Buddhism: The Doctrine Of No Self In Buddhism

According to the Buddhist doctrine, there is no self. Buddhists believe that the body is impermanent and behaves as a covering for what is permanent— your soul. What is focused on in Buddhist beliefs the doctrine of the “non-self”. In this paper, I will support the idea of the “non-self”. The doctrine of having no self means that the parts of who you are as a person is not you. All things on earth are not static, including people. First, I will go over what a Buddhist’s view of the self is and state reasons why one may be convinced that there is no self. Then, I will explain some objections of why other non-Buddhists would believe otherwise. Lastly, I will draw to a close of how the principle of no self is plausible.

In historical context,

Some truths were that all things were impermanent, suffering is necessary, and things do not exist as itself and it alone. The doctrine of the “non-self” refers to the belief in the nonexistence of an unchanging, everlasting soul, or atman. The Five Aggregates are an analysis of the parts that make up one’s personality that help to understand the doctrine of “non-self”. They are not the self, do not belong to a self, but they are what make up the mental and physical existence of a person. The Five Aggregates are made up of form, feeling tones, conceptions, conditioning, and consciousness. Form, or rupa, is the material your body is made up of. Feeling tones, or vedana, are the good, bad or neutral feelings you experience. Conceptions, or samjna, are the ability to understand and interpret concepts and ideas. Conditioning, or samskara, is habits and emotions that affect our thoughts and our choice. Consciousness, or vijnana, is the taking in of what we sense. All five aggregates are determined by the idea of impermanence (Binghamton University, PHIL105, 01 Feb 2018, Goodman). The first argument I am going to make is that impermanence states that the body is always changing. By comprehending the Five Aggregates, having the wisdom of “non-self” is gained (“The Five Aggregates”). The second argument I will present is that you must have control over yourself in all ways in order for

The Impermanence Argument expresses that anything impermanent or temporary cannot be your true self, which means form, or our bodies, are impermanent. Therefore, our forms are not our true selves (Binghamton University, PHIL105, 01 Feb 2018, Goodman). As much as people would like things to last, such as relationships, our appearance, our jobs, and other things, they are all short-term. Relationships end, our body continuously grows, changes, and withers away, and people will not stay at one job for the entirety of their life (Nourie). A non-Buddhist may challenge impermanence by bringing up memory. Once a memory is made, you cannot change it or cannot go back in time to change the event and it will remain the same forever. In response to that, I believe memory relates back to the Five Aggregates, in which your memory is a part of what you saw, how you perceived, and the feelings you had in that memory. According to the Buddha, memory is a part of the self, not the whole. The aggregates are not the self or belong to a self, but make up one’s personality. Therefore, form is impermanent and not your true self. Along with that, science proves that memory changes over time. Every time one recalls an event, the memory is altered in some way and changes are made from what originally happened (Paul). Therefore, even memory is