There is no self (sutra)

Ven. Nanamoli, Three Cardinal Discourses of the Buddha edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One (the Buddha) was living at Benares (Varanasi, India), at the Deer Park at the Resort of Seers. There he addressed the wandering ascetics [called] the Group of Five: "Meditators."

"Venerable sir," they replied. Then the Blessed One said this:

"Meditators, form is not-self. Were form self then this form would not lead to affliction, and one could get from form: 'Let my form be thus, let my form be not thus.'

"Since form is not-self, it leads to affliction, and none can get from form: 'Let my form be thus, let my form be not thus.'

"Meditators, feeling is not-self...

"Meditators, perception is not-self...

"Meditators, determinations are not-self...

"Meditators, consciousness is not self. Were consciousness self then this consciousness would not lead to affliction, and one could get from consciousness: 'Let my consciousness be thus, let my consciousness be not thus.'

"Since consciousness is not self, it leads to affliction, and none can get from consciousness: 'Let my consciousness be thus, let my consciousness be not thus.'

"Meditators, how do you conceive of it, Is form permanent or impermanent?"

— "Impermanent, venerable sir."

"Now is what is impermanent painful or pleasant [disappointing or fulfilling]?"

— "Painful, venerable sir."

"Now is what is impermanent, what is painful since it is subject to change, fit to be regarded thus: 'This is mine, this is I, this is my self'"?

— "No, venerable sir."

"Is feeling permanent or impermanent?...

"Is perception permanent or impermanent?...

"Are determinations [mental formations like will or intention] permanent or impermanent?...

"Is consciousness permanent or impermanent?"

— "Impermanent, venerable sir."

"Now is what is impermanent pleasant or painful?"

— "Painful, venerable sir."

"Now is what is impermanent, what is painful since it is subject to change, fit to be regarded thus: 'This is mine, this is I, this is my self'"?

— "No, venerable sir."

"So, meditators ANY kind of form whatsoever -- whether past, future, or presently arisen, whether gross or subtle, whether in oneself or external, whether inferior or superior, whether far or near -- must be regarded thus with right view as to how it actually is: 'This is not mine, this is not I, this is not my self.'

"Any kind of feeling whatsoever...

"Any kind of perception whatsoever...

"Any kind of determination whatsoever...

"Any kind of consciousness whatsoever -- whether past, future or presently arisen, whether gross or subtle, whether in oneself or external, whether inferior or superior, whether far or near must be regarded thus with right view as to how it actually is: 'This is not mine, this is not I, this is not my self.'

"Meditators, when a noble [arya, 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 out. With the fading out of passion, one is liberated. When liberated, there is knowledge that one is liberated. One understands: 'Rebirth is exhausted, the supreme life has been lived out, what can be done has been done, of this there is no more beyond.'"

That is what the Blessed One said. The meditators were glad, and they approved of his words.

Now during this utterance, the hearts of the meditators of the Group of Five were liberated from taints through clinging no more [which is to say, they awakened, were enlightened, were liberated from suffering]. — SN 22.59

 

Explanation

FORM: Pali rupa (what appears, appearance, matter, the evident, in particular this body). As the first of the Five Categories (or Five Aggregates) clung to as self, it is defined in terms of the Four Great Elements, namely:

1. earth (hardness),
2. water (cohesion),
3. fire (temperature),
4. air (distension and motion),
5. [along with the negative aspect of space (what does not appear, what is not evident, what delineates matter)].
   

From these are derived all secondary phenomena such as persons, features, shapes, and so on: These are regarded as secondary because, while form can appear without any of them, they cannot appear without form.

It is also defined as "that which is being worn away" (ruppati), thus underlining its general characteristics of instability, impermanence, and fading away.

NOT-SELF: Together with the Four Ennobling Truths (truths leading to enlightenment), this truth of all things being impersonal is taught only by buddhas. Anatta (not-self) is a general characteristic (a universal mark of existence) without exception.

The characteristic of impermanence does not become apparent because, when rise and fall are not given attention, it is concealed by continuity:

(1) The characteristic of pain (dukkha) does not become apparent because, when continuous oppression is not given attention, it is concealed by shifting postures (changing from one posture to another, waking and sleeping).

(2) The characteristic of not-self does not become apparent because, when resolution into the various elements (that compose whatever some "thing" is) is not given attention, it is concealed by compactness (the opposite of the truth, which is that all things are composite and single things in and of themselves). — Path of Purification (Visuddhi-magga Ch. XXI).

Self-identification (identifying with things that are not self) and hunger for permanence and bliss form the principal manifestations of craving (tanha = desire, lit. thirst), guided by view that is wrong because it is not in conformity with ultimate truth.

When confronted with the contradictions and the impossibility of identifying with any of the Five Categories of Clinging's objects, craving seeks to satisfy this need by imagining a "soul" (individual or universal self).

But since no such soul, however conceived, escapes falling within the Five Categories of Clinging's objects, this solution is always doomed to failure.

