The True Self Is Egoless

Abstract

This chapter explains, from the perspective of Zen Buddhism, the Buddha’s teaching of anatman, a word that gets variously translated—for example, as “no-self,” “egolessness,” or “no-soul.” Debates among Buddhist traditions and scholars about how to understand the anatman doctrine are introduced. It is argued that the Buddha’s key philosophical doctrine of “interdependent origination” can be understood in terms of the “Ontological Middle Way” of a “process ontology”; things and selves exist, but as interdependent processes rather than as independent and permanent substances. Buddhism views the self as a “life-stream,” as a “process-self” rather than a “substance-self.” Zen understands the teaching of “no-self” to be compatible with its teaching of the “true self.” In Zen, the quest to know oneself paradoxically leads to an enlightening “not-knowing,” which entails an understanding of the interconnected and ungraspable nature of the true self.