The Buddha on Non-Self
Non-self in Impressionist Style by #dalle
Non-self is a central concept in Buddhism, which makes it very different from other belief systems.
The main idea is this: that a so-called self or soul is made up of five aggregates (physical form, sense-feelings, perception, volition, sense-consciousnesses), each of which are not a self or soul. So there is no single thing you can point to which is a self or a soul.
Here is the Buddha explaining why there is no self nor soul, in each of the five aggregates:
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In Pali:
Mendicants, form is not-self.
“Rūpaṁ, bhikkhave, anattā.
For if form were self, it wouldn’t lead to affliction. And you could compel form:
Rūpañca hidaṁ, bhikkhave, attā abhavissa, nayidaṁ rūpaṁ ābādhāya saṁvatteyya, labbhetha ca rūpe:
‘May my form be like this! May it not be like that!’
‘evaṁ me rūpaṁ hotu, evaṁ me rūpaṁ mā ahosī’ti.
But because form is not-self, it leads to affliction. And you can’t compel form:
Yasmā ca kho, bhikkhave, rūpaṁ anattā, tasmā rūpaṁ ābādhāya saṁvattati, na ca labbhati rūpe:
‘May my form be like this! May it not be like that!’
‘evaṁ me rūpaṁ hotu, evaṁ me rūpaṁ mā ahosī’ti.
(PJ’s note: this repeats completely for the other five aggregates: feeling, perception, volition, consciousness).
In the Chinese parallel:
It was then that the Bhagavān addressed the monks,
爾時，世尊告諸比丘：
“Form is not the self.
「色非是我。
If form were the self, it wouldn’t be that illness and pain arise from form, and there wouldn’t be the desire about form:
若色是我者，不應於色病苦生，亦不應於色欲：
‘Let it be so; let it not be so.’
『令如是，不令如是。』
It’s because form is without self that there’s illness and pain that arise from it, and these desires are possible:以色無我故，於色有病有苦生，亦得於色欲：
‘Let it be so; let it not be so.’
『令如是，不令如是。』
Feeling, perception, volition, and consciousness are likewise.
受、想、行、識亦復如是。