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Single Idea 7906

[filed under theme 16. Persons / E. Rejecting the Self / 4. Denial of the Self ]

Full Idea

The great Buddha passed through the eight stages of Transic insight, and quickly reached their highest point. From the summit of the world downwards he could detect no self anywhere.

Gist of Idea

When the Buddha reached the highest level of insight, he could detect no self in the world

Source

Ashvaghosha (Buddhacarita [c.50], XIV)

Book Ref

'Buddhist Scriptures', ed/tr. Conze,Edward [Penguin 1959], p.50

A Reaction

In the manner of Nietzsche, I am inclined to say that they find what they want to find, because that is their value. They want to get rid of the self, and dream of a mode in which existence continues without it. Is Buddhism opposed to human life?

The 24 ideas with the same theme [denial that there is any such thing as a 'Self']:

5517 Individuals don't exist, but are conventional names for sets of elements [Buddha]
7277 The perfect man has no self [Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu)]
7286 To see with true clarity, your self must be irrelevant [Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu)]
7906 When the Buddha reached the highest level of insight, he could detect no self in the world [Ashvaghosha]
21294 A continuous lifelong self must be justified by a single sustained impression, which we don't have [Hume]
21295 When I introspect I can only observe my perceptions, and never a self which has them [Hume]
21298 We pretend our perceptions are continuous, and imagine a self to fill the gaps [Hume]
21304 Identity in the mind is a fiction, like that fiction that plants and animals stay the same [Hume]
21308 We have no impression of the self, and we therefore have no idea of it [Hume]
21310 Does an oyster with one perception have a self? Would lots of perceptions change that? [Hume]
4175 It is as perverse to resent our individuality being replaced by others, as to resent the body renewing itself [Schopenhauer]
24099 We contain many minds, which fight for the 'I' of the mind [Nietzsche]
7148 The 'I' is a conceptual synthesis, not the governor of our being [Nietzsche]
7138 The 'I' is a fiction used to make the world of becoming 'knowable' [Nietzsche]
4527 Perhaps we are not single subjects, but a multiplicity of 'cells', interacting to create thought [Nietzsche]
6475 In perception, the self is just a logical fiction demanded by grammar [Russell]
20114 Everyone is other, and no one is himself [Heidegger]
23498 The modern idea of the subjective soul is composite, and impossible [Wittgenstein]
7115 Maybe it is the act of reflection that brings 'me' into existence [Sartre]
7121 The Ego only appears to reflection, so it is cut off from the World [Sartre]
7370 The brain is controlled by shifting coalitions, guided by good purposeful habits [Dennett]
7655 The work done by the 'homunculus in the theatre' must be spread amongst non-conscious agencies [Dennett]
5518 It doesn't matter whether I exist with half my components replaced (any more than an audio system) [Parfit]
5349 For Buddhists a fixed self is a morally dangerous illusion [Flanagan]