The 3 Characteristics Sutta

Introduction English version of the sutta The Buddha’s silence on SELF Anatta graphic The Mahayana Heart Sutra In preparation Please return later The Tathagata Site Index

Understanding not-SELF It is a fact that no one knows what the ancient Pali term ‘anatta’ (lit. not-SELF) actually meant when the Tathagata used it. That’s because during his 40+year career as a wandering wisdom teacher and dukkha (i.e. distress) therapist he never once produced a positive definition of the term atta (SELF) and from which anatta (not-SELF) is derived. Indeed, he chose to remain silent on the meaning of SELF. In this (i.e. the Three Characteristics) discourse, the Tathagata claims that the bits (or sub-functions, i.e. khandas) of which the whole person appears as an ‘emerged phenomenon’ produce a false ‘I’ (or self) experience in that: 1. The bits (khandas) are transient 2. And are, therefore, experienced as distressing (dukkha) He concludes that because each bit of the person is transient, and therefore experienced as distressing, it would not be not clever to conceive of it as ‘This .. mine, this I am, (consequently) this .. my SELF?’” Since he remains silent on SELF (i.e. atta) and its properties, the whole argument seems spurious. The Anatta Sutta