Non-self/anatta

Doug reflects on five key lessons he wishes he had understood earlier in his Buddhist practice: misconceptions about meditation, the importance of testing teachings rather than accepting them on faith, treating the Dhamma as tools rather…

Is AI sentient? I argue the question may not have a clear yes-or-no answer — and that this tells us something profound about the nature of personhood itself. Drawing on the ancient "sorites" paradox, philosopher Derek Parfit's work on…

How many "yous" do you have? We'll look at how our online lives, as well as the rise of AI, help reveal to us the ancient Buddhist truth of non-self.

Buddhist notions of non-self open up possibilities for reforming who we are in more skillful ways. Those are the heart of Buddhist practice. But how does it work?

What does artificial intelligence have to tell us about the central Buddhist teaching of non-self? We'll delve into some of the recent advances in AI, focusing in particular on the chat programs ChatGPT (GPT-3 -- recorded before the…

We can approach the conundrum of non-self in early Buddhism through conceptual and non-conceptual means. We will look at how the two approaches differ, and a few ways the Buddha highlighted the difference.

A question from one of my viewers. In addition to the fraught question of "no self" in early Buddhism, I'll consider some of the pros and cons of self-love (or of what passes for it, at any rate). We'll look at a couple of early suttas…

"If there's no self, what is reborn?" It's confusing how to understand the traditional notion of rebirth in early Buddhism. In this video I'll look at both parts of the question: is there "no self" in Buddhism? What sort of "self" is…

Contemplating the impermanence of the elements helps us to understand their non-self nature. In one early Buddhist sutta, Sāriputta gives an argument as to how the four elements are impermanent. But it's a strange sutta, full of…

One of the key practices in early Buddhism that often gets overlooked is a practice with the four elements leading to an experiential understanding of non-self. I'll look at that practice with reference to several early texts.

The second argument the Buddha uses in his Second Sermon on non-self involves impermanence. I'll look at his argument there and why it seems rather odd to our ears. I'll consider one potential subtext for the Buddha's argument, and what…

The Buddha's Second Sermon presents his first public argument for non-self. But it's an odd sermon, one that seems to leave out material that should be there. Why is this so? In this video I'll consider the first part of the sermon, what…

Is Buddhism nihilistic? We'll consider whether an early Buddhist argument for non-self implies there is "no anything", by looking at a short online critique by philosopher Rick Repetti.

How do we come to know the truth of non-self in early Buddhism? Do we come to it through deep meditative insight, or by other means? We'll look at a recent critique of the claim that we come to know non-self through deep meditative insight.

We'll look at the teaching on non-self that cleared up Ānanda's doubts about the Buddhist path of practice.

Did the Buddha teach that there was literally no self? We'll look at that question and see what the Buddha had to say about the claim that there was absolutely no self. We'll also look at his broader picture of the self.

An oft-used expression for 'non-self' in early Buddhism involves the phrase, "not mine, not-I, not myself". We will see how these three ways of seeing the self differ, and how each one expresses a problem to be overcome. Also we will look…

We can understand non-self intellectually, but that really isn't sufficient. We'll look at the difference between an intellectual understanding and one that goes deeper, using the story of the monk Khemaka as a guide.

The Buddha's teachings on the self and on non-self are some of his most subtle, interesting, and unique. We'll take a look at them in this video. We'll also compare the Buddha's view of the self with that of western philosophers David…

So I'll be asking you folks a question to start with, and then we'll consider the issue of doing a vlog while taking the Buddha's notion of non-self seriously. Are the two compatible or not?