Emptiness of Self: The Key to Buddhist Enlightenment

Buddhists say the self is an illusion. Modern neuroscience says you hallucinate your existence from one moment to the next.

What is the Self?

What do Buddhists mean when they say the self is an illusion?

The term is Anattā, my namesake.

Buddhists aren’t saying the self does not exist.

Buddhists aren’t saying you can ignore the self like it’s unreal.

Buddhists are saying that the self does not exist intrinsically, as a substantial and independent entity, independent of the mind and body that generates it.

Buddhists are saying you don’t have a soul, at least not in the way nearly everyone conceives of the idea.

There is no everlasting “you” that will carry on eternally after your body dies, certainly not one that carries your personal narrative identity from this life.

Awareness, Consciousness, and the Substantial Self.

At some point, while you were in your mother’s womb, an awareness came into existence. At first, this awareness was unfocused, but at some later point, this awareness perceived its own…