all stand for the Pali term anattaa (Sanskrit: anaatma or nairaatmya). — Nyanaponika Thera

Egolessness (Anattaa) by Nyanatiloka Mahathera More and more the noble teaching of the Buddha seems to be on the way to conquer the world. More than ever before, the Buddhists are working for its propagation in nearly all the countries of the earth. Especially in India, the birth place of Buddhism, whence it disappeared for nearly a thousand years, Buddhism has again made its entrance and gained a firm footing, and with rapid strides it is ever gaining more and more ground. One therefore should rather think it a good omen that India, having regained its independence, has adopted as its emblem the Buddhist Four-Lion symbol of Emperor Asoka, and that, at the proclamation of the Indian Republic, behind the presidential throne, crowned with this Buddhist emblem, there appeared the Buddha's statue. Also all over Europe and America a mighty Buddhist wave is set in motion, which no longer can be kept back and suppressed and which, sooner or later, will flood the world with its beneficial influence. The world is no longer satisfied with dogmas based on blind belief. Everywhere in the world there is found today a striving for freedom and independence, externally and internally; and ever more the thinking man feels that the destinies of beings are not dependent on the omnipotence and infinite goodness of an imaginary creator, but that they rest entirely on the beings themselves. It is in Buddhism that one may find the true answers to many of the problems that are troubling men, and which they wish to get solved. Everybody knows that Buddhism is not a revealed religion and not based on blind belief, but that it is a doctrine to be realized by man's own understanding, a doctrine that makes man free and independent in his thinking, and assures him of happiness and peace. But of one thing I wish to warn all those who are working for the propagation of Buddhism, namely: not to allow themselves to be influenced or carried away by seemingly identical theosophical, Christian, or what is still worse, materialistic teachings. For all these are, in essence and substance, very often diametrically opposed to the Buddha's doctrines and prevent a real understanding and realization of the profound law discovered and proclaimed by the Buddha. The most crucial point for most men seems to be the Buddha's fundamental teaching of phenomenality, egolessness and impersonality of existence, in Pali anattaa. It is the middle way between two extremes, namely on the one hand the spiritualistic belief in an eternal ego-entity, or soul, outlasting death; on the other hand the materialistic belief in a temporary ego-entity becoming annihilated at death. Therefore it is said: There are three teachers in the world. The first teacher teaches the existence of an eternal ego-entity outlasting death: that is the Eternalist, as for example the Christian. The second teacher teaches a temporary ego-entity which becomes annihilated at death: that is the annihilationist, or materialist. The third teacher teaches neither an eternal, nor a temporary ego-entity: this is the Buddha. The Buddha teaches that, what we call ego, self, soul, personality etc., are merely conventional terms not referring to any real independent entity. And he teaches that there is only to be found this psychophysical process of existence changing from moment to moment. Without understanding the egolessness of existence, it is not possible to gain a real understanding of the Buddha-word; and it is not possible without it to realize that goal of emancipation and deliverance of mind proclaimed by the Buddha. This doctrine of egolessness of existence forms the essence of the Buddha's doctrine of emancipation. Thus with this doctrine of egolessness, or anattaa, stands or falls the entire Buddhist structure. Indeed, for anyone who wishes to engage in the study of the Buddhist scriptures, the best thing would be, from the very start, to get himself acquainted with the two methods, in which the Buddha taught the Dhamma to the world. The first method is the teaching in conventional language; the second method is the teaching in philosophically correct language. The first one relates to conventional truth, the second, to truth in the ultimate sense. Thus, whenever the Buddha uses such terms as I, person, living being, etc., this is to be understood as conventional speech, hence not correct in the highest sense. It is just as speaking of the rising and setting of the sun, though we know thoroughly well that this does not correspond to reality. Thus the Buddha teaches that, in the ultimate sense, amongst all these psychophysical phenomena of existence there cannot be found any eternal or even temporary ego-entity, and hence that all existence of whatever kind is something impersonal, or anattaa. In this connection I would like to emphasize the fact that this fundamental doctrine of egolessness and emptiness is not, as some misinformed Western Buddhists assert, only taught in the southern school of Buddhism, but that even in the so-called the Mahayana schools it forms a most essential part. Without this teaching of anattaa, or egolessness, there is no Buddhism; and without having realized the truth of egolessness no real progress is possible on the path to deliverance. The Buddha is, in every respect, a teacher at the golden mean, ethically as well as philosophically. From the ethical standpoint, for example, the Buddha rejects two extremes: the way of sensual pleasures and the way of self-torture. From the philosophical standpoint he rejects eternity, as well as temporariness of an ego entity. Just so he rejects belief in an absolute identity and an absolute otherness of the various stages of the process of existence. He rejects the determinism, as well as the belief in chance. He rejects the belief in absolute existence and absolute non-existence; likewise in freedom of will, as well as in unfreedom of will. All these things will become clear to one who understands the egolessness and conditioned nature of all phenomena of existence. On the understanding of these two truths depends the understanding of the entire doctrine of the Buddha. Hence the understanding and final penetration of the egolessness and conditionedness of all phenomena of existence are the necessary foundation to the realization of the noble eightfold path leading to deliverance from all vanity and misery, namely: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right bodily action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration of mind. Only this golden middle path, based on these two kinds of right understanding, namely of "egolessness and conditionedness," can alleviate and destroy these vain illusions of "self" and craving, which are the root-causes of all war and bloodshed in the world. But without these two kinds of understanding there is no realization of the holy and peaceful goal pointed out by the Buddha. There are however, to be found various would-be Buddhists in the West who are attached to an imaginary Great Self, and who uphold that the Buddha did in no way reject the view of an "eternal Atman," or soul, behind and independent of the phenomena of existence, and who believe that the Mahayana texts teach such a doctrine. Such assertions, however, do not in the least prove correct, for neither do the Pali texts, nor the early Mahayana texts proclaim an eternal self. Any reader, who is unbiased in mind and free from prejudices, can never from a study of the Buddhist scriptures come to the conclusion that the Buddha ever taught any such ego-entity within or outside the corporeal, mental and spiritual phenomena of existence. Nowhere in the world can there be found such an entity, as was clearly pointed out by the Buddha. Regarding the questions whether the Holy One will continue after death, or not continue etc., the Buddha says that all such questions are wrongly put. And why? Because what is called the "Holy One" is here only a conventional term and refers to no real entity while in reality there is only to be found a process of corporeal, mental, and spiritual phenomena. In another text, therefore the Buddhist asks a monk, whether he considered corporeality as the Holy One, or the feelings, or the perceptions, or the mental formations, or consciousness. Or whether he believed the Holy One to exist within these five groups of phenomena or outside thereof. Or whether all these phenomena heaped together were the Holy One. And denying all these questions, the Buddha further said that, even during lifetime, the Holy One could not be discovered in reality, and that therefore it would be wrong to ask whether the Holy One will continue or not continue after death, etc. Thus, no entities are existing in the world, but only ever-changing processes. The Buddha further says: Only because man does not understand corporeality, feeling and the other mental and spiritual phenomena being impermanent, unsatisfactory and impersonal (aniccaa, dukkha, and anattaa), and does not understand their conditioned origin, their extinction, and the path leading to their extinction, therefore he will think that the Holy One does continue, or does not continue after death etc. This, therefore, is the reason why the Buddha did not answer such questions. According to Buddhism, the whole of existence is comprised in the five groups of phenomena mentioned above, or still more briefly expressed in the three groups: corporeality, consciousness, and the mental factors. And within these three groups are comprised the only and ultimate things given, though also these again are mere fleeting and evanescent phenomena, flashing up for a moment, in order to disappear immediately thereafter forever. Thus whenever in the Buddhist scriptures mention is made of I, self, living being, etc., even of the Buddha, these expressions accordingly are used merely as conventional terms, without referring to any real entities. Therefore the Buddha has said: "It is impossible, it cannot be that a man with real understanding should ever consider anything as a real entity." He who does not understand the egolessness of existence, and who still attached to ego-illusion, such a one cannot comprehend and understand the four Noble Truths of the Buddha in the true light. These four truths are: the truth of the impermanency, unsatisfactoriness and impersonality of existence; the truth that repeated rebirth and misery are rooted in self-illusion and craving for existence; the truth that through the extinction of all self-illusion vanity, and craving, deliverance from all rebirth will be attained; the truth that the eightfold path, based on right understanding, is the path leading to this goal. He who has not penetrated the ego-illusion and is still attached to self-vanity will believe that it is he himself that suffers, will believe that is he himself that performs the good and evil deeds leading to his rebirth, that it is he himself that will enter Nirvana, that is he himself that will bring the eightfold path to perfection. Whoso, however, has fully penetrated the egolessness of existence, knows that, in the highest sense, there is no individual that suffers, that commits the kammic deeds, that enters Nirvana, and that brings the Eightfold Path to perfection. In the Visuddhi Magga it is therefore said: Mere suffering exists, no sufferer is found. The deeds are, but no doer of the deeds is there, Nirvana is, but not the man that enters it. The path is, but no traveller on it is seen. Therefore, wherever the doctrine of the egolessness of all existence is rejected, there the Buddha's word is rejected. But wherever, through penetration of the egolessness of all existence, the ego-vanity has reached ultimate extinction, there the goal of the Buddha's teaching has been realized, namely: freedom from all vanity of I and Mine, and the highest peace of Nibbaana.

