I know I am late to this party, but maybe you are still taking questions? I have one about “no self”.
A car is made of parts. In a way there is no single part that is the whole car. The parts come together in a way that allows the function of a car to be performed and so we say that the whole is a “car”. In a sense there is no car, only parts that work together. The “car” concept is an abstraction.
Likewise we could say “there is no rock, only a collection of atoms”. The rock is an abstraction.
Is this what is meant by “there is no self”? If not, what is the difference? If yes, why is this so important?
Basically yes. But it doesn’t feel like that to most people. By default, it feels like the self is a real indivisible thing. By doing insight practice into (no) self, you get your internal subjective state to match the no self reality.
Thank you. Deeply understanding that the self is just as much an abstraction as a car feels important indeed.
From the perspective of what is meant by “there is no self”, would I be right to say the self “exists” just like any complicated abstraction such as a car, a state, or a landscape; no more and no less?
To continue with your metaphor, not all abstractions are created equal. There are good abstractions, like “car” which make your life better, because it simplifies the world well without much loss of important data. There are also bad abstractions like trauma, which make your life worse. To continue with your metaphor, “there is no self” is to say that the self is a bad abstraction that causes harm by modeling the world badly.
I know I am late to this party, but maybe you are still taking questions? I have one about “no self”.
A car is made of parts. In a way there is no single part that is the whole car. The parts come together in a way that allows the function of a car to be performed and so we say that the whole is a “car”. In a sense there is no car, only parts that work together. The “car” concept is an abstraction. Likewise we could say “there is no rock, only a collection of atoms”. The rock is an abstraction.
Is this what is meant by “there is no self”? If not, what is the difference? If yes, why is this so important?
Basically yes. But it doesn’t feel like that to most people. By default, it feels like the self is a real indivisible thing. By doing insight practice into (no) self, you get your internal subjective state to match the no self reality.
Thank you. Deeply understanding that the self is just as much an abstraction as a car feels important indeed.
From the perspective of what is meant by “there is no self”, would I be right to say the self “exists” just like any complicated abstraction such as a car, a state, or a landscape; no more and no less?
Yup.
To continue with your metaphor, not all abstractions are created equal. There are good abstractions, like “car” which make your life better, because it simplifies the world well without much loss of important data. There are also bad abstractions like trauma, which make your life worse. To continue with your metaphor, “there is no self” is to say that the self is a bad abstraction that causes harm by modeling the world badly.