เสียงธรรม Complexities of Karma / Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230325 Admit Your Stupidity \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230326 Always Start with Good Intentions \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230327 Skills to Make a Difference \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Mar 30, 2023

 

230329 Fear Around Death \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230330 The Mirror Inside \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230331 The Solution Starts Inside \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Mar 30, 2023

 

230401 Attahi Attano Natho \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230402 Practice Without Gaps \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Apr 17, 2023

 

230404 Four Determinations \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230405 Delight in Stillness \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Apr 17, 2023

 

230406 Like Earth & Like Space \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230407 Goodness All Around \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230408 Delight in the Dhamma \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Apr 17, 2023

 

230410 The Heightened Mind \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230411 Swept Downstream \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230409 Blessing Yourself \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Apr 19, 2023

 

No-self or Not-self?
by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
© 1996
One of the first stumbling blocks that Westerners often encounter when they learn about Buddhism is the teaching on anatta, often translated as no-self. This teaching is a stumbling block for two reasons. First, the idea of there being no self doesn't fit well with other Buddhist teachings, such as the doctrine of kamma and rebirth: If there's no self, what experiences the results of kamma and takes rebirth? Second, it doesn't fit well with our own Judeo-Christian background, which assumes the existence of an eternal soul or self as a basic presupposition: If there's no self, what's the purpose of a spiritual life? Many books try to answer these questions, but if you look at the Pali canon — the earliest extant record of the Buddha's teachings — you won't find them addressed at all. In fact, the one place where the Buddha was asked point-blank whether or not there was a self, he refused to answer. When later asked why, he said that to hold either that there is a self or that there is no self is to fall into extreme forms of wrong view that make the path of Buddhist practice impossible. Thus the question should be put aside. To understand what his silence on this question says about the meaning of anatta, we first have to look at his teachings on how questions should be asked and answered, and how to interpret his answers.

The Buddha divided all questions into four classes: those that deserve a categorical (straight yes or no) answer; those that deserve an analytical answer, defining and qualifying the terms of the question; those that deserve a counter-question, putting the ball back in the questioner's court; and those that deserve to be put aside. The last class of question consists of those that don't lead to the end of suffering and stress. The first duty of a teacher, when asked a question, is to figure out which class the question belongs to, and then to respond in the appropriate way. You don't, for example, say yes or no to a question that should be put aside. If you are the person asking the question and you get an answer, you should then determine how far the answer should be interpreted. The Buddha said that there are two types of people who misrepresent him: those who draw inferences from statements that shouldn't have inferences drawn from them, and those who don't draw inferences from those that should.

These are the basic ground rules for interpreting the Buddha's teachings, but if we look at the way most writers treat the anatta doctrine, we find these ground rules ignored. Some writers try to qualify the no-self interpretation by saying that the Buddha denied the existence of an eternal self or a separate self, but this is to give an analytical answer to a question that the Buddha showed should be put aside. Others try to draw inferences from the few statements in the discourse that seem to imply that there is no self, but it seems safe to assume that if one forces those statements to give an answer to a question that should be put aside, one is drawing inferences where they shouldn't be drawn.

So, instead of answering "no" to the question of whether or not there is a self — interconnected or separate, eternal or not — the Buddha felt that the question was misguided to begin with. Why? No matter how you define the line between "self" and "other," the notion of self involves an element of self-identification and clinging, and thus suffering and stress. This holds as much for an interconnected self, which recognizes no "other," as it does for a separate self. If one identifies with all of nature, one is pained by every felled tree. It also holds for an entirely "other" universe, in which the sense of alienation and futility would become so debilitating as to make the quest for happiness — one's own or that of others — impossible. For these reasons, the Buddha advised paying no attention to such questions as "Do I exist?" or "Don't I exist?" for however you answer them, they lead to suffering and stress.

To avoid the suffering implicit in questions of "self" and "other," he offered an alternative way of dividing up experience: the four Noble Truths of stress, its cause, its cessation, and the path to its cessation. Rather than viewing these truths as pertaining to self or other, he said, one should recognize them simply for what they are, in and of themselves, as they are directly experienced, and then perform the duty appropriate to each. Stress should be comprehended, its cause abandoned, its cessation realized, and the path to its cessation developed. These duties form the context in which the anatta doctrine is best understood. If you develop the path of virtue, concentration, and discernment to a state of calm well-being and use that calm state to look at experience in terms of the Noble Truths, the questions that occur to the mind are not "Is there a self? What is my self?" but rather "Am I suffering stress because I'm holding onto this particular phenomenon? Is it really me, myself, or mine? If it's stressful but not really me or mine, why hold on?" These last questions merit straightforward answers, as they then help you to comprehend stress and to chip away at the attachment and clinging — the residual sense of self-identification — that cause it, until ultimately all traces of self-identification are gone and all that's left is limitless freedom.

In this sense, the anatta teaching is not a doctrine of no-self, but a not-self strategy for shedding suffering by letting go of its cause, leading to the highest, undying happiness. At that point, questions of self, no-self, and not-self fall aside. Once there's the experience of such total freedom, where would there be any concern about what's experiencing it, or whether or not it's a self?
:- https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/notself2.html

 

230514 Capable \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230515 Luminous \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
May 19, 2023

 

230516 Dhamma Intelligence \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230517 Honoring the Noble Ones \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
May 24, 2023

 

230518 Large-hearted Equanimity \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230519 Analyzing Anger \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
May 24, 2023

 

230520 Producing Discernment \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230521 Bad, Good, & Skillful Intentions \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
May 24, 2023

 

230522 To Quiet the Mind \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230523 A Meditative Environment \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
May 24, 2023

 

230525 Don’t Drift Off \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu \ \ Dhamma Talk

230526 You Contain Multitudes \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Jun 1, 2023

 

230527 The Skillful Heart \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230528 To Certify Yourself \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Jun 1, 2023

 

230529 Observe Yourself in Action \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230530 Breath Meditation Checklist \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Jun 1, 2023

 

230601 On Being Non-reactive \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230602 A Divine Seat \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230603 The Buddha’s Story & Yours \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Jun 8, 2023

 

230604 Emptiness \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230605 The Triple Training \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Jun 8, 2023

 

230606 Steadiness \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230608 An Island in the Flood \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Jun 12, 2023

 

2023 06 04 Sunday Wat Metta Zoom meeting

Broadcast Wat Metta
Streamed live on Jun 4, 2023
Sunday Meeting
Sunday Thai Dhamma Study "Purity of Heart" Chapter 11 "The Integrity of Emptiness”
Online version https://www.dhammatalks.org/books/Pur...
Sunday Jun 4th, 2023 at 11:00 am
Mettā Parisā is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Sunday Thai Study Zoom meeting Time:
This is a recurring meeting Meet anytime
Chapters :
0:00 Live Start
04:03 Start
04:13 Teaching English
18:45 Teaching Thai
01:00:48 Q&A
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230609 Defilements at the Door \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230610 A Complete Training \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

230611 How to Shape the Present Moment \ \ Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Dhamma Talks by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Jun 12, 2023