Self by G.N. Lewis If something is yours you have power over it; you can make it into whatever you wish. It will change according to your plans. But have you power over your self? Can you make your body larger or smaller or let it be this or that as you desire? If it is not governed by your power but by its own laws and processes then it is not yours. If it were the body would not be involved in sickness for you would be able to make it be whatever you wished. Admittedly one has control over the body to an extent but not as much as one has over this house or any other possession. Why? Your body was once very much more delicate and smaller than it is now. Now it is bigger and stronger. It will get weaker and degenerate later on. This body which you call yours — has it developed and deteriorated according to your will? Or perhaps the question of ownership does not arise — the body being subject to the same laws of nature as everything else, i.e., birth, decay, and death. If this is so, should one be concerned or unconcerned regarding the body? If neglected, the natural processes of destruction act quickly, disease and death soon resulting. Therefore food, exercise, and clothing must be used to maintain it and to stop the natural processes being accelerated. Do people feed and dress the body for maintenance only, and, if not, why? Take a person who dresses only to keep his body protected from the elements. What's wrong with this? Should he be criticized and, if he is, for what? Because others don't dress similarly doesn't mean he's doing something wrong. Someone may say he looks ugly and unsightly but how did we learn what ugliness was in the first place? Is the person criticizing him or his clothes? Well, "him" is not the body; the person criticizing him is not taking offense at the body but just at the clothes. This is where opinion together with vanity creep in and facts become concealed. Leaving the body let us turn to another aspect of self — feeling. Say a man tries to grasp something which continually slips through his fingers. Can he say that thing is his? He tries to keep it but he can never clutch it solidly and he would never dream of calling that thing his own. But say he has a fountain pen. That really seems to be his own. It is always with him and it keeps its shape and doesn't change very much. How about feelings — happiness, indifference, and pain? Are not these like the first example? How can we ever say feelings are our own? If they were, happiness would be ours for the rest of our life and not an illusive thing which comes and goes against our wishes. Body is born, it decays and dies. Likewise we find on investigation that exactly the same is true for feelings. The body does not come from nothing. It starts off by the fusing of two cells from mother and father. By way of nourishment it grows and develops. Then it dies. Feeling is born of sense-impingement; e.g., eye and material shape lead to sense impingement, which leads to visual consciousness which leads to feeling — pleasant, indifferent or painful according to whether or not what has been seen is liked or disliked as a result of past experience. Thus we see how feeling is born. But this feeling changes. If a painful feeling arises we are not content but crave to get away from it. Alternatively if we have perceived something that gives a pleasing feeling we long to keep this feeling and try to possess whatever has caused it to arise. Why don't feelings last? Because the very things from which they arise do not last. Therefore if we do not grasp after feelings we never suffer. Feelings are continually born and continually die but the body takes a long time to do so. If we cannot call body our own, how much less so is this true of feelings? Let us now examine a third aspect of ourselves — perception. What do we perceive and is it we who actually perceive? Perception is the recognition of sense-impingements. How is it born? I hear a loud noise and recognize that a door has been slammed. What is the basis of this recognition? Firstly, without the ear no sound would be heard; therefore the ear is a necessary basis. The sound impinges on the ear, this being sensory impingement. From this perception arises, but like feelings it does not last and soon dies away, another rising in its place. Do I enter into this perception? Do I perceive the door slamming? No. We have definitely seen that perception arose of its own accord, with oneself not being involved at all. Well, if body, feeling and perception are not "me," what is? Before this can be answered there is yet another aspect of ourselves and this is volitional action. Here surely we shall find our true self. I say to a friend "I am going to do that" and I keep to what I've said. Here it appears a deliberate choice has been made between doing two specific things: either I will or I won't. How does the will or act of choosing arise, or is it there all the time? Does it only come into force when we have to make a choice? On investigation we find that this is so; for example: I'm going to ride my bicycle tonight. This is a deliberate choice. I could have gone to the cinema or for a walk. Why did I choose riding? Does volition come into this at all? What other volitional tendencies are there? I have killed a man. Surely volition was there. But if I ask myself why I wanted to kill him, several interesting things come to light. For argument's sake let us say he murdered my wife. I was very attached to her. He took something away from me which I wanted. Missing the pleasurable feelings which were continually aroused by my wife's company, a painful feeling took its place when I lost her and I craved to get the former feeling back. The only satisfaction for me was to get rid of the object (the man) which caused the painful feeling to arise and therefore I killed him. So we see from this example that the volitional drive (the desire to kill) had a basis for arising and we see also that after arising it passed away on completion of its primary object (the death of a man). Volition therefore is a conditioned force directed specifically toward something, e.g., I can arouse myself to apply my mind to something. But, as just proved, volition is a conditioned phenomenon. Can I therefore be equated with volition? If so, I only exist when volition is present; when it passes away I die also. But we say we are present all the time — therefore I cannot be equated with volition. In conclusion we can state that if I say, "I'm going to do this or that," what this really means is that this or that is going to be done, not by me but through cause and necessity. Well, we still have not found ourselves; yet there is only one more aspect of ourselves to consider — consciousness. Are you conscious, am I conscious? "Yes," is the usual immediate answer. If this were not so you would say, "I'd be unconscious." Can you be conscious without being conscious of anything? Most people would say not. Let us find out what are the factors involved in being conscious. Can one be conscious without a body? Not that we know of, so we can assume from this that consciousness arises dependent on the body. Will there be consciousness if no sense-organs are in the body? We can categorically state that there will not be. So our second step is that consciousness is dependent on the sense-organs. Will there be consciousness with body and sense-organs and no internal or external sense-impingement? Again we can say definitely, "No." Given sense-impingement shall we be conscious? Yes, but it will not be a very meaningful consciousness. We shall see a conglomeration of colors, hear noises, smell things, have bodily sensations, and taste things, but not be able to recognize them. If perception is missing one cannot say, "I am conscious." We have already discussed perception and shown that it is not one's real self. Sense-consciousness, together with perception, gives us our awareness of things, but is there an "I" who is aware? If you say, "I am conscious of a vase of flowers on the table," are you really conscious of it? By our investigation we have tried to show that you do not enter into is at all and that consciousness, like all the other aspects of self, has birth, decay, and death. To fall into the delusion that the body, feelings, perception, volitional action, and consciousness are you is to suffer because unfortunately they are not of you and you are not of them, and you cannot expect them ever to give satisfaction for very long. In conclusion I would say that the more disgusted one becomes with compounded things the closer one gets to things that give lasting happiness. — From "The Maha Bodhi," May 1964.

Physical and Biological Aspects of Anattaa by Edward Greenly The labors of a succession of devoted scholars, from Turnour to Rhys Davids, has now made impossible, at any rate for all serious students of religion, the cruder misconceptions of Buddhism that were current in Europe at the end of last century. Its deeply intellectual character, its unique and unsullied record of tolerance, its priority (relatively to the Mediterranean systems) of five centuries in promulgation of the higher ethic, all these things are now widely known. And yet in spite of all this, even among such as are devoid of prejudice, it is seldom that one meets with a real, penetrating understanding of the Teaching. To some its philosophy, to others its influence, appear alike unintelligible. Now the source of this perplexity, it may safely be affirmed, is, invariably, a failure to apprehend that characteristic and central doctrine or principle of Buddhism that is summed up in the Pali term anattaa. Without this, there must appear to be an unbridgeable gap in the Buddhist doctrine of causation, its power over the hearts and lives of men must seem incapable of explanation, its final goal still present the insoluble enigma that it has for long presented to the European mind. Anattaa once comprehended, however, all whether thought or practice, is clear and open. That is the key that unlocks the secret, the way to the heart of the Buddhist mystery. The term is generally explained as meaning "denial of the soul"; and yet such a translation is apt to be somewhat misleading to a European. For it involves, in a certain sense, both less and more than that. It does not by any means imply, for example, that "death ends all" in the sense of some of the Western schools. And on the other hand, the idea of a "soul" is but a part, though indeed the most important part, of the great body of conceptions which it denies. Taken in connection with aniccaa, the principle of impermanence, that which it denies is the idea of separate and abiding substance in anything whatever in the whole unbounded universe, whether psychical or physical. Psyche, of course, was the particular kind of substance which the Buddhist teachers had in view, and its proper treatment is, naturally, psychological. But every kind of substance comes under the same condemnation; and, as the Western mind of today is far more at home in, and thinks far more clearly and powerfully upon, physical affairs, a consideration of some of the physical and biological aspects of anattaa is likely to be the best possible preparation for an understanding of those psychical aspects of it which the Buddhist teachers so earnestly labored to convey, the more so as such cases are, it should most clearly be understood, not "illustrations" or analogies only; they are actual examples of the principle itself. Consider such a phenomenon as a rainbow. To the unsophisticated mind, a rainbow is just as real as any other object, much more vivid and real than the faint and distant hills that lie beyond it. A child, indeed, filled with longing, will beg that it may be given to him, that he may have and hold and possess for himself this beautiful and brilliant thing. Later on, he learns something of its real nature, learns that there is in it no "thing" whatever capable of being so held; that it is but a conditioning of certain rays of light and drops of water, and has no existence in itself at all.[1] That is precisely, the anattaa doctrine. The rainbow is anattaa. This step in sound philosophy every sane adult is taught to take. How many take any further steps? For most, "the cares of life and the deceitfulness of riches" — riches often of another world as much as of this — occupy the mind entirely, and there is no desire for further knowledge. Yet to some, one day to all, the question cannot but arise — "If this be so, if the rainbow be but a conditioning, how about the things of which it is a conditioning? How about the light and water? Surely those are real enough?" Very well, then. The light, first, what is that? Little as we all know, we know enough to answer that it is an undulation or vibration, a particular kind of very rapid movement of something. But what is this but just the very answer that was given to the child about the rainbow, given to the adult about the light? Just as that rainbow was a conditioning of the light and had no existence in itself, so now the light proves to be a conditioning in its turn, to have no more existence in itself than the rainbow had. The light, too is anattaa. Yet, if it be an undulation of what is it an undulation? Of the ether. [2] And what is this ether? Here we are getting near the limits of our knowledge. Yet this much can be said, that it is not matter. It is not this, it is not that, it is not the other — to any question concerning it, such are the replies: and yet it is not non-existence. Seek it, and it vanishes from the grasp of the mind, just as the rainbow and the light did in their turn. It is the very type of insubstantiality, of anattaa. The water, however: that at least is tangible and substantive enough. Here is existence in a way that cannot be denied. Go far enough to north or south, and water will react to even the Johnsonian fist. Nevertheless, let it but feel the touch of a lump of sodium, or even of a few inches of hot copper, and where is it? Vanished utterly, and in its place two things that are no more water than it or light were rainbow. Water in itself, then, is not and never was — nothing "was" but a particular conditioning of these other things, this hydrogen and oxygen, as we call them; and "water" is but a name for such conditioning. Nor need we even think that this water-conditioning is the rule, and the water-abolishing experiments mere curious exceptions. Throughout the whole vast universe that is visible to us, only in a score of tiny specks is that the case. Not for one fleeting moment in the great star that daily lights us, or in a single