Beyond the Concept of “No Self”
Our Beliefs and Concepts are the Greatest Obstacles to Awakening
Whether you believe there’s an eternal Soul (Atman) or you believe that there’s no soul or no self (Anatman or Anatta), those beliefs are actually obstacles to realizing your true nature. For a person who holds on to such a belief there is a conditioned knowing.
Samadhi will remain elusive until identification with the belief is dropped. The ancient traditions called such conditioned mental patterns Sankaras in Pali or Samskaras in Sanskrit. The concept, if we’re holding on to it, if we’re adding it to our self structure, becomes a limitation; an entrapment for inner energies perpetuating an illusion of knowing and it prevents us from engaging in the actual investigation that would lead to the direct contact with the mystery of existence.
One of the greatest divides between spiritual systems is between those that believe in the existence of a Soul and those that don’t. Half of the spiritual masters use words like Soul or Atman, and half talk about emptiness and no soul, Anatman, anatta or No-Self. The confusion and split between religions and teachings stems from the fact that language is inherently dualistic. We do not have language for describing nonduality. These difficulties were around since the time of the Buddha, 2500 years ago.
Many people are surprised when they discover that the Buddha never said that there is no self, and that he actually admonished those teachers who taught that there is no self: “Those who teach only no-self do not become free.”
There’s a story about a wanderer who directly asked the Buddha whether or not there is a self or a soul. The Buddha’s answer was silence. He knew if he answered yes or no, he would mislead.
