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The ego - self- soul - personality...Are they one and the same ?
Shoshin
No one in particularNowhere Special Veteran
Kia Ora,
Another simple question but no doubt not so simple answers...
In some instances I've heard anatta or anatman being translated as no-soul or soul-lessness whilst at other times non or no self or selflessness as been used...When I think of 'soul' I think of something immortal, (perhaps being born in the west in a somewhat god-centric society may have something to do with this) but then when I think about the impermanent nature of 'all' things,(anicca) I start to wonder what the soul is meant to be and if there is such a thing-where does it fit into the scheme of things...
Which brings me back to the thread's question:
The ego - self- soul - personality...Are they one and the same ?
Metta Shoshin 
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Comments
Talk about a loaded question! I'd say various cases could be made for "ego" and "self" sometimes referring to the same thing, as well as "self" and "soul" sometimes referring to the same thing. Personality seems to be the odd-one-out. However to really figure this out, you'd have to define each of the words... the words themselves are just labels, and people could mean completely different things with those same words.
Kia Ora,
Ok, my mistake it's not a so simple question...Thank you for pointing out the errors in the question ...Now I have another... how do I delete this thread before it confuses other lost souls (excuse the pun)
Metta Shoshin
@Shoshin
Just from ones own meditative exploration....
Ego & self are indistinguishable to me as that which manipulates our data input to maintain it's own existence. Just try to find the ego or self when one stops fiddling with your sense gate data.
Soul (when thought of as that which holds an identity recognizable as us beyond deaths door) only really makes sense to an ego afraid of it's own cohesive end. To awaken from the ego's dream is to leave the egos soulful hope for it's own continuity on the path behind.
Most Buddhist meditaters will eventually find more evidence for a soul's improbability than it's possibility.
You could call buddha Nature..one soul that we all share but....for what purpose?
Kia Ora,
Thanks for that...I guess I don't have to delete this thread after all ...However I do have a habit of firing off untidy questions, so I also appreciate @AldrisTorvalds observation and enquiry...
Metta Shoshin
I agree the thread title is a bit of a mixed salad.
Ego, self, soul, personality... Ambitious question, different notions, complicated answers...
Each term deserves its own thread...
They are one and the same in one important regard. None of them are seen as having permanent and independent existence in Buddhism.
The precise term used for what is essentially an incomplete view is not so important.
In Buddhism, generally the "ego - self- soul" are are all considered the same thing. I personally would not put "personality" in there as that is just a way a person behaves, etc. The wise masters who are free of "self" still exhibit different personalities, but perhaps just not as complicated as ordinary people.
You mean even the Buddha Nature is empty of being?
Bum! We are all gonna die! Man the life rafts . . . crustaceans and cushions first . . . even though our essential essence is nowhere to be discerned, we sure can dance to an empty fiddle . . .
Well, yes and no. Up to @Citta's explanation that they are the same from the point of view that "none of them are seen as having permanent and independent existence in Buddhism," it's logical.
But lump all notions as being the same, there are some nuances... could someone please explain?..
:hair: ..
Ego: thought often as equated with pride, a narcissistic view, something to be quelled and tamed.
Self: if we haven't discussed this sufficiently ad nauseam on this forum...
Soul: Forget it. There is no transmigration of a 'spirit' moving on from one essence/being to the next. Not recognised on Buddhism.
In a nutshell....
ego -vanity and duality
self-continuity of life
soul- deeper nature that continues after death
personality- characteristics
Jeffrey ! I'm shocked ! Run that 'soul ' one past Shenpen...lol.
Shenpen says it depends what a person means by a soul in one of her talks I transcribed.
Unless she has undergone some kind of conversion since I saw her last I bet she did not say that there is a deeper nature that continues after death...
Well she does believe in rebirth. I won't put words in her mouth of course.
Did you meet her @Citta?
Many times @Jeffrey. I have known her since before she was ' Shenpen '. She was Sue when I first met her.
Wow @Citta. I was too ill to travel to see her on her most recent trip to North America. I hope she comes back and I am well.
I'm not aware of the subtleties in her teaching. But she talks often of 'indestructible heart essence'. To someone outside our sangha there is no heart essence, but it is a teaching within the sangha to work with awakening and the openness, clarity, and sensitivity of the awareness.