one of the millions of its peers in the depths of space, could the water-conditioning hold good. Both the constituents of the rainbow, therefore, are as truly anattaa as the rainbow itself. As in the case of the first constituent, however, the question leads us further. What of these elements, this hydrogen and this oxygen, into which the water has resolved itself? Well, it is true that, misled by the unsound views of the nature of things in which they were brought up, many, probably most, chemists did, for a long time, think that in the ultimate combining particle, the "atom" of such elements, real, separate, and abiding substance had at last been hunted down. Not all, indeed, were so deceived. Hardly had the atomic theory been formulated, when discerning minds began to seek, first by one means, then by another, for that of which the atom must be but a compounding. The time had not come, and they were baffled. How in the last few years they have been completely justified, how abiding substance eludes us no less in the atom than it does elsewhere, has been already told elsewhere. The hydrogen and oxygen, therefore, are in their turn nothing but conditionings of something else, and when we inquire concerning that of which they are conditionings, then, as we have done to the ether, we can give to it a name, we can show that it must behave in such and such a way; but the moment that we attempt to lay the profane finger of thought upon it, and say that it is this or that, it is gone. As of the rainbow, so of all things: process there is, conditioning there is, but nowhere the least trace of substance, nowhere the least trace of "self." That is the anattaa doctrine as exemplified by matter. According to the theory of the soul, familiar to all of us from our childhood, each living body, at any rate each living human body, is inhabited and informed by a single psychic entity, the thinker of all its thoughts, doer of its deeds, and director of the organism generally. In Christianity, until very lately, such a soul was ascribed to human beings only; animals had no souls. For them death ended all, without even the hope of a future life in which might be redeemed some of their unmerited sufferings; and the present writer well remembers his passionate yearnings as a child after a larger hope for some of the dear animals he loved so well, and remembers the quenching of this hope by his orthodox instructors.[3] The Roman Catholic Church still holds valorously to this ancient orthodoxy,[4] but the rapidly-growing feeling of compassion for animal suffering that has sprung up in the Western world during the past hundred years, and is one of its kindliest and noblest features,[5] has, outside the Roman pale, begun to modify opinion, and souls are now postulated for at any rate the higher animals. Concurrently with this, an influence of a different kind has accelerated the movement of men's minds in the same direction. This comes from the acceptance, now general, of the theory of evolution. Fear for the existence of the human soul was the motive, indeed, of much of the early opposition to that theory, but now that resistance is no longer possible, it is coming to be felt that a worthier way out of the difficulty is to be found in the concession of a soul to these our fellow-beings. The inter-relationship and unity of all life left, indeed, no other way, if the soul theory was to be held at all. The unity of life, however, has other bearings very searching, some of them, upon the whole question and a consideration of these may throw some light upon animistic views in general. For there is no stopping at the higher animals, still less at those who are our especial friends and lovers. If we concede a soul to a dog, so must we also to a wolf; if to a cat, then also to a tiger. Nor can we call a halt at any place, as, passing from these sensitive and splendid beings, we descend lower and lower through the mammalia till we reach the very humblest of the primitive marsupials. But the mammalia form but one of the branches of the Tree of Life; bird, reptile, fish put in the same claim, and it cannot be denied to them. Not even the lowly Amphioxus brooks the refusal of a soul, and he, standing at the confines of his kingdom, opens the gates to the still vaster and dimmer armies of the life we call Invertebrate. To cut an almost endless story short, we find even here no place at which to stop, and are fain to concede at last that the microscopic protoplasmic cell-units called the protozoa are as able to make good their title as the lordliest of the mammalia. Besides, if we were inclined to pass them by with a De minimis non curat lex, they could reinforce their claim, by pointing out that man himself enters upon his existence as a protozoan unit indistinguishable from themselves, and that if this unit contains a soul, why should not each of them contain one likewise? There is another curious consideration. If my soul enters upon existence along with me, and is mine and no one else's, so also does any other being's even such as a protozoan's, and it is his soul and no other protozoan's. Now, man propagates his kind at an exceptionally slow rate, but the rate of increase in the lower ranks of life is prodigious. Statisticians amuse themselves sometimes by computations of the progeny of a single cod-fish in quite a moderate space of time, and the results are astonishing. But the multiplication of the protozoa proceeds by geometrical progression, so that, without books at hand, I am afraid to quote the shortness of the period in which one such will have given rise to millions. The influx of new souls into this world alone, therefore, is proceeding at a rate beyond all power of numbers to convey, and when we reflect that this has been going on throughout the whole of geological time, the conception is truly staggering. Well-found indeed must be the ship of speculation that can carry such a freight as that across the stormy seas of modern thought! So far we have considered the single soul in a single body, such as we ourselves have been taught we are endowed with. But there are cases not so simple. Among the coelenterata and the polyzoa there are, as well as a single hydroid animals, many species of compound ones, in which whole colonies of such beings are united by a "coenosarc" or flesh-body common to them all. What are we to say of the soul in a case of this sort? Shall we ascribe it to the individuals, to the coenosarc, or to the colony as a whole? The individual is just such another as any simple hydroid, yet if we assign to him a soul like that of the simple one, what becomes of the coenosarc, which is just as much alive? Or, if we assign it to the community, then why, to the hydra that is rooted in a coenosarc, should be denied that which is conceded to his cousin who is rooted on a stone? And, as if this were not perplexing enough, sometimes a member of such a community will detach himself from it altogether, and conduct his life on his own account. To return, however, to the higher beings, ourselves included, with a single body and its single soul. Closely bound up with the theory of evolution are the facts of histology, the structures and relationships, that is to say, of the microscopic units that compose the living being. Let us consider, first, the corpuscles of the blood. They are of the two kinds, the large white corpuscles, and the smaller red ones. Both are cells, but we will consider just now the white ones. They are minute specks of living protoplasm, constantly changing their shape, moving slowly about, and living upon what they meet with. Now, amongst the protozoa, animals consisting of a single cell, whose claims to a single soul we were obliged to admit capable of being made good with such irresistible effect, is a creature known as the amoeba. It is a speck of protoplasm that moves slowly about from point to point, changing its shape as it goes along, and living upon any suitable object it can meet with. The white blood-corpuscles, in short, and the amoeba are indistinguishable in composition, aspect and behavior. They differ in nothing but their habitat: the amoeboid corpuscle (as it is called) can make every whit as effective a claim to a single soul as the amoeba. The one, however, is an independent being; the other an integral part of a most essential portion of our own economy, essential, indeed, for without them the blood cannot perform its functions; and is not the blood, as we have long ago been told, "the life" (Deut. xii,23)? Even if we take refuge in the brain, and seek to locate the soul where thought goes on, to that retreat also they pursue us; for stop the blood, and in a few short minutes thinking ceases. Clearly there is something wrong. It is evident that the simple-seeming hypothesis of a single soul in a single body hides a world of perplexities and complications. The difficulty of the hydrozoan coenosarc has reappeared in a more subtle form than ever, and that within our own breasts, the very citadel of the soul-hypothesis. Nor is this even the end of the matter. The relations of the amoeboid corpuscle to the amoeba strike the mind at once, and the lessons that they teach are past mistaking. But the red corpuscle is no whit less a cell, which, were it found elsewhere than in the blood, would pass without challenge as one among many protozoan creatures. Nay, further still. If we watch through the microscope a drop of pond-water full of paramecium or any other simple animals, it will not be long before we see one of them constrict into a sort of "waist," develop there a medial cell-wall, and part along that into two, each of which proceeds without more ado to go about its own business.[6] In paramecium and its congeners the new cells leave each other, but in slightly higher animals they remain united along the medial wall, dividing, perhaps, and redividing until we have a tissue or colony of several cells. The members of such a tissue are to the free separating cells as the hydroids of a coenosarcal community to the solitary hydroids. The inner nature of the cell remains the same. Now, all the tissues of the living body are neither more nor less than just such colonies. Modified in various ways according to the nature of the tissue, here for muscle, here for skin, there for bone, differently again for nerve, and finally in a special way for brain itself: the units of these tissues are, throughout the body, cells, alike in their essential nature, different only in their modifications. The blood corpuscles are just some of these cells which, in order to perform a particular function, remained detached and free to move, like the protozoa. And every activity of the being, physical or psychical, depends entirely on the co-ordinated activities, physical or psychical, of this vast multitude, which indeed no man can number. But each one of these is, as we now perceive, a being to whom, if we set out the hypothesis of souls, it is logically impossible to refuse a separate soul-unit of its own. Seeking in the first part of this article for the essential, inner self or being of the rainbow, light, water, and their elements, we found that there was not in any one of them any essential self or being whatsoever. Every one of them turned out to be, by its very nature, a conditioning of elements that were not itself, and this held good to the last stages of analysis that knowledge could apply. Every one of them had to be pronounced anattaa. What have we now found (using a biological analysis) to be the case of the living being? We have found it to be, more conspicuously if possible than even those other phenomena, a conditioning of a vast number of elements that are not one of them itself, dependent absolutely upon these elements, having apart from them and their activities no existence "in itself" whatever. Beginning with a phenomenon, the rainbow, with regard to which the Anattaa doctrine is already held by every sane adult, we have followed that doctrine and found it to apply to the highest form of existence that we know upon this earth. From the biological point of view, the living being is, and that in a superlative degree, anattaa. Further treatment of the anattaa subject is, of course, psychological. With that, this article is not concerned. But any sound psychology must be in harmony, not at variance, with biology and physics. Suffice it, then, to say here, that we may be sure that what is biologically compound will not prove to be psychologically simple. Were we ever inclined to regard the doctrines of anattaa and the khandhas as either fantastic or perverse, we may wonder rather at the discernment which perceived the one, long before biology and physics were, and at the moderation which gave us but five khandhas where modern science would give for one of them alone (viz. ruupa) something much more like five hundred millions! Far more marvellous, however, was that surpassing spiritual penetration that could see, in this compositeness of our nature, nothing less than the balm of sorrow, the justification of the Golden Rule, and life's liberation from the house of bondage. Parts of this article may have, perhaps, a somewhat polemical expression. Well, argument, if undertaken at all, should be made conclusive and convincing, if that be possible, and should result in intellectual conviction. But intellectual conviction is not religion, it may not even have religion as its consequence in life. Something more is needed. He who discerns not life's pathos and its sorrow, will not find out the Annattaa path of love to sorrow's utter ceasing. — From "The Buddhist Review," Vol. III, No. 1 (1911). Notes 1. The writer can even now recall his own childish perplexity at being told that a rainbow was "the sun shining upon drops of water." For what resemblance of any kind did it bear to either drops of water or the sun? 2. The theory of a "luminiferous ether" as the medium in which light — and all forms of electromagnetic radiation — propagates was dealt a mortal blow in the 1887 Michelson-Morley experiment. The final nails were hammered in its coffin by Einstein in 1905. The author, writing in 1911, was probably not aware of this. — ATI ed. 3. The great Bishop Butler, however, ventured to suggest some such hope. 4. With the sinister corollary that as animals have no souls, neither have they any rights. 5. In the Buddhist countries of Asia such a sentiment has long prevailed. 6. In passing, it may well be asked, what has happened with the soul. Has that divided also, or has a new soul arisen to animate one of the two bodies? And if so, which, for they are substantially equal and alike?

