Buddha’s Path and Not-Self
Ancient wisdom for modern times and my experience with it
As Buddhism expands across the American landscape, perhaps no insight provided by the teachings is more misunderstood than that of not-self. This misunderstanding is no small matter. The teaching is essential for understanding Buddha’s Four Noble Truths and his prescription leading to the cessation of discontent (dukkha) and progress towards liberation and contentment (nibbana).
In my experience, the truth of not-self is more easily understood when thought of as there not being a separate self and is interwoven with the truths of impermanence and interdependent co-arising.
The teaching of impermanence is that all formations are in a constant state of change. As an example, I can compare a photograph of my twenty-year old self with the seventy-year old I now see in the mirror. The one self is not the same as the other. Which one is who I mean when referring to “I,” “me,” or “mine”? Because change is constant, neither self was, is, nor ever can be permanent.
The teaching of interdependent co-arising is that all phenomena we think of as having a separate existence arise together in a mutually dependent web of cause and effect. Unlike the Western view of cause and effect, interdependent co-arising results in seeing things in a non-dualistic way.
To understand the difference, consider this question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? From a dualistic view we might say the egg, because we can't have a chicken unless there’s first an egg to produce it. We could go the other way and say there must be a chicken first, because we can't have an egg without a chicken to lay it. Which is the right view?
Looking at this question through the teaching of interdependent co-arising removes the delusion of there being two separate entities. Why? Because the egg is in the chicken and the chicken is in the egg. The existence of either is conditioned upon the existence of the other. They're mutually dependent. They arise together. Neither is independent. They are one reality, not two.
What Buddha wants us to realize from all this is that much of our experience with dukkha comes from clinging to the belief we're separate and independent from the world around us.
Belief in a separate self is a misperception. However, the truth of there not being a separate self doesn't mean that you don’t exist. If there’s no you, who’s living your life? If there’s no you, who’s reading these words? If there’s no you, who is it that is seeking nibbana? What it does mean is that there’s no fixed, eternal, and unchanging self that’s independent of all else.
Let’s consider this insight as it relates to you and me. The Buddha taught that what we refer to as a person’s identity (a self) is made up of non-self elements known as the Five Aggregates of Existence. It’s important to note that he didn’t teach that the aggregates, individually or collectively, actually constitute a self. Rather, he taught that they are the raw material from which we create a sense of self.
1. Form — the body, its organs and parts.
2. Feelings — bodily sensations and emotional states.
3. Perceptions — recognition, discrimination and cognition of objects in contact with one or more of the six sense organs (eye with visible objects, ear with sound objects, nose with smell objects, tongue with taste objects, body with touch objects, mind with thought objects).
4. Mental Formations — thoughts, beliefs, impulses, volition and intentions.
5. Consciousness — Awareness, discernment; the ground for all mental formations.
Consider this. You have a body (Form). You experience bodily sensations and moods (Feelings). You recognize a rose when you smell it (perception). You have thoughts and beliefs and act on them with intention (Mental Formations). You're aware of where you are right now and what you're doing (Consciousness). So, when you refer to your “self,” in which of these aggregates is it? Are any of these aggregates permanent? Could any of them exist independent of one or more of the others?
Clear comprehension of there not being a separate self comes through experiencing no separation between yourself and other formations.
Comprehension born of experience leads to insight, knowing (rather than merely intellectualizing) that all formations are conditioned upon the presence of other formations, that everything is interdependent and interconnected. Once we've experienced this truth, we're no longer caught in the misperception that we're separate from the world around us. Right View arises and wisdom develops — we see the truth that our discontent and happiness (dukkha/nibbana) depends on the discontent and happiness of others.
My first mindful experiencing of not being a separate self came during a meditation while sitting in the shade of a very old apple tree. While following my breath, the thought arose that breath is life so I shifted my internal narrative to, “Breathing in, I know I'm breathing in life. Breathing out, I know I'm breathing out life.” I said this only once, opened my eyes, looked at the apple tree and experienced the following realization:
Breath is life.
Life for me is oxygen.
Life for the tree is carbon dioxide.
The life that was in me is now in the tree (my exhale).
The life that was in the tree is now in me (my inhale).
I’m made up of non-self elements.
The tree is made up of non-tree elements.
No-thing here is independently a tree.
No-thing here is independently a self.
We are co-dependent, moment-to-moment, breath-to-breath.
We arise together as one … not two.
The tree is, in part, because I am.
I am, in part, because the tree is.
We’re no more separate from one another than a wave is from the water that is its Form.
So, how is this ancient wisdom useful in modern times? Realization of there not being a separate self helps us avoid doing things that may bring suffering to our self and to others. If we try to help a friend to suffer less, we have a chance to suffer less. If we try to help our air and rivers and land suffer less, our planet has a chance to suffer less. With the realization of there not being a separate self, we understand that peace and conflict are not individual matters. We clearly understand their interdependent co-arising nature and we realize that to have peace for ourselves we must cultivate peace with and for others.
Experiencing the truth of there not being a separate self is essential for the development of wisdom, ethics and concentration — the cornerstones of Buddhist living. It’s not possible to understand the Four Noble Truths or make meaningful progress along the Eightfold Path without first understanding, then realizing through experience, this truth of reality … an experience every bit as essential for us in our time as it was for the Buddha in his.
