Imagined debate between ordinary person and one who sees what the Buddha meant by "no-self"
Imagine a Mini Me driving this body to act.
Okay, if the Buddha himself said "there is no self," he himself must be cr*zy! How could there be no self? Anyone (any self) who thinks there's no self ought to have his (or her) head examined. The SOUL (Pali atta, Sanskritatman, Spanish alma) is right here, in the chest, standing next to the heart with his arms crossed, a little homunculus who sometimes takes the backstairs of the spinal column into the cranium and looks out through the eyes of the head while manipulating levers and switches, which is how we live.
Driver's seat, where he steers the body
Who's inside of that guy?
Beg your pardon?
Who is driving the homunculus?
Well, um, there's an even smaller "mini me" homunculus driving that one.
And that one?
And that one what?
Who or what is driving that one?
And so on, ad infinitum! There's always a smaller one until we get down to the level of the cell, which has a mitochondria seat where the mini-mini-mini me homunculus sits to drive the cell.
And what's smaller than a cell?
An atom, of course.
Each with its own homunculus, I suppose.
Now you're catching on!
I'll knock the homunculus out of you, mofo
Well, it sure feels that way, that a homunculus is driving the human body, but have you ever known a guy to get punched in the head so hard, like a Pantera album cover (Vulgar Display of Power), that his homunculus gets knocked out of his seat and flies out of his ear and now doesn't have a big homme (Hummer) to drive?
Well, no, of course not. He would die.
And his body would disappear?
No, of course, not. Why would it disappear?
Because we don't find homunculi during autopsies.
Well, that's because they disappear, yes, disappear right out of existence once the car is undrivable, dead as it were, stuck with the levers and switches not working...
In a coma or vegatative state?
Vegatative state, yes, no longer functional and then, vamoose, homunculus goes to Heaven or the great beyond where all the homunculi gather and have parties by drinking and singing and dancing in circles until they're reborn into another body.
No hell?
Well, of course there's a hell, but, I mean, the homunculus has had to have gotten up to some pretty high hijinks to go there. Class dismissed!
Just one more question: You KNOW this to be true?
Just one more answer: I FEEL this to be true...
But that...
No more questions! Class dismissed! Get out, get out!
The Buddha never said, "There is no self"?
O, poor little homunculus self
It seems to us the Buddha did say such a thing, not to everyone. Nearly no one can understand this liberating truth. Even fewer can accept it. The entire practice is to bring about insight (clear seeing) so that we can see what is and is not true in order that the Truth set us free.
Liberation from all suffering takes insight, and long before insight arises, one needs calm, stillness, silence, serenity, samadhi (superconsciousness deriving from mental purification by "concentration" in the form of meditative absorptions called jhanas (dhyanas, zens, chans) -- overcoming the Five Hindrances and attaining equipoise, composure, equanimity, balance, brightened faculties now that everything has become coherent and gone online without hindrance and obstruction, a temporary state that serves as the foundation for the arising of insight (vipassana).
Insight cuts off the mental defilements at their roots and results in awakening, the experience of enlightenment (bodhi), which results in ultimate liberation known as a glimpse of nirvana (complete peace or ultimate bliss, the highest happiness), a thing so different it cannot rightly be called a "thing" at all because it is unlike all we have ever known in this world of things called samsara (the Cycle, the Wheel of Life and Death) or this simulation we have been endlessly cycling through due to karma (deeds) and delusion, i.e., ignorance of Dependent Origination).
Does the Buddha say there's a self? Yes but only because he is speaking conventionally. How does he define this "self"? He does so by the Five Aggregates clung to as "self." This is when he is speaking in conventional terms. However, when he is speaking in ULTIMATE terms (in terms of what is ultimately true), he points at what insight will reveal to anyone who develops it: There is, ultimately speaking, no self.
(The question "Is there a self?" is wrong because it is full of assumptions. We assume we have a self -- that is to say and speaking more correctly, the impersonal aggregates cling to the misunderstanding that a self is present -- even from the standpoint of asking the question. Form forms (the body bodies), feelings feel, perception perceives, mental formations will and intend, consciousness is conscious so that it seems as if Self is the Asker, the Thinker, the Doer, the Worrier, the Watcher (the Atman or Immortal Soul), the One who practices and will or will not be enlightened/awakened).