The Spell of Narcissism and the Anattaa Doctrine by M.W. Padmasiri de Silva "Narcissism is a passion the intensity of which in many individuals can only be compared with sexual desire and the desire to stay alive. In fact, many times it proves to be stronger than either. Even in the average individual in whom it does not reach such intensity, there remains a narcissistic core which appears to be almost indestructible." — Erich Fromm, The Heart of Man The word "narcissism" is derived from a Greek legend. Narcissus in mythology is a beautiful youth who loved no one till he saw his own body reflected in water. Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection; finally he pined away, died, and was turned into the flower of like name.[1] Thus the word "narcissism" derived from this legend has been generally used to refer to a kind of morbid self-love.[2] The concept of narcissism was woven into psychological theory by Sigmund Freud. Freud himself borrowed this name from Paul Nacke, who used the term to describe a perversion, where "an adult individual lavishes upon his own body all the caresses expended only upon a sexual object other than himself."[3] it was Freud, however, who grasped for the first time the tremendous significance of the concept of narcissism. Freud's essay on narcissism is one of the richest spots in his psychology, unfortunately neglected by his fellow psychiatrists and submerged by the popular image of Freud's work. Freud's essay on narcissism is a little gem which would have been pushed into an insignificant corner in the field of psychological theory, but for the efforts of Eric Fromm who remarks that, "One of the most fruitful and far-reaching of Freud's discoveries is his concept of narcissism. Freud himself considered it to be one of his most important findings..."[4] In this paper I shall very briefly refer to the Freudian concept of narcissism and then present Fromm's development on this against the background of the anattaa doctrine. Before his paper on narcissism appeared, Freud made a clear distinction between the sexual instinct (libido) and the ego instinct, or in more popular terms between "love" and "hunger." But he came across an interesting category of patients whose condition presented a great challenge to this distinction between sexual and ego instincts. "We became slowly accustomed to the conception that the libido, which we find attached to certain objects and which is the desire to gain some satisfaction in these objects, can also abandon these objects and set the ego itself in their place," says Freud.[5] More reflection on this point made him realize that a fixation of this kind to the subject's own body and his person was not something accidental, it is probable that this is the original condition of man (primary narcissism) out of which object love develops later without thereby necessarily affecting a disappearance of narcissism. This conception of narcissism was backed by evidence from a number of sources. In megalomania, we get the subjective over-estimation of self-importance, in dementia praecox we get the magical belief in the "omnipotence of thought." Freud also studied the mind of the infant and the primitive man and here too discovered an expression of narcissism. There are also other situations in life like disease, after an accident, in old age etc., "when the tendency to this withdrawal into self-preoccupation is apt to become pronounced." Normal love is also affected by a great deal of narcissism. The notion of narcissism was used to explain a wide range of distinct phenomena ranging from love, jealousy, and fear to mass phenomena. Continuing on these lines Fromm has worked out the spell of narcissism in group behavior, nationalism, and war. It was due to Fromm's insight that the concept of narcissism was salvaged from its limited base in the libido theory and given a more comprehensive interpretation. Narcissism in Buddhism and the Writings of Fromm Fromm himself makes a reference to Buddhism which is extremely significant for an understanding of narcissism. Fromm says that the essential teachings of all the humanistic religions in the world can be summarized in one sentence: "It is the goal of man to overcome one's narcissism. Perhaps this principle is nowhere expressed more radically than in Buddhism."[6] Fromm concludes on these lines that if man sheds the "illusion of his indestructible ego" and the other objects of greed, only then can he be totally open, awake and be fully related to the world. The illusion of the indestructible ego that Fromm mentions is quite clearly a reference to the Buddhist doctrine of anattaa (egolessness). There is no ego entity existing apart and independently of those physical and mental processes that constitute life. The illusion of the ego has two basic forms: eternity belief and annihilation belief. The craving for selfish pursuits arises with a false conception of personality, based on the dogma of personal immortality (sassata-di.t.thi), and the craving for annihilation arises with a false conception of personality, based on the annihilationist view (uccheda di.t.thi).[7] An understanding of the doctrine of sakkaaya-di.t.thi (twenty forms of wrong personality beliefs) helps us to grasp the Buddhist doctrine of egolessness. Where there is a mere complex of corporeality, feeling, perception, dispositions, and consciousness, the individual being subject to the ego illusion assumes the existence of an ego: 1-5: Ego is identified with corporeality, feeling, perception, dispositions, and consciousness. 6-10: Ego is contained in them. 11-15: Ego is independent of them. 16-20: Ego is their owner. This does not mean that the ego is merely an intellectual construction. The roots of the ego illusion are strong and it is fed by deep effective processes.[8] These processes are dormant proclivities described in the Discourses of the Buddha as the latent desire for continued existence (bhava-raaga anusaya). Corporeal Overtones of the Ego Concept The origin of the Freudian concept of narcissism is the point at which Narcissus falls in love with his own body. In relating auto-eroticism to narcissism, Freud says that the ego is first and foremost a "body-ego." Fromm also says that one of the most elementary examples of narcissism can be found in the attitude to the body exhibited by the average person.[9] The narcissistic relation to one's body has its parallel in the doctrine of the Buddha, where he discusses the operation of personality beliefs (atta di.t.thi) in relation to corporeality. The majority of the people who are not skilled in the doctrine of the Buddha are subject to the ego-illusion associated with their body. This ego-illusion is described in the suttas: These people who are untrained in the doctrine of the Buddha, "regard body as the self (attaaa, Skr: aatman); they regard the self as having a body, body as being in the self, the self as being in the body. 'I am the body,' say they; 'body is mine'; and they are possessed by this idea." The Buddha also says that due to the excessive attachment to the body, when it alters and changes, sorrow and grief set in; thus the doctrine of anattaa is linked to the doctrine of dukkha (suffering). However, while the body-image concept of the ego dominates the thought of Freud, the Buddha offers a more comprehensive analysis, relating the ego-illusion to feeling, perception, dispositions, and consciousness. To use a phrase of Wolheim, "the corporeal overtones of the ego concept" prevented Freud from presenting a broad base for his theory of narcissism. In fact, Wolheim has pointed out a significant ambiguity in the Freudian analysis of narcissism. Sometimes Freud conceives narcissism as an attraction towards one's own person, and sometimes as an attraction towards one's own body. Fromm has not merely re-vitalized the Freudian concept of narcissism, but takes it very much beyond this, and brings it close to the doctrine of the Buddha. Not merely does Fromm offer a theory of narcissism which is of interest to the Buddhist, but he quite clearly refers to the doctrine of the Buddha: "The 'awakened' person of whom Buddhist teaching speaks is the person who has overcome his narcissism, and who is therefore capable of being fully awake."[10] The Narcissistic "Self-Image" The narcissistic person is not only proud of his body but he has an exaggerated and inflated image of all aspects of his personality: his intelligence, his honor and his wealth, his social standing, etc. "Just as the narcissistic person has made his 'self-image' the object of his narcissistic attachment, he does the same with everything connected with him. His ideas, his knowledge, his house, but also people in his 'sphere of interest' become objects of his narcissistic attachment."[11] As both Freud and Fromm point out, one's narcissistic image about oneself is projected on to the children. This is extended to identification with wider groups, culminating in nationalism. Karen Horney was quick to point out that at the root of this kind of narcissistic self-image is found a kind of "self-inflation" rather than "self-love," with a need not for love but the admiration of others. At this point we see the relevance of the Buddhist concept of maana (self-conceit). Self-conceit, according to the Buddha, takes three forms: I am superior to others (seyyo' ham asmi-maana); I am equal to others (sadiso 'ham asmi-maana); I am inferior to others (hino 'ham asmi maana). Maana is one of the fetters that bind man to the ills of existence, and it varies from a crude feeling of pride to a subtle feeling of distinctiveness that prevails till the attainment of arahantship (sainthood). If a person is proud of his attainments, exaggerates them, and feels infuriated when someone gives a lower estimation of his doings, he suffers from an inflated sense of vanity (maana mada). If he feels frustrated, disappointed and underestimates his attainments he is subject to a kind of inferiority complex. This is similar to what Fromm describes as "depression." "The element of mourning in melancholia refers, in my opinion to the narcissistic image of the wonderful 'I' which has died, and for which the depressed person is mourning." Pride, vanity and conceit manifest clearly in interpersonal relations, as a reactive expression, as "wounded narcissism." Its mechanism is similar to what Freud refers to as "secondary narcissism." One's wounded narcissism gives way either to an ego collapse, depression and melancholy or to anger and fury. The Antinomy between Self-love and Love for Others Apart from discussing the pathology of narcissism and its crippling impact on healthy personality growth, Fromm raises the question whether there could be a kind of healthy self-love, a benign form of narcissism as different from malignant narcissism. Is a certain degree of narcissism necessary for survival? Is there a necessary antinomy between love of self and others? Part of the problem could of course arise due to the linguistic issues besetting the use of the word "self" in diverse contexts. A grasp of the subtle mechanisms that bear upon the psychology of human motivation can clear up another facet of this issue. Ultimately this might involve a whole philosophical perspective or a way of looking at the universe and man. Fromm's analysis of this question too can be presented against the background of the Buddhist analysis of the issues involved. The problem arises when we consider love for others and love for oneself as alternatives which are mutually exclusive.