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The No Self Teaching
Shoshin1
Sentient BeingOceania Veteran
Some food for thought for the cognition aggregate ......
You say 'I am', but what does the word 'I' refer to?
Seeker to Seeker
2
Comments
Well good start … reporter story made me laff … maybe I should watch the rest or maybe go searching for know-self
I recall a bit from Nisargadatta, who said to internally say the words “I am” and then to wait for a pull, which would guide your attention in a certain direction.
But then I always thought ‘no self’ was not really one for the beginners, it took me a long time before I felt I understood it even a little.
I’ll watch the video a little later…
If you think about it @Jeroen, in a nutshell, the aim of Dharma practice is to eventually gain insight (an experiential understanding) of Anatta and in a sense.... wherever one starts on the Dharma Path 'is' the beginning ...
The 4NTs & 8FP are as most of us know important foundations(AKA the Nuts & Bolts)...
And from what I gather the "aha moment" of a teaching can come at anytime, anywhere a long the Path ...hours, days, weeks, months, years... Where pieces of the puzzle come together...or depending on how one sees it, are dismantled...
No doubt past lives and Karma have something to do with where when and how one enters the Path.....
There is Dukkha/Unsatisfactoriness and the reason why we are not satisfied is because we cling...hence starts the journey into the empty/true nature of all things including this sense of self...
It’s true that different people connect to different teachings, I found Ajahn Chah taught in a very accessible way by emphasizing letting go initially. Easy to understand and put into practice. Then you eventually start to see no-self once you have let go of enough inner junk, and you start to suspect that once everything is let go of there might not be much left.
A Dharma teaching I listened to today emphasized a modern philosopher's TED talk on the topic of self that I remember watching at some point. We understand that when 2 hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom combine a molecule of water is produced. We don't think that there is some essence of water already out there that then attracts the atoms to it. The self is the same way, there isn't some essence of self that attracts the aggregates, the aggregates come together to form a self.
3.6.9. Transmigration
The king said: ‘When you speak of transmigration, Nāgasena, what does that mean?’
‘A being born here, O king, dies here. Having died here, it springs up elsewhere. Having been born there, there it dies. Having died there, it springs up elsewhere. That is what is meant by transmigration.’
‘Give me an illustration.’
‘It is like the case of a man who, after eating a mango, should set the seed in the ground. From that a great tree would be produced and give fruit. And there would be no end to the succession, in that way, of mango trees.’
‘Very good, Nāgasena!’