Anatta / Anatman Part 3 Section 1 Main contents. Original Buddhism's doctrine.
Channel: Theoria Apophasis
Date: 09/02/2012

What has Buddhism to say of the Self? "That's not my Self" (na me so atta); and the term "non Self-ishness" (anatta) are predicated of the world and all "things" (sabbe dhamma anatta); identical with the Brahmanical "of those who are mortal, there is no Self/Soul", (anatma hi martyah), [SB., II. 2. 2. 3]). [KN J-1441] "The Soul is the refuge that I have gone unto". For anatta is not said of the Self/Soul but what it is not. There is never a 'doctrine of no-Soul', but a doctrine of what the Soul (The Self) is not (form is anatta, feelings are anatta, etc.). It cannot be denied that what is anatta is indeed the mere and petty self for [SN 3.196], and countless other passages, the mere self of psycho-physicality is = anatta = khandhas; that same self which the disciple is instructed to have his will/mind/spirit (ctta) reject in the face of illumination and insight.  

The 'reflexive position' fallacy taken by illogical modern 'Buddhism' proclaims the Pali term Attan (Skt. Atman, Self) to be merely a reflexive term meaning "oneself, himself, herself", however the reflexive and empirical mere self is, regardless of translation, "anatta" i.e. "na me so atta" (not my Soul), or also "eso khandhassa na me so atta" (these aggregates [forms, feelings, perceptions, experiences, consciousness =mere self] are no the Self, the Soul). As pertains the reflexive self, of who proclaim "myself, himself, herself" we are referring to "that person so-and-so (Larry, Sue, etc.)", the empirical and psycho-physical (namo-rupa) self of blood and sinew which is "doomed to fall into the grave at long last", the very same self the poetic dead are said to cry out to the living "what you are, we (the dead) once were,. what we are you shall be!". Even more illogical is the double standard of commentarialist and sectarian 'Buddhists' who desire anatta to mean 'no-Soul' as well as atta to mean simply 'myself, himself, herself'; wherein illogically atta in the adjective anatta is, to their ignorant minds = Soul ('no-soul'), but atta in standalone  = 'myself'. As illogical an end result, modern Buddhism has proclaimed atta (atman/soul) = anatta (not-atman)! Its quite hard to fathom any position more senseless than this, however this is one of the countless reasons modern 'Buddhism' is illogical without end. However doctrinally and logically so, what IS anatta (the five psycho-physical aggregates of the mere empirical, corporeal self) are indeed 'myself', in so meaning the mortal (mata) self composed of the bodily humors which is fated to death. That mere self is never implied nor meant when Buddhism speaks of immortality and the path leading to same (amatagamimagga) [SN 5.9], of which "the body cannot pass that gate to fare beyond,..only the Soul (The Self)" -Udana