How to understand "no self"?

What do you mean, without me? In other words, everything in the world is karma and combination. There is no permanent, independent, comfortable and dominant entity or self. In Buddhism, the idea of no self contains two meanings. That is, people without me, law without me. On the one hand, what is man without me? From the point of view of all beings. I am composed of five elements, namely, color, acceptance, thinking, action and knowledge. The dispersion of karma is destroyed by five aggregates. No entity exists. On the other hand, what is the law without self? The law without self is based on all laws in the world, that is, all laws are born by reason. And karma. There is no entity. It can be seen that people call me empty without me, and law calls me empty without me. Man is composed of color method and name method. There is no eternal me in the world, and there is no person composed of soul. These extremely subtle colors, I am just a temporary existence formed by countless cells in the ever-changing heart, and everyone has seeds of good and evil in their hearts. Actually. Whether there is me or not, don't cling to the existence of my phase and the existence of Buddhism. The core of Diamond Sutra is separation. Without me, no one, no sentient beings, no immortality. This is the best interpretation of self in the Diamond Sutra. Everything is like a dream. If dew is like electricity, we should look at it this way. Therefore, I am an artificial symbol, or a pronoun.

Tell a story before you tell me.

In the Tang Dynasty, there was a man named Li Ao, a student of Han Yu, who once fought against Buddhism with his teacher. Later, the court sent him to Hunan as a magistrate, and now he is a government official at the governor level. It can be seen that this person is still very level. After Li Ao took office in Hunan, he heard that there was a famous Zen master-Yaoshan Zen Master, so he went to visit him.

In the temple on the mountain, the old monk sat in the sun and read Buddhist scriptures. Li Taishou stood behind, and the old monk ignored him and never looked back. Li Ao's personality is impatience. He stood for a long time without being answered, and then he left angrily. Before leaving, he said, "It's better to meet when you are famous." At this time, the old monk turned to him and said, "Taishou, why are you" too expensive for your eyes? "The old monk means, why do you value your ears so much and despise your eyes? Hearing this, Li Ao's heart moved and he quickly asked the old monk. Jackson Yaoshan didn't speak. He pointed up to the sky with his hand and down to the water bottle beside him, and it was over. Li Ao suddenly enlighted and immediately wrote a famous enlightenment poem:

Practice like a crane,

Thousands of forests, Matsushita's two faiths.

I'll ask. No more words,

Clouds in the sky and water in a bottle.

Later, Jackson Yaoshan said a poem to Li Ao:

Standing on the top of a high mountain,

Go deep into the sea.

Tell him to practice accordingly after going down the mountain.

Almost 200 years later, Zhang Shangying, a great official in the Song Dynasty, saw this record in "Zen Quotations" and thought that Li Ao was not enlightened at that time and wrote a poem:

Clouds in the sky, water in a bottle,

My eyes fell into the pit with my fingers.

Liuhua is not resistant to wind and frost,

This is a deep-sea trip.

Zhang Shangying's poems are ingenious and criticize Li Ao without foundation. Because "the cloud is in the blue sky and the water is in the bottle" is just the realm of ordinary people. Take this as the highest state of learning Buddhism, thinking that Wan Li is cloudless, clear and empty, and then it can be enlightened. Zhang Shangying thinks it's a joke, and it's "falling into a deep pit", and the pit is still deep, so jumping in may not lead out. The purpose of telling this story is to tell you that Buddhism is profound and profound, and it is by no means easy to understand.

Anyway, there would be no me without me. The hot issue is coming: Buddha says there is no me, who is in reincarnation? The old monk will have a headache if he keeps asking questions. We will discuss this issue next time.

Today's "no self" actually has two meanings: one is the "no self" of secular truth, which refers to secular laws and human values. This self-admission has a self. People have to eat every day. If it weren't for me, would they feed the dog? Without me, who would you leave me to? So, let's assume that I am real. I knew from birth that there was a me, with all kinds of consciousness, love and hate, such as watching me, hugging me, loving me, being slow, etc., which also brought me temporary happiness and endless troubles. So, Buddha said, you think about me every day. How tired you are. Where did your troubles come from? Because of me. You can think that I exist, but if you let go of my persistence, consciousness and thoughts, you will be happy, and this selfless me is the true face of people. This is the first meaning of non-ego.