Similarly, any attempt to identify self with nirvana must always fail for the same reason.

Nirvana conceived as identical (with self) or (self) as apart from it (emanence) or inside it (immanence), or nirvana conceived as "mine" is misconceived (MN 1).

This does not prevent an Awakened One from using conventional speech current in the world in order to communicate clearly with others, but one does it without misapprehending it, as is shown in the Dhammapada:

Self is savior of self;

What other savior could there be?

For only with (one-) self well tamed

One finds the savior hard to find.

Only by self is evil done,

Self-born and given being by self,

Oppressing one who knowledge lacks

As grinding diamond does a stone.

— (Dhammapada, Verses 160-1)

Similarly with the expression "in oneself" (ajjhattam) in the Second Sutra, this is simply a convenient convention for the focus of the individual viewpoint, not to be misapprehended.

A monastic heard the Buddha saying, as in the Second Sutra here, that the Five Categories are "not mine," and so on, and wondered:

"So it seems form is not-self; feeling, perception, determinations, and consciousness are not-self. What self, then, will the action done by a not-self affect?"

He was severely rebuked by the Buddha for forgetting the conditionedness (dependently originated nature) of all things (MN 109).

"It is impossible that anyone with right view should see any idea as self" (MN 115). "Whatever philosophers and deities (devas) see self in its various forms, they see only the Five Categories [clung to as self], or one or other of them" (SN 22.47).

FEELING: (vedana, sensation, impression) this is always confined strictly to the affective feelings of (bodily or mental) pleasure and pain with the normally ignored neutral feeling of "neither-pain-nor pleasure." These can be subdivided in various ways.

PERCEPTION: (sañña) means simply recognition.

DETERMINATIONS: a great many different renderings of this term are current, the next best of which is certainly "[mental] formations." The Pali word sankhara (Sanskrit samskara) means literally "a construction" [a fabrication] and is derived from the prefix sam (con) plus the verb karoti (to do, to make).

Compare the Latin conficere from con plus facere (to do), which gives the French confection (a construction).

The Sanskrit word means ritual acts with the purpose of bringing about a good rebirth.

As used in the Pali language by the Buddha, it covers any aspects having to do with action, willing, intending, motive, making, planning, using, choice, and so on (anything teleological). Of these, contact (phassa) is often placed at the head of lists defining it. Otherwise defined as bodily, verbal, and mental action (deeds, karma).

CONSCIOUSNESS: (viññana) is here the bare "being conscious" left for consideration when the other Four Categories have been dealt with.

It is only describable in individual plurality in terms of the other four categories, as fire is individualized only by the fuel it burns (see MN 38 and MN 109). Otherwise, it is regarded as an infinite (MN 111) dependent upon the contemplation of it as such.

It is only impermanent, impersonal, and unable to ever satisfy (anicca, anatta, dukkha) because however it arises, it can only do so dependent on the other categories, that is, on conditions that are themselves impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self.

It never arises unless accompanied by co-nascent [simultaneously arising] perception and feeling. It has six "doors" (see under Eye and Mind) for cognizing its objective fields and no more.

ESTRANGEMENT: the Pali noun nibbida and its verb nibbindati are made up of the prefix nir in its negative sense of "out" and the root vid (to find, to feel, to know intimately).

Nibbada is thus a finding out. What is found out is the intimate hidden contradictoriness in any kind of self-identification based in any way on these things (and there is no way of determining self-identification apart from them — see NOT-SELF). Elsewhere the Buddha says:

Whatever there is there of form, feeling, perception, determinations (mental formations), or consciousness, such ideas one sees as impermanent, as subject to suffering (and never a source of fulfillment but only disappointment), as a sickness, as a tumor, as a barb, as a calamity, as an affliction, as an alienation, as a disintegration, as a void, as not-self (impersonal).

One averts one's heart from those ideas, and for the most peaceful, the supreme goal (nirvana), one turns one's heart to the deathless element, that is to say, the stilling of all mental determinations, the relinquishment of all substance, the exhaustion of craving, the fading of passion, cessation, extinction (MN 64).

The "stuff" of life can also be seen in this way. Normally the discovery of a contradiction is for the unliberated mind a disagreeable one.

Several courses are then open. It can refuse to face it, pretending to itself to the point of full persuasion and belief that no contradiction is there. Or one side of the contradiction may be unilaterally affirmed and the other repressed and forgotten.

Or a temporary compromise may be found (all such expedients being haunted by insecurity). Or else the contradiction may be faced in its truth and made the basis for a movement towards full liberation from all suffering.

So, too, on finding estrangement, two main courses are open — either the search, leaving "craving for self-identification" intact, can be continued for sops to allay the symptoms of the sickness, or else a movement can be started in the direction of a cure for the underlying sickness of craving, and liberation from the everlasting hunt for temporary solutions, whether for oneself or others.

In this sense alone, "Self-protection is the protection of others, and protection of others self-protection" (Satipatthana Samyutta). More