There is an "Immortal Soul" in a way. That is to say, there is something mistaken for a soul, ego, essence, heart, personality, individuality, a "self," who persists through time unchanged as its perfect self, the Doer, the Knower, the Experiencer, but it is not what it seems. This is what the Buddha is pointing out. We are certainly more than we know, but all those things we cling to will ultimate frustrate, disappoint, and prove mistaken. Even if we (or these aggregates) cling to the exalted notion, "I am the ALL," "I am Brahman," or "I am that I am," Tattva, Tat Tvam Asi, all of these exalted Vedic, Brahmanical, Hindu, and later Judeo-Christian ideas,
There is a better way to ask and find an answer: "What is there?" There is Dependent Origination (the 12-link chain of causality, its elements each giving rise to the other in a causal chain), which is how all "things" come to be, how "self," that is, the illusion/delusion of self, arises and originates and seems to exist.
Some wrongly say, "There is no separate self." This is true, but some are wrong because they misunderstand "separate," imagining as Hinduism does, that there is unity (of Atman and Brahman), Union with Brahma or Brahman, a raindrop returning to the sea, plunging into its home again after a roundabout journey, now merged and losing itself into the ALL, the Whole, the Ultimate Reality)
The Five Aggregates clung to as self
IN BRIEF: All of reality, in this dimension and universe or any other, is marked by three universal characteristics: All "things" are (1) impermanent, (2) unsatisfactory, and (3) impersonal. These are the Three Marks of Existence. Nirvana is the only non-thing (non-composite), for it is not dependently originated, whereas everything else is. Therefore, the Path to Freedom the Buddha taught leads to nirvana, complete freedom.
Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One (the Buddha) was living at Benares (Varanasi), in the Deer Park at Isipatana (the Resort of Seers). There he addressed the wandering ascetics known as the group of five:
"Meditators, form [this body] is not-self. Were form self, then this form would not lead to affliction, and one could will: 'Let my form be thus, and let my form be not thus' [Let my form (body) be this way and not that way]. Since form is not-self, it leads to affliction (pain, distress, disappointment), and no one can will: 'Let my form be thus, and let my form be not thus.'
[The body (form), though treated as one thing as if it were singular, is actually four things -- the Four Great Elements or four characteristics of materiality. They are condensed for simplicity into one because they are regarded as less worthy of note than the mind, which is treated in detail as the remaining four aggregates. "Mind" is not one thing but about 50 distinct processes -- feeling, perceiving, determining, and consciousness, all of which are mental formations; the remainder of the 50 are packed into the category of "mental formations" (sankhāra), of which the most important in the category is determination (cetana = intention, volition, impulse, will, motive). The Buddha considered these five the most important to single out for the sake of liberation by wisdom, that is, to gain insight (vipassana = clear seeing) that all we are, all "self" is, are heaps of these impersonal processes, not an actual "self" (soul, atta, atman, essence) that goes on unchanged and immutable through time and experience as philosophers and other religions hold the view. All that we are, all that we cling to as ourselves, is radically impermanent, ultimately disappointing (never able to fulfill us), and most unbelievably impersonal or not-self.]
"Meditators, feeling is not-self...
"Meditators, perception is not-self...
"Meditators, mental formations (determinations) are not-self...
"Meditators, consciousness is not-self. Were consciousness self, then this consciousness would not lead to affliction, and one could will: 'Let my consciousness be thus, and let my consciousness be not thus.' Since consciousness is not-self, it leads to affliction, and no one can will: 'Let my consciousness be thus, and let my consciousness be not thus.'
"Meditators, how do you conceive of it: Is form permanent or impermanent?"
"Impermanent, venerable sir."
"Is what is impermanent painful or pleasant?"
"It is painful, venerable sir."
"Is what is impermanent and painful (since it is subject to change) fit to be regarded this way: 'This is mine, this is me, this is my self'"?
"No, venerable sir."
Did the Buddha teach that there's no self?
"Is feeling permanent or impermanent?...
"Is perception permanent or impermanent?...
"Are mental formations (determinations) permanent or impermanent?...
"Is consciousness permanent or impermanent?"
"It is impermanent, venerable sir."
"Is what is impermanent pleasant or painful?"
"It is painful, venerable sir."
"Is what is impermanent and painful (since it is subject to change) fit to be regarded this way: 'This is mine, this is I, this is my self'"? — "No, venerable sir."
