The Substance of The Buddha's Not-Self

The Substance of The Buddha's Not-Self(1)

There may be some who are surprised when a person speaks of "the Buddha's not-self." The reason why the Buddha is particularly specified here is that His not-self means differently from those of other doctrines, no matter how similarly some of them teach. What is all about not-self in other doctrines will be described in the sections following this one.
The Buddha's not-self has a broad, general meaning of neither seeing self or ego in anything nor seeing that entity as self or ego. What should be seen most definitely as self is an entity that is not illusory and exists by itself without being conditioned, touched, or done something upon. This is referred to in the religious term as āsaṅkakhatadhamma (the unconditioned state), which is opposite to saṅkakhatadhamma (a conditioned thing). The latter is conditioned or formed by other things and depends on them, hence being illusory and temporary.
Examples are all the worlds and mundane things, both physical and mental. For the unconditioned state, or, to be specific, the state of truth, that is, nibbāna, it tempts us to think of it most definitely as self or ego because it exists and appears in an unchangeable manner. However, it is not itself or anything else in spite of its existence and appearance that are not illusory as other things. And it should not be regarded or held as self of its own or of some other things either. Regarding this principle, there is a Buddha's saying, sabbe dhammā anattā, which means all entities are not self. To elaborate, all are just dhammas or entities, being wholly natural. They can be divided into two categories, namely, the conditioned and the unconditioned as mentioned previously.
Conditioned things are phenomenal. They can appear and let us perceive them through our eyes, ears, tongues, bodies, or minds. We are capable to communicate with or study them by a material or physical means. Dhammas or entities in this category are all illusion, for they consist of many things in aggregation, fall under the power of time, and have shapes and sizes that are bound to change ceaselessly. We call all of them saṅkakhatadhamma, which is comparable to a phenomenon.
Āsaṅkakhatadhamma is opposite to saṅkakhatadhamma in every way. It appears neither materially nor mentally, so it cannot be perceived through a mere contact. It is not created by anything; it does not fall under the power of time; it does not have any shape or size whatsoever, and hence cannot be measured or calculated by any phenomenal principle. The only way to know it is by intelligent inference, that is, having insight as the sense base for perception. Even when it is said that the mind takes hold of nibbāna as an object of consciousness, or profoundly perceives the quality of nibbāna, we should understand that the mind cannot grasp at nibbāna in any form of self. This means only steadiness of the mind or decisive settlement of the inference, whatever the case is. And since one's mind is definitely set, one is enabled to see particularly by himself that nibbāna is such and such.
However, one cannot describe it to others, for he does not know what to say. As for the taste of nibbāna, it is a complete mistake to think of it as something like the taste of, for example, sugar. This is because nibbāna has no taste, color, shape, or any other sensory qualities. To have tasted nibbāna means only that, when the mind has been free from defilements or has attained the state called nibbāna, a taste spontaneously arises in the mind. This is just like the comfort that arises after we have taken a bath and have got rid of all the sweat and dirt from our bodies. But we cannot say that such comfort is the taste of cleanliness—it just relates to cleanliness—for cleanliness does not have any taste at all. However, when the body is clean, it brings about a new taste in itself. The completely purified mind that has attained nibbāna can be explained similarly. An abstract state like nibbāna does not exist materially and does not have any explicitly phenomenal taste. Therefore, we cannot perceive it through sensory contact. There are certain things that we can perceive wholly with our mind, for example, feeling, memory, and contentment. We can even perceive the taste of nibbāna-derived happiness. However, the taste is only a matter of the mind, being at the mind and varying with time. It can be touched upon and caused to change by certain factors. The unconditioned state, or nibbāna, is deeper than that; it is not that taste. In conclusion, the unconditioned state is difficult to explain. We have to study and observe it gradually until we clearly understand it by ourselves. At this point, let's say only that it is not phenomenal and is opposite to conditioned entities in every way. Specifically, it neither changes nor dies; it is immortal. It can exist even though it is not created and maintained; its existence is stable and not illusory. We refer to the state with these characteristics as the unconditioned or noumenon.
Having pointed out that all entities can be divided into two groups, namely, the conditioned and the unconditioned, the author would advise the readers to understand further that the two neither are self-entities nor have such a self as that of its own or ours. They exist as wholly abstract entities; the only difference is that one is illusory whereas the other is not. And both are only natural entities. The author points this out to enable a person to decline or reject anything that would otherwise occur to his mind, so that his mind will not grasp at or cling to anything as its own. The conditioned entities that the mind may grasp at and cling to conclude, for example, the body, the mind itself, merits that one has made and sins that one has committed, properties, honor and prestige; defilements such as desire, love, anger, selfishness; and results from the attachment such as birth, aging, pain, death, rise and fall in everything; and, finally, the cause of misconception and the subsequent holding on to it, namely, attachment (2), which results in rebirth and transmigration and is inherent and always present in the minds of all worldly creatures. About the unconditioned entity that the mind may grasp at and cling to, it is the state the mind attains after it has let go of or has passed up the conditioned entities. After having found this new state without attachment, or nibbāna, which can be perceived by inference, the mind may grasp at and cling to it as self because of its characteristic of habitually having done so in the past.