The second non-ego is the true non-ego, the method of being born and the wisdom of Prajna. I won't go into details today, because I don't understand either. In the law of life, the Buddha thinks that I don't exist, I'm illusory, I have no real object, I just feel wrong. Buddhism believes that everything in the world is a combination of cause and effect, and there is no fixed normal and eternal thing. At the time of origin, the mountains and rivers stand now, and at the time of extinction, the tile soldiers disappear. The same is true of people, pretending to stand on the basis of five elements and being perceived by colors and thoughts. Speak slowly when you have time. Karma starts, five elements disappear, and there is no entity available. Think about it, human cells are dying every day. Were you alone yesterday and today?

Whether it is a secular truth or a sacred truth, whether it is a five-righteousness without me or without me, the Buddha wants to tell us a truth, that is, not clinging to me, but not clinging to emptiness. Solving the problem of emptiness can overcome the obstacles of worry and knowledge, prove the fruit of nirvana, and show the importance of self-knowledge in Buddhism.

Some people say that Buddhism is too abstruse to understand the scriptures. What you said is even more incomprehensible. I tell you, Buddhism is in the process of enlightenment, and I don't understand all the terms written in the book. Only when monks have nothing to do, do they fiddle with scriptures and explain them every day. True Buddhism is full of wisdom, not boring at all, especially Zen, which is more vivid and interesting. It is said that once, Sakyamuni said at the Lingshan meeting that he was holding a flower and facing everyone without saying a word. At this time, the audience looked at each other and didn't know why. Only Ye Jia smiled knowingly. Therefore, Sakyamuni said happily: "I have a blind eye to the Dharma, a wonderful heart to Nirvana, no reality, no subtle method, no words, no foreign teachers, and I have instructions to Mahayana." This is the story of flowers smiling. Ye Jia didn't say a word, but he got the true story of the Buddha. It's much better than spending a long time explaining that there is no self.

We can understand "no self" from the following three aspects:

First, "no self" is the basic understanding of Buddhism on the origin of all things in the universe. Buddhists believe that the emergence, development and extinction of things are conditional, born because of industry, died because of industry, and changeable. Buddhists call the impermanence of things "no self", which means the relativity and variability of things. As Buddhists say: For example, the world is neither a world nor a famous world; Everything is like a dream. Such as dew is also like electricity; There is no truth, it is everything, and all beings know it; In order to see all the reasons, it will be destroyed. The origin is empty, and all laws are empty.

Second, "no self" means "inaction", "inaction" means "nature", Tao means nature, and "no self" means doing things according to the laws of things. In the face of the law of things, the law is big, "I" is small, the law is in front, and "I" is behind. The law is objective and "I" is subjective. Therefore, No Self tells us that in the process of understanding and transforming the world, people should seek truth from facts, respect the laws of nature and act according to the laws.

Third, "no self" can be understood as human sociality and spirit of sacrifice. In this sense, "selflessness" means "selflessness", that is, putting the interests of others and the public before interests. The advanced elements in history, national heroes, model of the times, and China * * * production party are all typical representatives of "no self", who have made selfless contributions to the interests of the people, the country, the society and the nation. China * * * party member shed his blood for the happiness of the people of China, for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and unite and lead the people of China to stand up, get rich and strengthen. Why do you serve the people wholeheartedly? "I am willing to contribute selflessly, determined to serve the people of China and the development of China" and the "no self" of the China Party.

Regarding "no self", most people will think of things related to Buddhism. The scope of this problem is really wide, and mentioning these two words will naturally have different feelings. Some people disdain it, while others are deeply disturbed. For a long time, the author also fell into it and couldn't extricate himself. I have been reading books related to embodied cognition recently, so I will briefly talk about my thoughts and feelings from this aspect.

Before I say "no self", I want to say "impermanence". Experience is impermanent, so are the experiences we experience, the memories we have, and even the present moment when we are alive. "Impermanence" is not only the familiar leaves falling, the beauty dying and the hero dying (traditionally called rough impermanence), but also the impermanence of the ubiquitous personal mental activities. Every moment, new experiences are born and disappear, just like the torrent of our consciousness changes. And such a change, such birth and disillusionment, is not only the object of our perception, but also the perceiver. In other words, even the subject of our consciousness is unstable and constantly changing. The object of experience, the experiencer and the experiencer do not have a foothold platform. The real experience of homelessness above is "no self".

Every moment of our lives is experiencing progress. We are listening, watching, smelling and thinking. We are happy and afraid. I can feel that I am controlled by my emotions. I will be proud of others' praise and depressed by others' criticism. So what is this seemingly unchanging but fragile, familiar and erratic self? What is this center? Most of us believe in our identity: we have personality, memory and recollection. All these seem to converge on a coherent point of view and a center from which we face the world.

