Supporting the Buddhist Theory of Anatman, or Not-Self

Let me preface this by saying I love Jesus. I believe he incarnated and died for our sake. You can say I'm a Christian, after all, I have been baptized, commune and have been through Lutheran Confirmation. However, my beliefs and spiritual experience is to wide and deep to be confined to any box that is religion.


I am currently enrolled in a free course at Princeton University called, "Buddhism and Modern Psychology." What follows is my mid-term assignment: The Buddha makes the claim, which may draw some support from modern psychology, that the self does not exist. Describe the self that the Buddha says does not exist and explain the Buddha's principal argument against it. Do you agree or disagree with the Buddha’s argument that this kind of self doesn’t exist? Or are you unable to take a position? Give two specific reasons for your view, and explain why your reasons support either the existence of the self or the non-existence of the self, or why they explain why you are unable to take a position on the question.

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The Buddha asserts that we are anatman or anatta, meaning “not self.”

The Buddha uses the five aggregates to breakdown the constitution of a person: Form, Feeling, Perception, Mental Formations and Consciousness – and concludes that the self cannot be any of those.

The five aggregates are impermanent and characterized by change. This implies the Buddha sees the self as persisting through time. The Buddha also implies that self has the capacity to control, and once more, cannot be any of the five aggregates comprising “self.”

I believe the Buddha is saying we are not our human shell or human experience. Our true self, our true nature is separate, but also within. Essentially, we are our soul or eternal spirit – which is none of the five aggregates. I also think our true nature the Buddha is referring to lacks the earthly linguistics to explain its dimension. Self is simply the term used for being human. We are not our human form or experience.

I agree with this disposition for specific reasons that support the anatman theory. Some may find my arguments less than scientific. I would concur. My rationalization is metaphysical.

I am a yoga instructor with a Mastery of Meditation Certification from an Indian guru, or teacher.  As a part of my 500-hour advanced yoga teacher training, I stayed at an Ashram in India for 30 days. In my own experience of meditation, our intuition is the language of our soul. In the present moment alone, connected to this, we can see the truth of our existence.

When I was younger and occasionally still today, I speak to those who’ve crossed over in my sleep, or in my dreams. However, for me, the experiences are real; they are not just figments of my imagination. Because of this, I’ve devoured books by psychics, mediums, and people who’ve had near death experiences, or NDE’s. An NDE occurs when one dies, crosses over to the other side, (heaven if you will, or perhaps just another dimension), and for various reasons, returns to Earth. I’m particularly intrigued by the commonalities and similarities that parallel religious doctrine and occur throughout numerous NDE accounts.  

As a part of my yoga practice, I offered Chakra Attunements as a service to clients. One man, whom I'll call Cliff, contacted me in April claiming that he’d had an unusual experience and as a result, could feel and sense energy that he was having a difficult time making sense of. He asked if I could help. I informed him that with a Chakra Attunement he could be sharper in distinguishing his energy from external influence and may obtain energetic clarity.

Cliff arrived at my studio and upon the initial intake I learned that five years prior, he’d been physically “killed” by a bull on his farm who stomped him and rammed him up against a tree when he unknowingly stepped between the animal and her prematurely born calf. He exited his physical body but could see what was happening from above. He also viewed his wife and daughters inside the house at the kitchen table. During this time, he grasped timeless reality. Our life on earth is like an illusion, with limited perception. While drawn to remain in this state, he became aware that if he chose to do so, the bull would then attack his father, who was still in the field nearing the gruesome scene. He returned to his body in this physical, earthly dimension of existence. Cliff and I had an indescribable, platonic soul connection and could communicate and share a deep sense of knowing – that we are anatman.

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