[12] Selfishness is not identical with mature self-love. In fact selfishness is caused by a real lack of genuine self-love. "Love, in principle, is indivisible as far as the connection between the 'objects' and one's own self is concerned. Genuine love is an expression of productiveness and implies care, respect, responsibility, and knowledge. It is not an 'affect' in the sense of being affected by somebody, but an active striving for the growth and happiness of the loved person, rooted in one's own capacity to love."[13] Fromm says that it is only a "symbiotic attachment" which is rooted in one's narcissism. Symbiotic attachment takes two basic forms: that of passive submission (to use a clinical term, masochism), and active dominance (sadism). The masochistic person escapes from the unbearable feeling of separation and isolation by making himself a part and parcel of another person; the sadistic person wants to escape from his aloneness by making another person part and parcel of himself. From the Buddhist standpoint, a clear distinction could be made between self-devoting motives and self-centered motives. The practice of metta-bhaavanaa is the finest expression of the fusing of self-love and love for others in Buddhism. The meditation of loving-kindness is first developed towards oneself and then radiates towards others. One first starts with the thought, "May I be happy," and then extends it to the welfare and happiness of others. Even, where a person makes a sacrifice and forgoes certain material benefits for the sake of others, it merely strengthens his self-development. The very nature of the good is such that no one can seek the salvation of others without seeking his own. It is extremely important to mention that Buddhism considers the life of renunciation as the highest expression of the other-regarding instincts. This is very well expressed in the Kindred Sayings: He who of both is a physician, since Himself he healeth and the others too. In the suttas, there is a classification of beings into four types: He who is neither bent on his own profit nor on the profit of another; he who is bent on the profit of another but not his own; he who is bent on his own profits not another's; and he who is bent on the profit both of himself and another.[14] The Buddha considers the last category as the best. The context in which the Buddha made the analysis cited above may be a little different from the context in which Fromm has made a case for genuine self-love. But I do not see any fundamental difference between the approaches in Buddhism and that of Erich Fromm. It is true that the Buddha was basically concerned with the life of renunciation, and the other-regarding virtues in Buddhism are based on a deeper doctrine of compassion. But if we present the basic human relations presented in a homily to Sigaala, it will be quite clear that even in limited social situations, the Buddha advocates mature human relations which deny any symbiotic attachment[15] of abnormal domination or dependence. There is however a wider dimension in which the Buddhist analysis of self-love has to be presented. A layman who has made a necessary compromise with life will find it difficult to handle the obtruding ego, while the recluse committed to the path of renunciation will have at his command a more effective therapeutic control over the spell of narcissism. The only way to bridge the gap is to discover significant similarities between the techniques used by the psychiatrist in special "clinical situations" and that the recluse who has made a life-long commitment to a therapeutic procedure of his own. This short paper is essentially a response to a psychiatrist with vision who has opened a significant dialogue with humanistic religions. Notes 1. Oxford Classical Dictionary (London, 1970), p. 722. 2. Oxford Dictionary of Etymology (London, 1966), p. 602. 3. Sigmund Freud. A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis (N. York, 1960), p. 423. 4. Erich Fromm, The Heart of Man (London, 1965), p. 62. 5. A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis, p. 422. 6. The Heart of Man, p. 88. 7. See M. W. Padmasiri de Silva, Buddhist and Freudian Psychology (Ceylon, 1973), p. 143. 8. See Nyanaponika Mahathera, Anatta and Nibbana (Ceylon 1959). 9. Heart of Man, p. 67. 10. Ibid p. 88. 11. Ibid p. 71. 12. Erich Fromm, Man for Himself (New York, 1947), p. 128. 13. Ibid p. 129. 14. See Buddhist and Freudian Psychology, pp. 126-7. 15. The concept of "symbiotic attachment" could be understood in terms of the Buddhist notion of upaadaana (clinging).

Extracts from the Samyutta-Nikaya

Dealing with Egolessness Compiled and translated by Nyanatiloka Mahathera When certain things we find combined, We speak of "chariot," speak of "car." Just so when all Five Groups appear, We use the designation "man." 'Tis naught but woe that does arise; And that exists and passes off. Nothing but suffering appears, Nothing but woe that vanishes. — SN 5.10 The "five groups" are a classification, in which the Buddha has summed up all the physical and mental phenomena of existence, and in particular, those which appear to the ignorant man as his ego, or personality. They are: corporeality, feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness. It is said in the Visuddhi Magga: "Whenever different parts, as axle, wheels, frame, pole, etc., are combined in a certain manner, we use the conventional designation 'chariot.' But if we examine one part after the other, we cannot, in the ultimate sense, discover anything that can be called a chariot." It is likewise with the five groups of existence (khandha). If they are present, one uses the conventional designation "being" or "personality," etc. But if we examine each phenomenon in its ultimate sense, there is nothing that can form a basis for such conceptions as "I am" and "I." Hence in the ultimate sense only mental and physical phenomena exist. (Through sense-impression is conditioned feeling — thus it is said in the formula of Dependent Origination (paticca-samuppaada): "But who, Venerable One, is it that feels?" "This question is not proper," said the Exalted One. "I do not teach that there is one who feels. If however the question is put thus: 'Conditioned through what, does feeling arise?' then the answer will be: 'Through sense-impression is feeling conditioned... through feeling, craving; through craving, clinging...'" — SN 12.12 But what are old age and death, and to whom do they belong? I do not teach that there is one thing called old age and death, and that there is someone to whom they belong. Verily if one holds the view that life (jiiva: life principle, soul, etc.) is identical with the body, in that case there can be no holy life. And if one holds the view that life is one thing but body another thing, also in that case a holy life is impossible. Avoiding both of these extremes (i.e., complete identity and complete otherness), the Perfect One has taught the doctrine that lies in the middle, namely: Through rebirth conditioned are old age and death;... Through the (karmical) process of becoming, rebirth;... through clinging the process of becoming;... through craving, clinging;... through feeling, craving; etc. — SN 12.35 (Through sense-impression is conditioned feeling — thus it is said in the formula of Dependent Origination (): Visuddhi Magga quotes: From woe and sorrow springs delusive thinking. No first beginning of existence can be seen. No doer can be found, nor one that reaps the fruits And twelvefold empty is the cycle of rebirth, And steadily the wheel of life rolls on and on. Better it would be to consider the body as the "ego," rather than the mind. And why? Because this body may last for 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 years, even for 100 years and more. But that which is called "mind," "consciousness," "thinking," arises continuously, during day and night, as one thing, and as something different again it vanishes. Now, here the learned and noble disciple considers thoroughly the Dependent Origination: If this is, then that becomes. Through the arising of this, that comes to arise; through the extinction of this, that becomes extinguished, namely: Through ignorance conditioned arise the karma-formations; through the karma-formations, consciousness (in next life); through consciousness, corporeality and mind;... through the extinction of ignorance, the karma-formations become extinguished; through the extinction of the karma-formations, consciousness... etc. — SN 12.61 Corporeality... feeling... perception... mental formations... and consciousness are impermanent...woeful... egoless, be they of the past or the future, not to mention the present. Understanding thus, the learned and noble disciple does no longer cling to things past, and he enters the path leading to the turning away therefrom, to detachment and extinction. — SN 22.9-11 The five groups of existence are impermanent, woeful, and egoless. And also the causes and conditions of the arising of these groups of existence are impermanent, woeful, and egoless. How could that which has arisen through something impermanent, woeful, and egoless as its root, be itself permanent, joyful, and an ego? — SN 22.18-20 All those ascetics and priests, who again and again in manifold ways belief in an ego (attaa), they all do so with regard to the five groups of existence, or to one of them, namely: There the ignorant worldling... considers one of the five groups as the ego; or the ego as the owner of that group, or that group as included in the ego, or the ego as included in that group. — SN 22.47 Now, someone holds the view: This is my "ego," this is the world. After death I shall remain permanent, steady, eternal, and not be subject to any change. This eternity-view is one karma-formation. (This is the second link in the formula of the Dependent Origination, and signifies here the unwholesome volitional action accompanied by wrong views and ignorance.) But through what is this karma-formation conditioned? It is the craving which has arisen in the ignorant worldling while being impressed by a feeling conditioned through an infatuated sense-impression. It is through this craving (ta.nhaa) arisen hereby, that the karma-formulation has arisen. Hence that karma-formation is impermanent, created, and has conditionally arisen. In one who thus understands, thus sees, the immediate extinction of biases (aasava) takes place. Again, someone holds the view: "May I not be! May there nothing belong to me! I shall not be! Nothing will belong to me!" Also this annihilation-view is a karma-formation... is impermanent, created, and conditionally arisen. In one who thus understands, thus sees, the immediate extinction of biases takes place. — SN 22.81 To the monk Yamaka once the following wrong view had arisen: "Thus do I understand the doctrine shown by the Blessed One that he in whom all Biases have vanished at the dissolution of the body after death, will become annihilated and will no longer exist after death." [Sariputta:] "What do you think, Brother Yamaka, are corporeality... feeling... perception... mental formations... or consciousness permanent or impermanent?" "Impermanent, venerable sir." "Now, do you consider corporeality etc., as the Perfect One?" "No, venerable sir." "Or do you consider the Perfect One as contained therein?" "No, venerable sir." "Or do you consider all these groups combined as the Perfect One?" "No, venerable sir." "Or do you think that the Perfect One is without corporeality, or without feeling, without perception, without mental