Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:

yourself, concept, Harvey, scholars, contexts, craving, yours, forever, clinging, intellectualize, own, perception, selfhood, dispassionate, myself, assert, useful, alienation, doer, thinker, disenchanted, you, physical, austerities, fluidity, goals, core, unsatisfaction, jealousy, eradicated, unwise, important, positive, karma, self, paradox, liberation, suffering

•

why is the idea that there is not a single self so                   important in Buddhist thought

•

how does it help end                   suffering or Dukkha

•

the view of some Buddhist                 scholars:

•

while the self will not be found in body, feeling, perception, mental formations or consciousness, that doesn't mean there isn't a         self

•

some practicing Buddhists find this a more             useful teaching instead of the idea that there is no self at all

•

the source of our dissatisfaction is               craving things and clinging to things

•

five aggregates

•

1. consciousness

•

2. body

•

3. feeling

•

4.                     perception

•

5. mental formations (e.g. opinions)

•

the five aggregates of                 clinging

•

the source of our                             unsatisfaction of life is

•

craving for things

•

clinging to things that are not going to last               forever

•

but clinging has to be mediated by the aggregates

•

you don't cling to the powdered donuts themselves but to:

•

taste

•

                positive feeling

•

opinions

•

all forms of clinging could be                     eradicated if you can stop clinging to these five aggregates

•

Buddha goes through each aggregate and says:

•

this is not mine

•

this I am not

•

this is not             myself

•

the idea is once you realize that these things are not part of                 yourself, then you can let go of them

•

one becomes                           dispassionate regarding the five aggregates, and through this will be liberated from suffering

•

this, however, leads to a paradox

•

once you are "liberated from suffering" where are       you on the five-aggregate map?

•

it's hard to reconcile and the reason is the               concept self is used to think and talk about it

•

alternative to resolve the               paradox

•

maybe he did not mean to             assert that there is no such thing as a self at all

•

he just says that the self doesn't exist in each of the five aggregates

•

he was just saying that you don't have to       own these five aggregates

•

the teaching of non-self

•

the Buddha uses different concepts of self in different                 contexts

•

when talking about the attainment of liberation from suffering

•

the concept of the self is the primary obstacle

•

thinking that there is some kind of substantial         core to our being

•

the grasping and clinging to the                 physical components of our being

•

teaches not that there is no self but that all of the objects of clinging are not-self

•

one should contemplate each aggregate as not mine, not I, not myself

•

in other contexts, e.g. ethical action, and           karma and its fruit

•

Buddha teaches not that there is a self, but will use the language of                 selfhood

•

e.g. "one is responsible for oneself"

•

it is             unwise to hold as a true and established view either that there is a self or there is not a self

•

book: The Selfless Mind: Personality, Consciousness and Nirvana in Early Buddhism

•

Peter             Harvey: "The not-self teaching is not so much a thing to be thought about as to be done."

•

we shouldn't try to                               intellectualize about it, but just do it

•

the Buddha says his monks should become                         disenchanted with every aspect of the self

•

disenchanted sometimes translated as:

•

estranged from

•

repulsed by

•

pretty thorough                     alienation

•

in these teachings the Buddha is talking to the monks

•

left society in search of truth and                     liberation

•

were prepared to go through very harsh                       austerities

•

most people who practice Buddhism today would like to have more modest           goals

•

the teachings of the not-self says that there is nothing in the five aggregates that you have to identify with

•

this particular hatred,                 jealousy, or sorrow

•

you don't have to think of it as           yours

•

however, the non-self did become part of Buddhist teaching

•

"deeds exist but no         doer is found"

•

"thoughts without a               thinker"

•

in meditation you become taken by the                 fluidity of things

•

feeds into the idea that there is no substantial core there