"So, bhikkhus any kind of form whatever, whether past, future or presently arisen, whether gross or subtle, whether in oneself or external, whether inferior or superior, whether far or near, must with right understanding how it is, be regarded this way: 'This is not mine, this is not I, this is not myself.'
"Any kind of feeling whatever...
"Any kind of perception whatever...
"Any kind of determination whatever...
The Middle Path leads to complete freedom
"Any kind of consciousness whatever, whether past, future or presently arisen, whether gross or subtle, whether in oneself or external, whether inferior or superior, whether far or near must, with right understanding how it is, be regarded this way: 'This is not mine, this is not I, this is not my self.'
"Meditators, when a noble [enlightened] follower who has heard (the Truth) sees thus, that person finds estrangement in form, finds estrangement in feeling, finds estrangement in perception, finds estrangement in determinations, finds estrangement in consciousness.
"When one finds estrangement, passion fades away. With the fading of passion, one is liberated. When liberated, knowledge arises that one is liberated. One [intuits] understands: 'Rebirth is exhausted, the supreme life has been lived out, what can be done is done, of this there is no more beyond [to come].'"
That is what the Blessed One said. The meditators were glad, and they approved of his words.
During this utterance, the hearts of the meditators of the group of five were liberated from the taints by letting go and renouncing clinging. Source
Buddha Face - Etsy; Bhikkhu Jayasara, Student of the Path, Dhamma Short (anatta); Dr. Doug Smith (Doug's Dharma); Ven. Ñanamoli (trans), Anatta-Lakkhana Sutta (SN 22.59); Dhr. Seven and Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly
Khafre Pyramid SAR Scan Project: Tracing the source of the news
(Funny Olde World) Premiered March 22, 2025: Everyone is scrambling to find information and verification for the claims about newly discovered structures located under the Middle Pyramid in Giza. I found the source, the person who had permission from the Italian Team to post the initial press release PDF document from last week's conference: @trevorgrassi. We had a quick chat to clarify what the story is so far, what is about to happen next, the potential implications, and what if any of this data can be verified.
"It was never a tomb!" Graham Hancock explores ancient pyramid's real purpose
(Valuetainment) Oct. 19, 2024: Graham Hancock discusses his experiences climbing the Great Pyramid, the significance of the Sphinx of Giza, and how local Egyptians view these [alien] monuments. He also shares new discoveries inside the Great Pyramid using advanced scanning technology.
Jon Stewart knocks Dems' lack of vision in countering the Trump Agenda [2025] | The Daily Show
(The Daily Show) March 17, 2025: Jon Stewart highlights how the Democrats' divisiveness over Trump's budget bill is emblematic of their lack of vision, plummeting approval ratings, and continued losses against the MAGA cult. #DailyShow #Trump #Democrats #MAGA
Trump brags about golf win during deadly storms, gets hit with microphone and says Biden pardons void
(Jimmy Kimmel Live) March 17, 2025: DJ Trump was walking around the White House grounds with Elon Musk’s son X, it was a terrible weekend of storms across several states, and Trump bragged about winning his golf tournament during the disaster, he is planning to release the files related to the JFK assassination tomorrow, he is claiming (without any proof) that Biden never actually signed his pardons, thus making them void, we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by playing the greatest local news story of all time, Jimmy’s son Billy let him know what he expects on St. Patrick’s Day, and we head out to the LA Farmers’ Market to ask kids about leprechauns. #Kimmel
Jon Stewart, The Daily Show; Jimmy Kimmel, JKL; Jimmy Dore, TJDS, March 17, 2025; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly
Alan Watts, Something's Happening, KPFK.org, March 9, 2025
Zen as Taoism and Mahayana-Hinduism
I'd rather talk about Taoism than Dhamma
The Tao is not Buddhism, but it has been made into Buddhism (at least the version of Buddhism called Zen) by incorporating Taoist philosophy into the Buddhism of Japan, China, Korea, and Vietnam. It is far from the only form of Buddhism, in some ways straying so far from the historical Buddha's Teaching or Dharma that one could call it into question as a syncretism or apocryphal Mahayana doctrine. Who has time for the sutras the Buddha spoke when we can look at koans ("public cases") and puzzle over them to get out of our intellectual minds? They're funnier, more surprising, paradoxical riddles and entertaining stories. We might never learn what the Buddha taught, but hey, come on, life is short, and we have all the time in the world to waste. Plus, Zen looks cool, and that's half the battle right there. We might even get a cool Japanese name. Right, Doggone?
