06-30-2012, 12:00 AM
“The Aryan Eightfold Path is the path leading to Immortality” [SN 5.8]
Nagara Sutta: The City (SN 12.65)
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html
Some people are simply determined to place a self or a soul into the Buddha's teachings. They have been doing so for the past 2,600 years. The problem is that the Buddha only pointed people towards the end of suffering. In all of the ways he did this, a doctrine of self was not one of them. What he did do was teach his disciples to observe the five aggregates or the six sense bases and their objects as anatta (not-self). He also taught that if one were to try and describe something outside of these, they would be put to grief because such a thing would lie beyond range. So, the role of a soul is non-existent in Buddhism. What is existent are the multitude of ways that the Buddha teaches his followers to free themselves from suffering. This starts from the simple observation of the five precepts to deep states of meditative absorption and contemplation of the three characteristics of existence. In the end, the causes of suffering will be completely abandoned, and that is the highest bliss of Nibbana (unbinding).
Nagara Sutta: The City (SN 12.65)
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html
Some people are simply determined to place a self or a soul into the Buddha's teachings. They have been doing so for the past 2,600 years. The problem is that the Buddha only pointed people towards the end of suffering. In all of the ways he did this, a doctrine of self was not one of them. What he did do was teach his disciples to observe the five aggregates or the six sense bases and their objects as anatta (not-self). He also taught that if one were to try and describe something outside of these, they would be put to grief because such a thing would lie beyond range. So, the role of a soul is non-existent in Buddhism. What is existent are the multitude of ways that the Buddha teaches his followers to free themselves from suffering. This starts from the simple observation of the five precepts to deep states of meditative absorption and contemplation of the three characteristics of existence. In the end, the causes of suffering will be completely abandoned, and that is the highest bliss of Nibbana (unbinding).