No Self

Science tells us that the universe was created from a single point of origin, and has been expanding outward ever since. From the initial creation of the universe, what is called the Big Bang Theory, came all matter, atoms, molecules, compounds, etc. This matter began to combine and form rock, asteroids, planets, suns, solar systems and galaxies. 

Occasionally a planet like ours found just the right set of circumstances to allow life to spring forth. From that initial life form evolved increasingly more complex  life forms such as plants, fishes, and animals. These too continued to evolve until eventually man was present on the planet, and at some point, consciousness arose in man giving him the ability to think and reason. 

Man continued to procreate and build societies and cities until we reach present day.

Every event that took place throughout the billions of years leading up to this present moment had to occur in exactly the order that they did in order for this moment to be exactly the way it is. If earth had been a bit closer or further from the sun, earth may not have spawned life, or at least not life as we know it. If our parents had not chosen to have children and we had not received the care and nurturing of our caregivers we might not be here either.

In this way, there is a certain perfection to the universe. Our free will egotistical minds like to think they we in control of our lives and our destiny and might not see the universe as perfect. This of course is what give rise to our self created suffering. Our minds don’t want to accept that we may not always have control and dominion over ourselves, and so when things don’t go the way our mind thinks they should, this gives rise to unhappiness, anger, depression, and all sorts of unpleasant emotions. Letting go of our minds constant need to feel in control will allow us to open up and begin to see that there is perfection in the universe, a perfection that exists even when things don’t go the way we would like them to.

Every atom, molecule and cell in our body originated from that one point of creation. Even though we are not billions of years old, the atoms that make up the cells of our body are. The universe is as much in us as we are in it. Science has proven that matter can not be created or destroyed. The atoms and molecules that make up our body have been constantly recycled, and continue to be constantly recycled. We are constantly shedding cells and growing new ones, nourished by the food we eat, which is in turn nourished by the earth, the very earth to which our body will return after we die.

Since we are all constructed from matter of the same origin, we are also connected to and part of the oneness of that universe much in the same way that the individual cells of our body make up the whole of our being. Understanding this is a good starting point to understanding the concept of no self. We are a small part of a much greater whole.

 

Too easily when one tries to understand the concept of no self, the thought of no self is misinterpreted as non existence. No self does not mean you don’t exist, you can look in a mirror and see for yourself that you exist as do others. You can touch, see, hear, and experience, so of course you exist. What no self refers to is that you do not inherently exist, in and of your own accord, and in your own right. You did not self create and you can not autonomously exist. You exist in dependence on an almost infinite number of other phenomenon and people. We exist in total dependence upon these other factors and can not exist without them. At birth none of us could have survived without someone to feed and clothe us, to nurture us and provide shelter. Even today every thing we do has a dependent nature as well as an impact upon others.

When we sit down at a meal many of us begin that meal with a prayer of thanks. To truly give thanks for that meal we need to look a bit deeper and see just what it is we give thanks for. Not just thanks for the food itself or the cook that prepared it, but for the multitude of events that had to occur leading up to that meal. Someone had to travel to the grocery store to purchase the ingredients with money earned from an employer willing to pay us for our work, in a vehicle others had to build, using metal others had to mine, and gasoline someone had to refine from crude oil. There are all the people who work at the grocery store, the cashiers, the clerks, someone to stock the shelves. Truck drivers had to deliver the goods to the grocery store. Farmers had to grow our vegetables and raise the animals that become our meat, and let’s not forget the animals who give up their lives so that we may survive. This is no longer a local phenomenon like it was a mere 100 or so years ago. Much of the food we eat, the pots and pans we cook with and even some of the cars we drive are imported from other parts of the world. The web of dependency is quite global.

Even if a person wanted to leave society and live off the land in a remote wilderness he is still dependent upon the land itself for the very food and shelter he needs to survive. We are all living in dependency and we are all a part of a greater whole. This is what no self refers to, no independent existence of self.

If we look at ourselves from a pure spiritual point of view we can still see this. We have a conscious awareness that is not constructed of atoms or molecules. It is a form of energy. Science tells us that energy, like matter can not be created or destroyed, but can be transformed. When our body dies and is recycled back to the universe from which it came, the energy of our consciousness will leave behind that body and move on. 

  In 1907, a Massachusetts doctor named Duncan MacDougall devised experiments that would measure the weight change as the energy (or what he referred to as the soul) left the body upon death. He did so by building a bed that doubled as a scale, and then by successively tucking-in six terminally ill patients and monitoring their death. By measuring their weight before, during, and after death, and by accounting for air, bodily fluids, etc, Dr. MacDougall was able to record a decrease in body weight of 21 grams.

 

 This energy, during life, exists in dependence of our body. When our body expires we will not be able to take the body with us. Since we can’t take it with us, we don’t really truly own it. We merely possess it, in a borrowed state, and when we are done with it we must return it to its rightful owner, the universe. Since it is not really ours, it is also not the true self, or in other words no self.

Even the conscious awareness that leaves the body, since we won't really know what happens to it until we experience the moment of death, is not something we can claim to be the true self. If that spark of consciousness follows the same order as everything else in the universe, it is likely that it too will be returned to a source of consciousness, like a drop of water being returned to the ocean, only to be recycled again.

Michael L. Fournier