Can I get the name Kwan Chan Kane?
The Japanese term kōan is the Sino-Japanese reading of the Chinese word gong'an (Chinese 公案, pinyin gōng'àn, Wade–Giles kung-an, lit. "public case"). The Zen term is a compound word, consisting of the characters 公 ("public; official; governmental; common; collective; fair; equitable") and 案 ("table; desk, altar; [law] case; record; file; plan; mandate, proposal.") More
It's funny in that, if it leads to a sudden realization (kensho, epiphany, satori), the way a joke is funny because we are led down one road in the setup and down another in the punchline, it's like someone hitting a gong, at least in the sitcom world of our imagination and American TV shows depicting Asian or "Oriental" way of speaking, full of deep wisdom and a sudden change of perspective. For example, Douglas Adams was famous for his ability to turn a phrase, one time depicting the ET character Ford Prefect (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) complaining to the human Arthur Dent:
FORD: "It feels unpleasantly like being drunk."
ARTHUR: "Well, what's so unpleasant about being drunk?"
FORD: "You ask a glass of water."
We thought "drunk" referred to being intoxicated then suddenly find out Ford meant the past tense of drink. This kind of turning led to a whole class of Orientalisms (intended in the pejorative sense of Westerners stereotyping an Asian manner of speaking), leading to a famous class of jokes like:
"Man who fart in church sit in his own pew" where pew is pronounced phew!
This is significant because the Tao is translated as "the Way," but the Buddha taught that "Way" or "Path" was magga, the Noble (Ennobling, Enlightening) Eightfold Path, not following the Tao or "path of least resistance," going with the flow, just doing whatever.
Soto Zen monk in meditation pose
Alan Watts knows that, but do his listeners realize he is most of the time talking about Taoism and Vedic Hinduism rather than what the Buddha taught, for that is what Mahayana concerns itself (the former, not so much the latter). Ask a Mahayana Buddhist what the historical Buddha taught, and they won't know much of anything beyond lists, which they imagine are very rudimentary and obvious, whereas they extol their apocryphal texts as being "the real thing" Siddhartha Gautama meant but never said. The most famous Buddhist sutras are not the Buddha's teaching but derivative works of clever invention: the Heart Sutra, Diamond Sutra, Platform Sutra, Flower Adornment Sūtra, all kinds of nice-sounding Sanskrit texts, leaving to the wayside what the Buddha taught as key to enlightenment and progress in wisdom and compassion. Alan Watts hardly ever mentions Theravada (Pali canon) or Sarvastivada Buddhism, preferring instead the Eastern philosophy of India, China, and Japan. As long as listeners know that, he is a great "philosophical entertainer." If they do not realize that, he must be very confusing.
Duncan Trussell deleted himself from existence on 5-MeO-DMT: Tales from the Trip
Peter Griffin says, Don't do Toad. (Family Guy)
(Animated) WEST HOLLYWOOD, California - Duncan Trussell had his mind annihilated, dry-erased, extirpated, voided when he smoked too much 5-MeO-DMT (aka "The Void" or Sonoran toad venom).
ABOUT Tales from the Trip: Don’t have the time, the money, or the connections to take drugs with famous comedians? Tales from the Trip is here to help. Go on an animated psychedelic journey with funny people as they recount their scary, hilarious, and sometimes dangerous experiences with DMT, acid, shrooms, Salvia divinorum, Molly (MDMA, Ecstasy), and more.
There is no ego, so is Toad mental medicine?
It's always fun to answer this easy question about drugs, whether they are natural entheogens or industrial waste synthetic chemicals. The answer is easy. Look at people who have taken these drugs. Do they look and behave like enlightened individuals, rational, sensitive, and aware of their surroundings? Or are they space cadets with ticks, quirks, and loopy tales from beyond?
If, for example, LSD were the answer, hippies would be well-adjusted spiritual leaders, and "Jim" from TAXI would be his bright Harvard self with depth and clarity.
Let's front. These are our stage egos.
"Man, I hallucinated I was Fat Happy Budda, like all rotund and bald, and like giving out candy to kids from my sack. It was supremo. Totally recommend it." Is this the person to take advice from?
What the heck was that? Were we dreaming?