It can be said that the above-mentioned clear mentality is "I hold". We want to grasp an unchanging root in impermanence to confirm that we are alive and exist. Without such recognition, we will be anxious, illusory and fall into aimless self-destruction. Such persistence, anxiety and desire are "bitterness". In custom, we have become accustomed to such a fixed self-existence and take it for granted. In fact, such "self-awareness" does not exist.

How to solve this "rootless" dilemma and how to learn to live in an impermanent and selfless real life? Perhaps we always look up to our dreams, pray for our monuments in the outside world, and leave traces of our existence, which leads to our most fundamental and practical existence-the body is ignored. The body is a "solid" existence, the only one that truly belongs to itself and can be trusted and relied on. Some people will ask, is the body our self? Will the body remain the same? Yes, the physical body is the most fragile, lonely and unstable among people, and its injuries often occur. However, the body is stable. We are angry and depressed, experiencing the warmth and coldness of human feelings, and the foothold of these feelings is the body. Thinking, consciousness, spirituality, roaming, and finally longing to return to the same body.

Since what we are experiencing and what we are experiencing are impermanent, neither grasping the past nor understanding the future can give us a sense of stability in the present. The only way is to realize the present. Pay attention to the present situation of our incarnation, reflect on the perceptual experience that is acting on our senses, feel and accept the flow of change, and gradually enter a good state of meditation. Such mindfulness/awareness breaks the secular self and truly cherishes and experiences the existence of the present self.

Indeed, we always misunderstand some concepts in Buddhism, or are complacent about understanding its essence. Believe it or not, it is undeniable that Buddhism is gradually saving people's living predicament and breaking through the fog of the world in a unique and powerful way.

"I" is subjective. "No self" refers to people's sociality and objectivity, which means that people should look at themselves and everything from an objective and social perspective. People are different from other objective substances. People are conscious, and people tend to enlarge their meaning ability. The view of "no self" tells people that human beings must act and think on the basis of objective reality and cannot violate objective laws.

"No self" is a Buddhist term. The negation of "I" is one of the fundamental ideas of Buddhism, and it is the three * * * phases of impermanence and suffering (* * * with the same characteristics).

"No self" has two meanings.

On the one hand, it can be explained that without "I", "I" does not exist (Mahayana Buddhism calls it "I am empty");

On the other hand, it can be interpreted as: this is not me, which is the so-called "non-me".

The debate between these two meanings has become an important topic among Buddhist sects.

Denying the existence of the material true self (so-called "I") in the world can be divided into two categories: people without me.

It means that the human body is nothing more than five categories, namely color (shape), feeling (emotion), thinking (meaning), action (movement) and knowledge (knowledge), that is, the combination of five connotations, without Heng Chang's comfortable subject ("I").

Law without self

All laws are born of various causes and combinations, constantly changing, impermanent and solid.

Sex is illusory.

Hinayana Buddhism generally advocates that people have no self; Mahayana Buddhism believes that everything is empty, the self-nature of law is empty, and the existence of all laws is illusory, so it not only advocates that people have no self, but also advocates that law has no self.

Because all things and phenomena are empty by their nature, they only show some illusions, which is called "sexual illusion".

If there is no self, it is not me, my place or me. "No self" is one of the sixteen lines of the four truths (see Mo's "Six Legs Theory". Theories of different schools ").

Buddhism advocates that the connotation, place and realm are without me, that is, all laws have no me and oppose the creation of me.

Sakyamuni taught his disciples to observe the impermanence and bitterness of the five aggregates, so as to understand that the five aggregates are neither mine nor mine; Observe twelve places that are not me or me; Look at the eighteen realms, not me, not me, etc.

It is pointed out that there is no self mainly because it removes five connotations: life is the body, life is different from the body, and color.

(Note: Simply discussing the ontological problems such as life is the body and life is different from the body, if it is not conducive to practice, it will be classified as no memory and will not be answered. )

How to prove that "no self" and "no self" are a state of wisdom is to prove from the heart that all laws are empty, without inversion, obstruction and terror.

Get rid of the inner attachment to "I" and practice diligently with the goal of "no self"; When interacting with people, you don't have to consider how the outside world respects, respects and affirms "I", or despises, humiliates or ignores "I", just asking for no regrets.

The wind and the green hills are there, and the boat crosses the water without a trace. Reaching this state is the state of "no self".

