..續本文上一頁ht were wrong and the Buddha wanted to show to both their wrong. Therefore, without saying that life comes to a complete end at death, which is the teaching of Annihilationism, he merely analyzed the so-called being and whatever he found of matter or of mind, he did not find a soul there.
Could he have taught us the doctrine of no-self (anattaa) more explicitly and more impressively
Whatever there be, “that does not belong to me; that am I not; that is not my self” (neta.m mama, nesoha.m asmi, na meso attaa).
Personality was described by the Bhikkhunii Vajiraa as a bundle of aggregates, thus a stream of successive states without abiding entity.
There is then no sound basis for the assertion that the soul is distinct from the body or mind. If, therefore, one maintains that the soul is immortal, one must equally predicate that body and mind are immortal, which is clearly absurd.
Human soul cannot be distinct from human life, and human life collapses together with the body, just like animal life and body.
What remains
The influence of good or bad deeds, which will cause another life on the same basis of good or bad.
There is no soul, there is no self, no permanent “I” or ego-entity. But there is a flux, a process of life, of action and reaction, which rises and falls like the waves of the ocean. Those waves will come to rest, that process will come to a stop, when all desires are stilled, because “I” is an expression of selfishness, of craving. When craving has gone, no “I” will be left.
If the teaching of the Lord Buddha is rightly said to be beyond sophistry (atakkaavacara) it is never more so than with regard to the teaching of soullessness (anattaa). For, any reasoning, even the purest logic, will presuppose the ego in thinking, as Descartes did: “I think therefore I am—Cogito ergo sum.”
“Soullessness” cannot be proved with reason, as darkness cannot be seen by bringing in a light. Darkness can be experienced only when all light is quenched. Likewise “soullessness” can only be realized when all selfishness is excluded. When the craving of “mine” and the pride of “I” have vanished, then also the error of self (sakkaaya-di.t.thi) cannot arise.
But when there is no more thought of self, disgust will be felt, leading to dispassion on the Path of Sainthood; and this detachment will produce the sweet Fruit of Emancipation with the knowledge of attainment that “the possibility of rebirth is extirpated, lived is the holy life, done is what had to be done, beyond this there is none.”
The load of life laid low,
The precious price is paid;
The waves of well and woe
of stormy stream are stayed.
The direst duty”s done,
A tenfold tiger tamed;
The weary war is won,
The timeless term obtained.
It is significant that after hearing the first discourse of the Buddha only one of the five disciples understood and even he could only enter the Path to Holiness. A fuller explanation of the Truth was necessary. But after hearing this second discourse, the Anattalakkha.na Sutta, all five attained the highest perfection of Arahatship.
“Soullessness” is indeed a lakkha.na, a distinguishing mark, the essential characteristic of the Truth. For with self all morality is immorality, but without self good and bad alike are transcended in the pure deliverance of heart and mind, in the freedom from all attachment or lust, from all aversion or hate, from all ignorance or delusion.
May the understanding of soullessness grow in us through the practice of unselfishness!
“May we come unto this darkness which is beyond the light of mere reason; may we without seeing and without knowing, see and know that which is above vision and knowledge, through the realization that by not seeing and by not knowing we attain tr…
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