Transcript

The Buddha's no self teaching is the most profound analysis of the self from among all wisdom traditions. Encountering it may at first feel uncomfortable. What if it turns out we really don't have a self ourself? Feels threatened by this prospect, and you see the iron here, the Buddha analyzes personal experience in five dimensions, the five clinging aggregates. He calls them. These are the most common targets of our clinging to self identity. Let's go through the aggregates one by one as we do so, search for your own center of gravity. Search for where you feel yourself to be. The first aggregate is our physical body. It is easy to take the body for a thing and hence a self. The body has specific dimensions.

It remains relatively the same for a relatively long time, and it seems to partake of our every experience. But should you investigate it? You find the body is in a constant state of change. You find it is a web of complex processes you don't even understand, let alone control. It is the result of eons of evolution and carries the features of countless ancestors. In short, your body is not a thing, but a web of relationships, a cluster of causes and conditions. Your body is not yourself, the second clinging aggregate is feeling here we identify with the experience of pleasure or displeasure. When dogs bring us pleasure, we think I am a dog person. When a bad smell brings us displeasure, we think I hate this smell. We project an eye onto the feeling.