This is really a good question worth considering. I have always believed that life is bitter. We take ourselves too seriously and never judge others. This is what I'm doing. For example, a person's body is a residence, my heart is a demon, I am a Buddha unintentionally, and it is a demon to get sick to others. If you keep thinking that I am seriously ill, your pain will get worse and worse. When you think about it, put it down and learn to communicate with the disease. I think it will be really much better. For example, I have experienced it personally these days. I secretly told it that you are just a disease parasitic in my body. If I feel bad, you can't open your heart. It does not have our peace. I will give you my life. Where do you live well? We can live a good life without being disturbed or bothered. Otherwise, if I die, you are finished. This makes me feel much better. Until today, I almost understand.

If you prove that the Dharma is empty and I am empty, you will understand that there is neither mine nor mine.

Without me, there would be no me; Doing nothing means doing everything.

What do you mean by no me?

Then I made an answer about practice. I fell silent and couldn't feel my breath. Laozi said: What if I don't have a body? If your body has pain and discomfort, you can't feel the state of no self, because pain stings your heart, and you can't enter a quiet state of no self.

When you are in a state of no self, you can only be quiet after all the pains accumulated by your body for many years have healed. There is no next one. Nothing is nothing, such as a house, clothes and so on. You don't even know where you are. Without me, without it, only breathing, this is the state of life and life. Few people do morality.

What is no self? What is harmony between man and nature?

There is a very important concept in Buddhism: no self, which makes many people feel incredible and unacceptable.

The world thinks, "a big living person, standing in front of him alive, you actually said there was no me?" So, what is the other party at the moment? "

First, get to know me.

Who am I? What am I? Is this living person me at the moment? It's me, but this is only a temporary me, a temporary phenomenon, not the essence of life! Buddhism refers to the origin and essence of life.

What am I? As far as this life is concerned, life is a constantly changing process, from the initial fertilized egg to embryo, baby, baby, until I am a teenager, a teenager, a middle-aged me, an elderly me and a dead me. If you look ahead, I have experienced countless lives and deaths, either for men, women, birds or animals. The body is like a house and the soul is like a guest. Every time I die, it seems that I have moved to a new home and changed my face. Excuse me, which one is me?

If time can be compressed, and 100 years can be compressed into an instant, then the so-called me, the so-called eternal life, is just an illusion that constantly lives and dies in an instant. Therefore, the body that the world clings to is not the essence of life, nor the real me.

Second, forget me.

In the process of meditation, there are fewer and fewer distractions and inner peace. As the haze gradually dissipates, the power of mind manifestation becomes stronger and stronger, and at this time, the feeling of material existence is gradually fading.

At the beginning of meditation, I obviously felt my body. With the progress of my practice, my body seems to become more and more empty after I enter silence. Sometimes I feel my body is like a shadow, and sometimes I don't feel the existence of my hands and feet. Later, my body seemed to be gone, leaving only the vague outline of my head. Furthermore, after calm, there is often conscious existence, but the whole body's sense of existence disappears.

At this time, I am a state of awareness of my heart. Although I am aware, there is no boundary between my body and my environment. The cushion under the hip and the floor under the foot have disappeared, empty. The consciousness of awareness is integrated with the void, and when everything dies, one feels lonely. Forget the existence of the physical self, the spiritual self will be blurred, if not, it will be very weak, even for a while, that is selfless.

Third, without me.

From static to static, although I forget myself, although my heart is extremely clean, although my sense of persistence has been greatly diluted, but in essence, my heart still stays in consciousness or Araya knowledge, I have not yet enlightened, and I have not seen my heart clearly. Only by accumulating resources to clear away obstacles and develop bodhicitta can we see nature clearly, see our true colors clearly and understand the origin and truth of the universe and life.

What kind of experience is initial enlightenment? According to people who have experienced it, there are many kinds of experiences, which are not necessarily the same every time. There are several most obvious points: 1. After elimination, it is like a soap bubble floating in the air bursting, and the heart and qi are integrated, and there is no distinction between inside and outside. 2. The so-called physical objects in the outside world give people the impression that they are empty and illusory, and the limbs seem to be able to easily pass through all objects such as desktops, computers and walls. Everything, such as people, animals, buildings, flowers and trees, is integrated with itself. Without you, me, him, her and it, there is only "we". The universe is all over the world, and all external conditions are the manifestation of the heart. Every living thing is actually another self! So I am full of kindness, care and compassion for everything, and I am integrated with people, nature and everything in the universe.