Another person, gardening in the Plant Pharmacy, cobbles together experiences and joins them with reflection and insight, realizes anything might advance one toward awakening, not because of the experience so much as the response to experiences.
Anything might ignite an expansion, an opening of the heart or mind. What happens happens because of the state of mind. Set and setting are vital, mental state and environment. Ready for a near-death experience? Toad is like an NDE. Ready to meet GOD (Brahman)? Imagine a meditation experience before we're ready for it, before we're settled, steady, calm, and tranquil.
Psychedelic Experience (Leary)
Advice? Proceed with caution. Have a shaman at the ready. This is not a game and nothing to play with. The stoned ape did not enjoy its rude awakening. Looking back, it was good that it happened, but to do it again, take precautions or do not call it "journey." It's just reckless recreational psychonauting punishable by death (or near-death). Follow with integration or expect to sound half-baked for years.
#TalesFromTheTrip #DuncanTrussell
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Live Action, Video Directors: Greg Washburn/Nik Kazoura. Animation Director: Grant Lindahl. Editor: Nik Kazoura. Lead Animator: Ben Luce. Lead Animator: Jasmine Soompholphakdy.
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What God told her about your thoughts will shock you! (NDE)
(Shaman Oaks) Penny Wittbrodt's near death experience (NDE) and how she got out of a void. "God" showed her a future event with her grandson -- and taught her the power of thoughts, and why forgiveness is so important. This is her NDE Christian testimony.
The Babylon Bee Bullseye the Target Dog tries to Change Girl's Gender; Melanie Martinez "Void"; Bella Poarch "Build a Bitch"; The Daily Signal) 1/11/23; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly
Double mastectomy
former trans kid Chloe Cole on why she de-transitioned her gender
(Bella Poarch) "Build a B*tch" to be popular w/ right skin, hair, and eye color! Hah, you don't get to.
(The Daily Signal) Jan. 11, 2023. “Social media introduced this idea that I could be a boy,” Chloe Cole says.
She began telling her friends and family that she was a boy when she was 12 years old after she was introduced to gender identity ideology through social media.
She started taking testosterone and puberty blockers at 13 and had a double mastectomy (breast removal) at 15.
At 16, she de-transitioned (went back to nature).
“I decided to stop transitioning entirely,” Cole says. “It was too much for me, and I knew that I couldn't keep lying to myself.”
Cole joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain how she because involved in the transgender movement, and why she ultimately decided to walk away. Today, Cole is working to prevent other young people from walking down the same painful path she did.
► Subscribe. Follow The Daily Signal on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheDailySignal Follow The Daily Signal on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DailySignal
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Andrew Holleran, The Spun via MSN; Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Cheerleaders dare to sit meditation-style in easy pose after victory? (Getty Images/The Spun). Where's the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers to show them how it's done for the whole team to make winning a regular thing?
.
[How can we prepare the American population and our exuberant youth for an endless war economy? Robber barons have an idea: Let's make them rabid for organized sports!]
(VOID) LYRICS: "Organized Sports" Blah, blah, blah, organized sports! They just leave me in the dust!
Duke, in Year 1 of the Jon Scheyer era, swept the regular season series against North Carolina.
The Blue Devils topped the Tar Heels to finish out the regular season on Saturday night.
Duke's cheerleaders were pretty excited with the victory.
"Our blue is best 😈 #BEATUNC," they wrote. More (The Spun)
Chris Rock [mocks the h*ll out of] Jada Pinkett Smith during a new comedy special. On Saturday March 4th), the comedian historically performed a live set for Netflix, titled Selective Outrage, during which he roasted Will Smith for slapping him at the Oscars in March 2022.
However, he also used the set to make a claim about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett. According to Rock, the Girl’s Trip actor attempted to force Rock to quit hosting the Oscars in 2016 because her husband didn’t get a Best Actor nomination.
That year, Smith was being tipped for a possible nod for the drama Concussion, but he ultimately failed to make the list of nominees. “And then he gives me a concussion,” Rock quipped. In 2016, Pinkett Smith, alongside many Hollywood stars, boycotted the 2016 ceremony due to the lack of diversity among that year’s nominations.
This lack of diversity prompted the #OscarsSoWhite campaign. The Independent has contacted Pinkett Smith for comment. Rock added in the special: “I’ve rooted for Will Smith my whole life. And now I watch Emancipation just to see him get whipped.”
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