formations, without consciousness?" "No, venerable sir." "Now, since you cannot, even during life-time, make out the Perfect One according to truth and reality, how can you rightly maintain that the Perfect One will, at the dissolution at the body, become annihilated and no longer continue after death? "Should someone asked me, what will become of the Holy One, I should answer thus: 'Corporeality, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness are impermanent; and what is impermanent, that is woeful; and what is woeful, that will become extinguished and annihilated.'" — SN 22.85 (Hence, it is only these five groups of phenomena embracing all existence whatever, which are here to be considered, while the designations "Perfect One," "I," "ego," "self," "person," "man," "animal," etc. are merely conventional terms, not referring to any real entities. And the so-called pure ego is merely a metaphysical fiction or hypothesis.) Five groups of existence forming the objects of attachment have been taught by the Blessed One: corporeality, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness. With regard to these five groups I do not find any ego (attaa), or something "belonging to an ego" (attaniya), but still I am not yet a Holy One, not yet freed from biases. Also concerning these groups of existence liable to attachment, I am no longer subject to the thoughts of "I am," or "this I am." — SN 22.89 The world, as a rule, is fettered by attachment and clinging to things, and is firmly adhering to them. But the learned and noble disciple does no longer attach himself, cling, and firmly adhere and incline to the thoughts: "I have an ego (attaa)," and he knows: "Merely woe is it that arises, merely woe that vanishes." — SN 22.90 Suppose a man who is not blind beheld the many bubbles on the Ganges as they drive along; and he watched them, and carefully examined them. After carefully examining them, they will appear to him empty, unreal, and unsubstantial. In exactly the same way does the monk behold all corporeal phenomena, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and states of consciousness, whether past, present, or future; one's own or external; gross or subtle; lofty or low; far or near. And he watches them, and examines them carefully; and after examining them, they appear to him empty, unreal and unsubstantial... The body's like a lump of foam, The feeling like a water-bubble, Perception like a void mirage, Formations like a plantain tree, And consciousness like jugglery. — SN 22.95 There is no corporeality, no feeling, no perception, no mental formation, no consciousness that is permanent, enduring, and lasting, and that, not subject to any change, will eternally remain the same. If there existed such an ego that is permanent, enduring, and lasting and not subject to any change, then a holy life leading to complete extinction of suffering will not be possible. — SN 22.96 Once the contemplation of impermanency has been developed and has attained full growth then it will overcome all craving for sensuous existence, all craving for fine-material existence, all craving for immaterial existence; it will overcome and uproot all conceit of "I am." — SN 22.102 (Only on reaching perfect Holiness, all conceit of "I am" will disappear forever.) The learned and noble disciple does not consider corporeality, feeling, perception, mental formations or consciousness as the ego; nor the ego as the owner of one of these groups, nor this group as included within the ego, nor the ego as included within this group. Of such a learned and noble disciple it is said that he is no longer fettered by any group of existence, his own or external: Thus I say. — SN 22.117 ...It is possible that a virtuous man, while contemplating the five groups of existence as impermanent, woeful... empty, egoless, may realize the fruit of stream-entrance... — SN 22.122 The noble disciple who out of faith has gone forth from home to the homeless life, has with regard to the five groups of existence, to fulfil the task of living in contemplation of their impermanency, woefulness, and egolessness. And while penetrating these things, he becomes freed therefrom, freed from rebirth, old age and death, from sorrow, lamentation, grief, and despair, becomes freed from suffering: thus I say. — SN 22.147f "What must exist, and what must be the condition, that such views may arise as 'This is my ego, this the world. After death I shall continue, be everlasting, eternal, not subject to any change'?" "The five groups of existence must exist... that such views may arise." "What do you think: Are these five groups permanent or are they impermanent?" "Impermanent, venerable sir." "But what is impermanent, is that joyful or woeful?" "Woeful, venerable sir." "But based on that which is impermanent, woeful, and subject to change, may (rightly) arise such views as: 'This is my ego, this the world. After death I shall continue, be everlasting, eternal, not subject to any change'?" "No, venerable sir." — SN 22.151 (In SN 22.47 it was stated, in a more general way, that any kind of ego-illusion is necessarily based upon the five groups of existence. Here, however, the same is said with special reference to the eternity-views.) The visible objects are egoless (anattaa); sounds, odors, tastes, bodily impressions, and mind-objects are egoless. But of that which is egoless, one has, according to reality and true wisdom to know thus: "That am I not, that does not belong to me, that is not my ego"... — SN 35.6 What is the totality of things? Eye and visible objects, ear and sounds, nose and odors, tongue and tastes, body and bodily impressions, mind and mind-objects: these are called the totality of things. — SN 35.23 All things are egoless. All things one has to comprehend fully [first truth], all things one has to overcome [second truth], all things one has to know directly... — SN 35.45-49 It is said that the world is empty. But why does one call the world empty? Because the world is empty of an ego (attaa), and of something belonging to the ego (attaniya), therefore the world is called empty. But which are the things that are empty of an ego? Empty of an ego are eye and visible objects, ear and sounds, nose and odors, tongue and tastes, body and bodily impressions, mind and mind-objects. — SN 35.85 One should not imagine oneself of being identical with the eye, should not imagine oneself of being included within the eye, should not imagine oneself of being outside the eye, should not imagine oneself: "The eye belongs to me." One should not imagine oneself of being identical with the visible objects, should not imagine oneself of being included within the visible objects, should not imagine oneself of being outside the visible objects, should not imagine: "The visible objects belong to me." One should not imagine oneself of being identical with eye-consciousness, should not imagine oneself of being included within eye-consciousness, should not imagine oneself of being outside of eye-consciousness, should not imagine: "The eye-consciousness belongs to me."... One should not imagine oneself of being identical with the totality of things... Thus not imagining any more, the wise disciple clings no longer to anything in the world. Clinging no longer to anything he trembles not. Trembling no longer, he reaches in his own person the extinction of all vanity: "Exhausted is rebirth, lived the holy life; and no further existence have I to expect;" thus he knows. — SN 35.90 Consciousness (mind) is egoless. Also the causes and conditions of the arising of consciousness, they likewise are egoless. Then, how could it be possible that consciousness, having arisen through something which is egoless, could ever be an ego? — SN 35.141 Whoso understands and contemplates the mind as egoless, in him the ego-view disappears. Whoso understands and contemplates as egoless (anattaa) the mind-objects... mind-consciousness... mind-impression... and the agreeable, disagreeable, and indifferent feeling conditioned through mind-impression, in him the ego-view disappears... — SN 35.163 ... Just as this body has in various ways been revealed, disclosed and explained as egoless, in exactly the same way one should explain also mind as egoless... — SN 35.193 ... "Empty village" is the name for the six sense-organs. Thus whenever an experienced, learned, and wise man examines the six sense-organs, eye, ear, nose, tongue, body or mind-organ, then all these things appear to him as delusive, empty and deceitful... — SN 35.197 "I am" is a delusion. "This I am" is a delusion. "Corporeal shall I be" is a delusion. "Uncorporeal shall I be" is a delusion. "Endowed with perception shall I be" is a delusion. "Without perception shall I be" is a delusion. "Neither with nor without perception shall I be" is a delusion. Delusion is a sickness, an ulcer, a thorn. — SN 35.207 ... What is the mind-deliverance of emptiness (su~n~nataa)? There the monk repairs to the forest, to the foot of a tree, or to an empty hut. And he contemplates thus: "Empty is all this of an ego and of anything belonging to an ego"... — SN 46.7 ... If one develops the contemplation of impermanency... of egolessness due to woefulness, then all these contemplations are leading to higher blessing... — SN 46.72 Do not think such evil, unwholesome thoughts as "Life and body are identical"; or "Life is one thing, but another is the body'; or 'Does the Perfect One live after death?"; "or not?";... and why should one not think such thoughts? Because such thoughts are not profitable, do not belong to the genuine holy life, do not lead to the turning away and detachment, not to extinction, appeasement, enlightenment, and Nirvana. — SN 56.8

The Advantages of Realizing the Doctrine of Anattaa

(Anattaanisa"msa) by The Venerable Ledi Sayadaw, Agga Maha Pandita, D.Litt. [Extracts from Anattaa-Dipani. Adapted from the translation by U Sein Nyo Tun. From The Light of Dhamma (Rangoon), viii, 2.] I shall show here the advantages arising from the realization of the characteristic of not-self (anattaa). If one can clearly perceive the characteristic of anattaa, one achieves the knowledge pertaining to the path of stream-entry (sotaapatti-magga-~naa.na), wherein ego-delusion (atta-di.t.thi) and personality belief (sakkaaya-di.t.thi) are totally eradicated. Anattaa Realization and Past Kamma All beings who drift and circle in the long and beginningless round of rebirths called sa"msaara rarely encounter the teachings of a Buddha. They may not encounter them for the time of even a hundred thousand world-cycles. They may not get the opportunity of hearing of a Buddha's teachings even once while an infinite number of world-cycles elapse. The number of existences and world-cycles in which beings have been afflicted by evil and error predominate. Hence, in the mental make-up of a being, there is always an infinite number of unwholesome actions (akusala-kamma) that can result in its falling into a world of utmost torment (avici-niraya), or in being reborn in other worlds of woe. Ego-delusion is the foremost of the unwholesome kamma of old and accompanies beings incessantly. As long as personality-belief exists, these old unwholesome actions are fiery and full of strength. Though beings may be enjoying happiness and splendour as deities, as divine rulers (Sakka) or in the fine-material or immaterial Brahma worlds, yet they necessarily exist, as it were, with their heads forever turned towards the four worlds of woe (apaaya). Palm fruits in a palm grove have an ever-existing tendency to fall