What is the Buddhist concept of the self?

Answer 1

The Buddha taught that there is no soul - nothing that travels from lifetime to lifetime (as the Hindus at the time believed). He also taught that we all exist but not in the way that we are convinced that we do. He argued that we have a very old habit of projecting a heightened form of reality onto the self. Furthermore, this false sense of self leads to suffering. If we successfully rid ourselves of this ignorant understanding about ourselves (and similarly other people and things), then (he asserted) we can end this suffering permanently. Buddhists from different schools have spent centuries attempting to describe in words exactly what this false sense of self is. But words and concepts are limited and imprecise compared to a direct perception of the absence or emptiness of this false sense of self. Here are a few ways Buddhists have described this false sense of things: - A gold coin appears to really deserve the term "coin" and to radiate value. However, the Buddha contended that the term "coin" and the idea of the coin having value do not come from the coin but instead are imposed by us onto the object. So there really is a "mere" coin but there is no coin as we usually know it - having a name and qualities from its own side. - A gold coin is not established by way of its own condition as the referent of the term "coin" or the attribute "valuable". Certainly the coin is the referent of the term "gold" and the attribute "valuable", but not by way of its own condition. - There is no difference in entity between the consciousness perceiving a gold coin and the gold coin itself. This approach to the emptiness of the self of things is sometimes called "no external objects" since no object of the mind is considered a different entity from the consciousness perceiving it. Buddhists of course believe that the mind and body exist. However, they say that we mistakenly project a self onto the combination of mind and body (the 5 aggregates) . A crude analogy that might help a Westerner (such as myself) understand this: When we look at a gold coin, the color of the coin, the curve of its shape, etc. appear to be "out there" in the world. However, we know that what we are seeing is actually light in our eyeballs. We are only ever able to see light in our eyeballs - never "out there". This may not seem like a big distinction in your daily life. However, when you look up a the stars, many of the stars you see are no longer there. It is just that the light emitted from where the stars used to be (before the super nova, etc.) is has been in transit to your eyes for sometimes millions of years. So, if you think the star exists "out there" you are wrong. It only exists for you in your eyes.