Buddhism
Anatta – Dictionary definition

Anatta, the Buddhist teaching of ‘no self’. Sometimes translated as “no soul” or “no self” but the best translation is “not self”. The Buddha, when he reflected upon himself through meditation, could not find any one thing that was unchanging within himself. There was no evidence of an underlying “soul”. One Buddhist monk, Ajahn Chah, described our lives like ‘ice cubes’ slowly melting away until nothing is left! However, this does not mean that a Buddhist would deny our existence; simply that we need to evaluate carefully exactly what we mean by the word “self”. There is no self in the sense Hindus or Christians would perceive. Instead, there are many things that combine to make us the people that we are. Nyanatiloka [BD] says that “This is the central doctrine of Buddhism, without understanding of which a real knowledge of Buddhism is altogether impossible. It is the only really specific Buddhist doctrine, with which the entire structure of the Buddhist teaching stands or falls.” It is the one concept that is absolutely unique to Buddhism! Peter Harvey, “Selfless Minds”, “While a metaphysical Self is not accepted, a changing empirical ‘self’ is accepted : as ‘oneself’, ‘character’, ‘personality’ or citta, ‘mind/heart’.......Reference to an empirical ‘self’ is simply a way of talking about the functioning personality-factors, not some reference to some hidden extra entity or structure” (p.42). Indeed, Harvey’s book suggests that anatta is very much a practical device, tool or vehicle for spiritual development and not at all a philosophical statement. When “not self” is seen in abstract it loses its true perspective and as a philosophical teaching does indeed have the tendency to become meaningless. Narada Thera, “Buddhism in a Nutshell”, writes, “This Buddhist doctrine of re-birth should be distinguished from the theory of re-incarnation which implies the transmigration of a soul and its invariable material rebirth”. A ‘person’ is a group (khandha) of inter-acting mental and physical processes of which there are five (rupa; vedana; sanna; sankhara; vinnana). Nyanatiloka says that “What is called individual existence is in reality nothing but a mere process of those mental and physical phenomena, a process that since time immemorial has been going on, and that also after death will still continue for unthinkably long periods of time. These five groups, however, neither singly nor collectively constitute any self-dependent real ego-Entity, or Personality (atta), nor is there to be found any such entity apart from them.” Narada Thera, “Buddhism in a Nutshell”, adds later, “According to Buddhism mind is nothing but a complex compound of fleeting mental states. One unit of consciousness consists of all three phases - arising or genesis (uppada), static or development (thiti) and cessation or dissolution (bhanga). Immediately after the cessation state of a thought moment there occurs the genesis stage of the subsequent thought moment. Each momentary consciousness of this ever-changing life process, on passing away, transmits its whole energy, all the detailed recorded impressions to its successor. Every fresh consciousness consists of the potentialities of its predecessors together with something more. There is therefore a continuous flow of consciousness without a stream without any interruption. The subsequent though-moment is neither absolutely the same as its predecessor - since that which goes to make it up is not identical - nor entirely another - being the same continuity of kamma energy. Here there is no identical being but there is an identity in process.” (560 words)