to the ground, even though they may be attached to the very top of a palm tree. So long as the stalks are firm the fruits will remain on the tree; but as soon as the stalks weaken they will inevitably fall to the ground. In the same way, deities and Brahma gods afflicted with ego-delusion will be able to exist in their respective worlds only as long as the "stalks" of vital life force as deities and Brahmas remain intact. But when these "stalks" of vital life force are severed, they inevitably fall into worlds below, just like the palm fruits. This happens because personality-belief, which is ever present in the mental make-up of a being, is a great burden — heavier than even the Mount Meru — inasmuch as personality-belief gathers in its fold an infinite number of unwholesome kamma accumulated in the past. Thus beings who harbor within themselves this personality-belief are continually under pressure to gradually descend or directly to fall towards the worlds of woe although they may be living in the highest of the Brahma worlds. The cases of beings living in the lower Brahma worlds or in the celestial or human world, are much worse and need no further comment. Although such beings may exist as the rulers of Brahma worlds or of celestial worlds, yet their mental makeup contains, ready-made, the eight great hells, the lesser hells, the worlds of ghosts and demons and the animal realm. It is because these beings do not know that the tendency towards those misery-filled lower realms is always present in their mental make-up, that the Brahma kings and divine kings can afford to derive pleasure and enjoyment from their form of existence. But all the old unwholesome actions that have accompanied beings throughout the long and beginningless round of rebirths, will be extinguished completely when their head and chief, personality-belief (sakkaaya-di.t.thi), has been made to disappear entirely. Apart from that old unwholesome kamma that had accompanied beings since time immemorial, even in the case of the numerous unwholesome actions committed in the present existence (such as killing or stealing), their (rebirth-producing) tendencies entirely disappear as soon as their head and chief, the personality-belief, becomes completely extinguished. For such beings there may remain occasion to fear affliction by vermin, but there no longer remains any occasion for them to fear the resultants of the infinite number of past unwholesome actions.[1] Beings whose mental make-up is entirely freed from personality-belief have, as it were, their heads turned towards the higher planes of the celestial and Brahma worlds even though they may be living in the human world. And if living in the lower celestial and Brahma realms, their heads are always turned towards the higher planes of those worlds. They resemble the vapors that invariably rise upwards from forests and mountains during the latter part of the rainy season. This shows the greatness of the advantages arising from the extinction of personality-belief as far as relating to past kamma. Anattaa Realization and Future Kamma Human beings, deities and Brahmas, who have personality-belief in their mental make-up, may be good and virtuous beings today, but any time later they may commit an unlimited number of evil deeds, even grave offences like matricide, parricide, killing of arahants, etc.; and this may happen to them tomorrow or the day after, next month or next year, or in following existences. Today they may be devotees within the fold of the Buddha's Dispensation, while tomorrow or the day after, etc., they may be outside its pale or even become enemies and destroyers of the Buddha Saasana. Those beings however, human or divine, who well perceive the characteristic of not-self (anattaa) and thus have entirely extirpated personality-belief from their mental make-up, will cease to commit evil deeds and other unwholesome kamma even in their dreams, although they may continue to circle in sa"msaara for many more lives to come. From the day of freeing themselves from personality-belief until their final existence before their attainment of Nibbaana, they will always remain within the fold of the Buddha's Dispensation, wherever they are reborn. They will never appear in a form of existence or in a world where the Buddha's Dispensation is absent. This shows the greatness of the advantages arising from the extinction of personality-belief as far as relating to future kamma. How Past Kamma Becomes Inoperative How the innumerable unwholesome karmic actions of the past become inoperative[2] at the moment when personality-belief is extinguished, may be illustrated as follows: In a string of beads where a great number of beads are strung together by a strong silk thread, if one bead is pulled all the others will follow the one that is pulled. But if the silk thread is cut or removed, pulling one of the beads will not disturb the other beads because there is no longer any attachment between them. Similarly, a being that possesses personality-belief harbors a strong attachment to the series of the aggregates (khandha) arisen during past existences and past world cycles, and transforms them into an ego. Thinking, "In the past I have often been a human being, a deity, or a Brahmaa," he acquires the thread that is personality-belief. It is thus that the innumerable unwholesome karmic actions of the past which have not yet produced resultants, will accompany that being wherever he may be reborn. These unwholesome actions of the past resemble beads that are strung and bound together by a strong thread. Beings, however, who clearly perceive the characteristic of not-self and have rid themselves of personality-belief, will perceive that the bodily and mental aggregates that arise and disappear even within the short period of one sitting, do so as separate phenomena and not as a closely interlinked continuum. The concept of "my self" which is like the thread, is no longer present. Those bodily and mental processes appear to them like the beads from which the thread has been removed. They clearly perceive that the unwholesome actions of the past committed by them, are not "persons" nor "beings" not an "I" nor "my actions," but that they arise and disappear in an instant. That is why that past unwholesome kamma disappears as soon as personality-belief disappears. It should be known, however, that only unwholesome (akusala) kamma disappears. Wholesome (kusala) kamma of the past does not disappear through the mere disappearance of personality-belief. It is only when the stage of the path of sainthood (arahatta-magga) is reached and when craving (ta.nhaa) is completely eradicated that wholesome kamma of the past becomes inoperative. The Evil of Personality Belief Personality-belief is an evil that is extremely deep-rooted and far-reaching. A person who commits an evil deed and thus becomes extremely agitated and worried over the prospect of being reborn in states of woe, transforms that evil deed of his into a "self" (attaa) and becomes greatly distressed by such firmly held thoughts as, "I have done wrong. I have gravely erred." But if that being fully comprehends and realizes the characteristic of not-self and thereby can abolish attachment to such thoughts as, "I have gravely erred," that kamma (unless it is a weighty one) will no longer have the power of producing resultants (in a future rebirth) so far as that being is concerned. But, generally, beings do not discard their attachment to such thoughts. Although that kamma does not, as it were, desire to accompany that being nor to produce resultants, yet it is forced to do so by the fact that being takes possession of it by harboring such thoughts as, "I myself have committed that deed. It is my kamma." Because of this forcible possessive act that kamma is obliged to produce its resultants. To this extent are beings possessing personality-belief deluded and erring in their ways. It is the same in the case of unwholesome kamma of the past that remains operative. It is because of the forcible possessive act of personality-belief that this kamma accompanies beings throughout their samsaric wanderings and will produce its resultants in due course. Beings find that they cannot discard their unwholesome actions though being oppressed by their resultants, and suffering great privations in the process. They think, "I have committed those evil deeds," and thus (identifying themselves with them) they take, as it were, possession of them. Thus these unwholesome actions cannot help to produce resultants and continue to do so, disabling those beings to achieve release. To this extent, personality-belief is profoundly evil and erroneous. Beings are very much afraid of the dangers of disease, old age, and death. But, through harboring such fear, they become attached to the past incidents of disease, old age, and death by identifying themselves with those experiences in the thought, "For a long time in the past I have suffered these ills." Thus they find it impossible to relinquish even such fearsome phenomena. Hence these phenomena of disease, old age, and death continue to accompany them, as it were, against their own will, and continue to cause oppression. To this extent, too, is personality-belief profoundly evil and erroneous. In this present existence, too, when external and internal dangers are encountered or disease and ailments occur, beings attach themselves to them through such thoughts as, "I feel pain; I feel hurt," and thus take a possessive attitude towards them. This becomes an act of bondage that later may obstruct beings from ridding themselves of those diseases, ailments, and dangers. Because this bondage through personality-belief is so strong, beings have often found those diseases, ailments, or dangers to be their inseparable companions through many existences up to the present day. Thus, personality creates a possessive attachment even to diseases, ailments, and dangers though these are so greatly oppressive. Also fears of encountering disease, ailments, and dangers in future, will produce such a bondage. And as long as there is personality-belief, beings will certainly meet such eventualities also in future. This is a brief description of how personality-belief is profoundly evil and erroneous. Superficial and Deep Attachment The attachments of craving (ta.nhaa) and conceit (maana) are not necessarily attachments of wrong views (di.t.thi). Craving develops an attachment for all the (physical and mental) phenomena in the three spheres of existence, in the form, "It is my property." Conceit develops a proud attachment for them in the form, "It is I who owns it" or "It is I who has those great qualities." In the case of beings who have personality-belief, craving and conceit follow the lead given by personality-belief. In the case of stream-winners, once-returners, and non-returners who have eliminated personality-belief, craving and conceit follow the distortion of perception (sa~n~naa-vipallaasa) and the distortion of consciousness (citta-vipallaasa). The attachments produced by these distortions are superficial; but those produced by personality-belief are deep. This ends the description how unwholesome actions of the past totally cease with the disappearance of personality-belief. Notes 1. This means that the unwholesome actions of the past can no longer generate a new rebirth, though they might cause resultants (vipaaka) to appear in the present life times of stream-winners and even of arahants. — (Editor, The Wheel)] 2. I.e., inoperative as to producing rebirth.

