Shohaku Okumura on Opening the Hand of Thought (251)

[@aurora3655]

I’m not trying to be argumentative, and at the risk of sounding like a total dolt when it comes to Buddhist dogma…🤷‍♀️ how can there not be a self? The only way I can rationalize there not being a self, is in that there is no such thing as consciousnesses. A lot of ppl will argue that there very much is consciousness, I tend to think not. I tend to think that we, and everything else, are just products of conditions, and what we call consciousness, is just different conditions than the insentient…Or, there very much is a self, with autonomy over decision making power. I can focus on the bodhisattva path, or do “what thou wilt.” Who is observing 🤷‍♀️ The Buddha wouldn’t be known, if there wasn’t a self 🤷‍♀️. Isn’t it our total screw ups in life that destroys our sense of self, and brings the Buddha into existence? But someone has to practice in order for that to happen….unless we are just products of conditions 🤷‍♀️ I think something got lost in translation from “mind” to “self”, to “no self.” I get discriminating mind vs no mind. I’m talking about things that cannot be properly described with words, but “mind” to me , as opposed to one’s body, that’s a valuable discrimination.

[@aurora3655]

But if there is no you, why feed yourself? Or tend to the needs of the body? Why protect the body and leave it intact🤷‍♀️ Why “feed the hungry ghosts.”

[@joshsmith2919]

The way I understand it (and I'm not an expert) is that there is no self, as in, no core piece of yourself that is uniquely you. If we were to look at a truck, take it completely apart and examining each piece, no part alone would make the truck a truck. The engine doesn't make a truck. A truck bed doesn't make a truck. A steering wheel doesn't make a truck. But when we see these elements all put together, our mind fills the void to say "truck". I think the buddhist perspective is that you can do the same with a person. The 5 Skandhas (or 5 heaps, or aggregates) are the five elements that make a person. There is 1. form, 2. sensations, 3. perceptions, 4. mental formations, 5. Discernment (conscious attention). In this list, there is no soul. The implication is that this means we are simply an experience of these 5 elements working in harmony. The same way the pieces of a truck cruise down a road, our pieces enable us to experience life. And like a truck, our pieces come undone with time. There may be more to this, but this is the most I understand. Personally I don't think this disproves the potential of a "self" or soul, but it's a solid theory. I think there are things on other planes of existence that we are literally unequipped to comprehend. I hope you are well, and I enjoyed your question and typing this response.

[@aurora3655]

@@joshsmith2919 and yet, when u assemble the truck; there it is. A truck. Maybe the same is true of “Buddha.”