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What is the non-self? || Acharya Prashant, on Buddha (2017)
Scriptures and Saints
770 views
2 years ago
Anatman
Samsara
Awareness
Suffering
Upanishads
Vedanta
Materialism
Purification
Description

Acharya Prashant explains the Buddhist concept of non-self, or anatman, by highlighting that everything we typically associate with the 'I'—such as gender, age, nationality, and feelings—is material and numerically measurable. He asserts that the 'I' does not belong to the dimension of numbers, yet humans mistakenly couple it with external, material attributes. Since these attributes are acquired from the world, they are prone to loss, which leads to fear and suffering. The Buddha’s teaching focuses on identifying what one is not, rather than defining what one is, because the material body can only perceive the material.