Is There a Self or Not? Vacchagotta the Wanderer went to visit the Exalted One, and said: "Now, master Gotama, is there a self?" At these words the Exalted One was silent. "How, then, master Gotama, is there not a self?" For a second time the Exalted One was silent. Then Vacchagotta the Wanderer rose from his seat and went away. Now not long after the departure of the Wanderer, the Venerable Aananda said to the Exalted One: "How is it, lord, that the Exalted One gave no answer to the question of the Wanderer Vacchagotta?" "If, Aananda, when asked by the Wanderer: 'Is there a self?,' I had replied to him: 'There is a self,' then, Aananda, that would be siding with the recluses and brahmins who are eternalists. "But if, Aananda, when asked: 'Is there not a self?' I had replied that it does not exist, that, Aananda, would be siding with those recluses and brahmins who are annihilationists. "Again, Aananda, when asked by the Wanderer: 'Is there a self?,' had I replied that there is, would my reply be in accordance with the knowledge that all things are impermanent?" "Surely not, lord." "Again, Aananda, when asked by Vacchagotta the Wanderer; 'Is there a self?,' had I replied that there were not, it would have been more bewilderment for the already bewildered Vacchagotta. "He would have said: 'Formerly indeed I had a self, but now I have not one any more.'" — SN 44.10

The Search for a Self or Soul Chas. F. Knight In the Sa"muytta-Nikaaya is the story of Vacchagotta the Wanderer, the man who was concerned with the existence or non-existence of his "self." In the Digha-Nikaaya is the story of Po.t.thapaada, an inveterate asker of questions, in search of a "soul." It is of interest to note the different response these two inquirers received from the Buddha. Vacchagotta's questions remained unanswered, while Po.t.thapaada's doctrinal questions were discussed and answered in full. Both of these inquirers have their counterparts in the West today — those who are concerned with a "self," and those who are concerned with a "soul." While the two terms self and soul are often used as synonyms and interchangeable, I think that those who use them in reference to themselves have a differential conception of the two words. The seeker for a "self" is more concerned with the preservation of his ego in the here and now, whereas the would-be possessor of a "soul" is perturbed as to survival after death. It is empiric that the protagonists of the self theory, or concept, are by nature extrovert and egotistic. On the other hand, those who most ardently cling to the soul concept, are less concerned with asserting themselves before others, but are concerned mainly with their inmost nature — natural introverts. Yet these too in their quiet way are also egotistical, in that they desire to preserve their "identity." While the Asian Buddhist world unanimously accepts and adheres to the doctrine of anatta — the absence of an abiding and stable entity — it is by no means uncommon to find nominal "Buddhists" in the West who are unable to shake off 2000 years of indoctrination of the "soul" concept, and, as a consequence, bring to their "Buddhism" preconceived views, often bolstered up by a syncretic admixture of other Indian beliefs. The story of Vacchagotta precedes this article. His questions are akin to asking a man if he has stopped beating his wife. The man may have not have lifted his hand against her at any time, but if he answers "Yes," the inference is that he had previously beaten her. If he answers "No," the inference is that he still beats her. Had the Buddha agreed that Vacchagotta had a self, for the Buddha did not deny the existence of phenomenon, Vacchagotta could have taken it as a confirmation of the brahmin belief in an eternal atman, or spark of the Divine to survive after death. Had the Buddha agreed that there was not a "self" in the ultimate sense, Vacchagotta could have taken the reply as an endorsement of the view held by the annihilationists — that nothing survived after death. Vacchagotta was not asking questions idly, but this was an occasion on which confusion could have arisen, and so the Buddha maintained the noble silence and left Vacchagotta to ponder further on the point that was bothering him. He still had not grasped the higher truths of karma and aniccaa under which the conventional "self" is but a momentary manifestation of ever-changing components to be cast aside at death, and without a stable entity to be carried forward to a new birth. Later, Vacchagotta did grasp these truths, and he finally became one of the arahants. Those who are fond of quoting this dialogue between the Buddha and Vacchagotta to support their theory of a soul seldom, if ever, go on to the Buddha's final explanation to Aananda which closes the passage, and which, incidentally displays one of those flashes of the Buddha's humor that peeps out here and there in his dealings with inquirers. It would be stretching the argument beyond reason to presume that the Buddha was not capable or not inclined to make an assertion on the "soul" if it really existed, in the light of his many expositions of its non-existence. The commentator, Kumaralabdha, quoted by Dr. Malalasekera in the Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, puts it in a nutshell: If there was an "atta" (soul), what on earth was there to prevent the Buddha from saying so? For our purpose we can dismiss the "self" seekers, for while they insist on having a "self" to satisfy their ego, many of them give at least lip-service to the anattaa doctrine. They have their "self" that thinks, writes, or teaches, to present to the world. They have their "self" that strives to lift the "self" still higher in man's estimation, till it equals or becomes part of the "SELF," and some go on to the "Overself," or Godhead by another name. These people see themselves as gods in the making, and their word is final — so far as they are concerned. Their concepts are usually derived via Theosophy from pre-Buddhistic Brahmanism, even though they may call themselves "Buddhists." Brahman, the First Cause, or Great SELF, was personified as Brahma the Creator, the Self, and all beings were, or had in them, a spark of the Divine, a lesser self, which was still essentially of the same substance as the Great SELF, to which it eventually returned when purified by rites and ceremonies. On the question of a "soul," Po.t.thapaada and his friends were discussing the importance of consciousness, its arising and its ceasing. One had put forward the theory that: "States of consciousness come to a man without reason and without a cause, and so also do they pass away. At the time when they spring up in him, then he becomes conscious." This was rejected by a second speaker who protested: "That, sirs, will never be as you say. Consciousness, sirs, is a man's soul (attaa). It is the soul that comes and goes. When the soul comes into a man, then he becomes conscious; when the soul goes away out of a man, he becomes unconscious." Seeing the Buddha approaching they decided to ask his opinion on the matter, and Po.t.thapaada outlines the pith of their discussion and the various arguments that have been put forward. The Buddha refuted the former view by stating that it was precisely through a reason, by means of a cause, that states of consciousness come and go. "By training some states of consciousness arise. By training others pass away." Through training one sort of consciousness arises, and through training another passes away. The Buddha illustrates his meaning by a lengthy discourse on training, showing the causal origination of consciousness as a consequence. He then goes on to the cessation of consciousness dependent on the cessation of ideas as the adept in meditative practices achieves the various trance states of the jhaanas. "To him neither thinking anymore, nor fancying the ideas, the states of consciousness he had pass away, and no others, coarser than they, arise. So he enters in jhaana. Thus it is, Po.t.thapaada, that the attainment of the cessation of conscious ideas takes place step by step." The first proposition of the independent arising of ideas leading to consciousness having thus been disposed of by the Buddha, Po.t.thapaada admits to not having heard this explained before, "but I now understand what you say." He then proceeds to the second opinion that had been expressed by his fellow mendicants: "Is then, Sir, the consciousness identical with a man's soul, or is consciousness one thing and the soul another?" "But what then, Po.t.thapaada? Do you really fall back on the soul?" queries the Buddha. Po.t.thapaada replies that he takes for granted the existence of a soul of some kind. Maybe a material soul, he suggests tentatively, but without much conviction. Failing that, what about a soul the exact copy of the body, but so subtle in texture that it could only be described as being "made of mind." No? Well then a soul without form, and made of consciousness. To all of these suggestions the Buddha has but one reply. Suppose you did have a soul conforming to any of these descriptions, still some ideas, some states of consciousness, would arise to the man, and others would pass away, so "you can see how consciousness must be one thing, and the soul would be another." However Po.t.thapaada was still not convinced that he was totally lacking in a soul. On that point he had a closed mind as is shown by his next question. He does not ask: "Is there, or is there not, a soul?," but is it possible for him to ever understand what the soul is. "Is it possible for me to understand whether consciousness is the man's soul, or is the one different from the other?" The Buddha's reply to Po.t.thapaada is equally applicable to the "soul-seekers" of today; those who accept the Buddha's teachings with reservations — the right to reject what does not fit in with their preconceived notions, beliefs, and views. "Hard it is for you, Po.t.thapaada, holding as you do different views, other things approving themselves to you, setting different aims before yourself, striving after a different perfection, trained in a different system of doctrine, to grasp this matter." Po.t.thapaada abandons his search for a definition of his soul, to which he still clings, and changes the subject by propounding ten questions on the imponderables. The Buddha bears patiently with him, and in answer to each question replies it is not a matter on which he had expressed an opinion, for such questions were not calculated to profit, were not concerned with his Dhamma, nor to the attainment of Nirvana. But Po.t.thapaada has not exhausted his propensity for asking questions. "Then what is it that the Exalted One has determined?" "I have expounded what Dukkha is; I have expounded what is its origin; I have expounded what is the cessation of Dukkha; I have expounded what is the method by which one m