About the merit, sin, goodness, or evilness that we perform or abstain from performing, what actually wants to do and does the deed and what is afraid of doing it? For this point, if we do not see not-self clearly, it will be difficult for us to understand. The fact is that the body and the mind are the doers and the recipients of the results, which accompany them to next lives. All the results stay with the body and the mind. But the body and the mind are not self; they are nature that rolls on by the power of factors within themselves, by themselves, for themselves, and in accordance with their own instinct as long as both of them cooperate or stay together, and as long as there are causes and contributory factors that condition them. Both of them are not self, for they are only illusion. If we can withdraw our mind from attachment to itself, it will instantly find for itself that itself does not exist. What exists is only a puppet or something similar to a puppet that nature conditions into an entity which can perceive and think; and that entity, in return, takes the puppet of nature as itself. This results in the notion of "we" and "they," this person and that person, gain and loss, love and hatred, and so on, all of which are illusory, for they originate from the mind, which is an illusion itself as already mentioned.
Worldly men are normally conscious of what is "in front of the curtain." No one among them has ever looked "behind the curtain" or ever thought that that side exists. So they naturally assume that all that exists is just what they perceive. They take the body and the mind in combination as self, with the mind as the center or, more specifically, the soul. There is nothing outside or beyond self. Therefore, self attachment has become our most intimate instinct and has dominated the aggregation of body and mind, which is necessarily governed by the power of its own thoughts and feelings. This is why all that the mind naturally perceives is just the conditioned; it never looks "behind the curtain" to see the unconditioned. It is the same reason why a talk about the unconditioned is incomprehensible. And saying that the body and the mind are not self makes it most difficult for one to listen to. This is because one knows only half of the whole story as already mentioned.
In this sense, we can see that, although the Buddha said that everything is not-self, or void of self, He did not deny the existence of such qualities as merit and sin, which are reactions of that entity comprising both body and mind. For those entities that have only the body, their manifestation is just a reaction, not a merit or sin. As the body and the mind are not-self, the merit or sin is also not-self together with them. If we clearly understand the point that the body and the mind are not-self, we shall also clearly understand in an instant that their merit or sin is not-self. Don't forget that what is not-self is manifesting itself in birth, aging, pain, death, making a merit, committing a sin, doing good, and doing evil. As long as one has not opened his eyes to what is "behind the curtain," knowing only what is "in front of the curtain," that is, the side on which he regards himself as self, fear of sin and merit making to provide his self (which he grasps at and clings to) with happiness, enjoyment, and comfort will become unpreventably common just as it is unpreventable for one to regard himself as his own self.
Therefore, we can see that those who are actually worldly cannot avoid the notion of self. The Buddha then taught them to get away from sins and make merits. He also said that self is self's own refuge, which means that the very self that anyone grasps at and clings to as his own essence must be taken as his refuge until he is through with it (that is, free himself from self attachment), and no longer has self or needs to depend on self. One then has only two kinds of thing or nature, one kind rolling on and the other staying peacefully.
After a person has freed himself from self attachment, that is, he has learned not-self, he will transcend self, merit making, and sin committing. This is in keeping with a saying that an arahat (a perfected one) is above and beyond merit and sin, or beyond goodness and evilness, for he has transcended his self attachment. But as one has gotten away from self, will he still have self at the liberation? This is impossible. Previously one had a combination of body and mind as one's entity. Then he clearly knew that it was not self, eliminated it, and attained the state that is void of self. To take this state as one's self again is possible for those who still have some trace of ignorance or misconception, which must be further eliminated. But if one has really attained the ultimate state, or the complete extinction of sufferings, one will not have such entity. For this reason, regarding nibbāna as a self entity is not the Buddha's view but is a view of other doctrines which existed a little before the Buddha's time. This wrong view was reclaimed as that of the Buddha's by some Buddhists after His decease. Even at present, there are some people who hold a view that agrees with that old view or express that view in order to include the Buddha's for some interest.
In conclusion, the Buddha's principle of not-self denies self in all respects, both the conditioned and the unconditioned, or, in other words, both that side "in front of the curtain" and that "behind the curtain," as well as both knowledge and ignorance. What He said in conformity to the worldly language, namely, the self for doing good and not for doing evil, is limited only to that which people misunderstand and hold on to before they have vision of truth. What the author has explained so far is just a summary of the main principle.
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(1) Not-self (anattā) means not being self (attā).
(2)This includes loveliness, wrong view, strong sticking to what one's has been doing absurdly, and ignorance.