Download pdf
Essential Buddhist Tenets on Non-self and Comparative Concepts
- 1 Shenghua Zizhu Academy, Shanghai, China Shanghai Tianjiabing Secondary School International Department, Shanghai, China
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
This article provides an in-depth analysis of the Buddhist concept of no-self. It clarifies the essential Buddhist tenets of karma, impermanence, emptiness, and the Middle Way, underscoring that nothing in the world, created or influenced by conditions, is constant and unchanging, and that all phenomena emerge from a convergence of their respective conditions or causes. The paper subsequently analyses the significance of the five skandhas—form, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness—as the aggregates that comprise an individual, and explores the five receptive yin, the non-self of humanity, and the non-self of dharma. The paramount objective is the realisation of the authentic self, juxtaposed with the repudiation of the corporeal self accentuated by the deceptive self. The focus is on the Buddhist concept of non-self, demonstrating that the self is neither any of the five aggregates nor a combination of them; this is followed by a clarification of misunderstandings about non-self, including the idea of a self independent of the aggregates, the rejection of chemotaxis theory, and the denial of the eliminative no-self theory. The thought experiment of the ship of Theseus is utilised to clarify the transformation and insubstantiality of the self, prompting individuals to move beyond the traditional conception of self and investigate the idea of non-self. The Buddhist concept of 'not-self' provides individuals with an alternative viewpoint and spiritual understanding, enabling the release of attachment to material possessions and the ego, thus promoting inner peace and tranquilly.
Keywords
Ship of Theseus, Buddhism, Five Skandha, Non-Self.
[1]. Siderits, M. (2017). Buddhism as philosophy: An introduction. Routledge.
[2]. Garfield, J. L. (2014). Engaging Buddhism: Why it matters to philosophy. Oxford University Press.
[3]. Garfield, J. L. (2015). Buddhism and modernity. In The Buddhist World (pp. 294-304). Routledge.
[4]. McMahan, D. L. (Ed.). (2012). Buddhism in the modern world (p. 160). New York: Routledge.
[5]. Wagner, A. G. (2022). The Zen of Theseus: Language and Reality from a Buddhist Philosophical Perspective. In Playing with Reality (pp. 118-125). Routledge.
[6]. ESSLER, W. K. (2020). Neither Identity nor Diversity Contribution to the Early Buddhist Concept of a Person. Identity? Metaphysical Approach, 33.
[7]. Paulouskaya, H. (2016). An Attempt on Theseus by Kir Bulychev: Travelling to Virtual Antiquity. In Our Mythical Childhood... The Classics and Literature for Children and Young Adults (pp. 346-361). Brill.
[8]. Kalupahana, D. J. (1979). The early Buddhist notion of the middle path. The Eastern Buddhist, 12(1), 30-48.
[9]. Balibar, É. (2013). Identity and difference: John Locke and the invention of consciousness. Verso Books.
Cite this article
Liu,H. (2024). Essential Buddhist Tenets on Non-self and Comparative Concepts. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media,75,35-40.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Disclaimer/Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
About volume
Volume title: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Global Politics and Socio-Humanities
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who
publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this
series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published
version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial
publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and
during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See
Open access policy for details).