..续本文上一页i me arai” (there is nothing)". He asked me if I understood, and I said, "Yes", and he said, "No you don”t".

　　I”ll always remember his reply. As he walked off it was like a profound teaching that he had just shared with me. What he was actually saying here by his teaching, ”Mai me arai” was, there is nothing, just emptiness, anatta. This is a powerful teaching because in our world we always want to have something. We always want to grab on to something, and to say "there is something". But actually, there is nothing.

　　Whether one looks at the body (rupa), feelings (vedana), perceptions (sanna), the mental formations (sankhara, which includes the will), or consciousness (vinnana)[4], for each one of these - ”Mai me arai” - there is nothing there. This is the teaching of anatta. However, it is very difficult for people to accept such a teaching; that there is nothing. The reason that it is difficult to accept is because one almost always asks the wrong questions. It”s well known that if you ask the wrong questions then you will get the wrong answers. So it”s important to ask the right questions first of all. Looking through the suttas, (the collected discourses of the Buddha) one can find many instances of those questions being asked of the Buddha that did not lead to any purpose or have any use. These were thoughts or questions or inquiries that the Buddha said were wrongly formed, and most importantly, they were not conducive to Enlightenment.

　　What do You Take Your Self to be

　　One of those wrongly formed questions is "Who am I

　　" This is an inquiry that many people in the world follow: "Who am I

　　" However, a little bit of reflection should make it very clear that this question already implies an assumption that you are someone. It already implies an answer. It”s not open enough. Instead, one needs to rephrase the question from, "Who am I

　　" or even, "What am I

　　" to, "What do I take myself to be

　　" or, "What do I assume this thing called ”I” is

　　" Such questions dig very deep into one”s avijja (delusion). Only then can one start to really look at what it is that one takes one”s ”self” to be.

　　Consider the human body. Do you consider the body to be yours

　　 It”s very easy to say, "The body is not self" when one is young, healthy and fit. The test comes when one is sick, especially when that sickness is very deep and lasting, or can even be life threatening. That”s when one can really see at a deeper level whether one is taking the body to be ”me” or ”mine”. Why does this fear arise

　　 The fear is always because of attachment. One is afraid that something which one cherishes is being threatened or taken away. If ever a fear of death comes up at any time, that will show with ninety nine percent certainty, that in that moment one is seeing or thinking that this body is ”me”, or is ”mine”.

　　Contemplate this body. Contemplate the death of this body, contemplate the contents of this body, and take it apart as it says in the Satipatthana Suttas (MN 10, DN 22). See that with whatever parts of this body, that it”s just flesh and blood and bones. It”s just the four great elements (earth, water, heat and air), just atoms and molecules and chemicals, that”s all. Continually contemplating the body in this way, one will eventually break down the delusion that this body is substantial, beautiful, delightful and one”s ”own”.

　　4 The Illusion of Control

　　When there is a self, there will be things that belong to a self. When there are things belonging to a self there will be control, there will be work, there will be doing. This illusion of a self (taking oneself to be something substantial) is what creates craving and attachment. This is what creates will. That”s why when people take the body to be the self, then they go and take it to the gym, they take i…

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