Self & Non-Self in Early Buddhism

Description

Sinceits founding by Jacques Waardenburg in 1971, Religion and Reason has been a leading forum for contributions on theories, theoretical issues and agendas related to the phenomenon and the study of religion. Topics include (among others) category formation, comparison, ethnophilosophy, hermeneutics, methodology, myth, phenomenology, philosophy of science, scientific atheism, structuralism, and theories of religion. From time to time the series publishes volumes that map the state of the art and the history of the discipline. PREFACE LIST OF SOURCES AND ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION Part One: The Existential Self 1. PRELIMINARY REMARKS – How to translate the term attā – Has the term attā a mere conventional sense in the Nikāyas? – The Nikayan approach to the term atta 2. ATTĀ AS MAN’S HIGHEST VALUE – The self as refuge – The self is best – In love with the self – Look for the self – Paccattaḿ – Ajjhattaḿ 3. THE SELF AS THE MORAL AGENT – Moral energy of the self – Salvation in general and the self – The chariot and the charioteer – Knowledge of the self – Manifestation of the self 4. THE SELF AND MORAL EVIL – The metaphysical self, as such, is above moral good and evil – The moral self as the cause of moral evil – The moral self under the influence of moral shortcomings – The moral self ‘wounded and killed’ by evil – Asmimāna as the root of all moral evil 5. TOWARDS PERFECTION – The self as related to moral good – Self-exertion – Self-control – Purification of the self 6. THE SELF AND PERFECTION – Perfection of the self – Self-stability – ‘He dwells with a self brahma-become’ – Full blossoming of the self – The self and nibbāna – Nibbutatto 7. THE SELF AS RELATED TO KAMMA AND REBIRTH – The self and kamma – The self and rebirth 8. A BRIEF GENERAL ASSESSMENT OF THE FIRST PART Part Two: The Metaphysical Self 9. THE DOCTRINE OF ANATTĀ CAN CO-EXIST WITH THE REALITY OF ATTĀ 10. THE DOCTRINE OF NON-SELF TAUGHT THROUGH THE DENIAL OF POSITIVE TERMS – This is not my self. – He does not regard the khandhas, etc., either as the self or the self as qualified by them – Void of the self or of what belongs to the self – What is not your own – Permanence, happiness, self vs. impermanence, pain, non-self – As alien, not as the self 11. THE DOCTRINE OF NON-SELF TAUGHT THROUGH THE PREDICATION OF THE NEGATIVE TERM ANATTĀ – Connection with the preceding chapter – Scope of the ‘anattā statements’ – Intimate relationship between anattā and dukkha – The awareness of non-self – Anattā proclaimed by means of universal statements – Reasons given to assert that something is anattā 12. ASMIMĀNA, SAKKĀYADIṬṬHI, SASSATAVĀDA AND UCCHEDAVĀDA 13. SELF AND NON-SELF AFTER LIBERATION – Buddha was not a nihilist – Transcendence of the self. – Moral transcendence of the self – Metaphysical transcendence of the self – The abyākatā pañhā and the sakkāyadiṭṭhi – Reasons for keeping the abyākatā pañhā unanswered 14. RECAPITULATION NOTES SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY GLOSSARY OF TERMS TABLE OF SCRIPTURAL PASSAGES COMMENTED OR QUOTED INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS