–D. T. Suzuki, “An Introduction to Zen Buddhism”
Self – from the stand-point of Buddhism – is an illusion. It is this “doctrine of no Self” (not to be confused with any ethical or moral or religious doctrines of self-less-ness) that is a shocker to the Western mind.
No Self? How can that be?!
Buddhism doesn’t bother to explain how it is, it just claims that is.
Stay with this thought for the next seven moments…
I am | bored
I am | excited
I am | sleepy
I am | embarrassed
I am | anxious
I am | calm
I am | curious
The seven sentences above are a sample of seven moments “you” might go through. Note the constancy of am-ness and the fleeting, ever-changing evanescence of the states that “you” pass through…
The “I am” column (on the left) is the “stone steps” that reflect the “bamboo-shadows” of your mind-states. The “I am” column is the “pool” that reflects the image of the “moon.”
This phenomenological (subjectively-experiential) baseline of am-ness doesn’t change: the “I am” of moment one is the same “I am” of moment seven. The “bamboo-shadows” “stir” no dust. The moon’s “deep” reflection does not really “penetrate” the surface.
This sense of Self – it appears – is nothing but shadows and reflections against the mirror of am-ness…
Prendergast, Fenner & Krystal (the editors of “The Sacred Mirror: Nondual Wisdom in Psychotherapy,” Paragon House, 2003) reference the metaphor of a mirror in understanding “the essential nature” of consciousness – “the awareness that is prior to and inclusive of all thoughts, feelings, and sensations” (p. 3).
Dan Berkow (in his chapter on “Psychology of No-thingness,” in Prendergast et al.) emphasizes the goal of this new, “fourth wave” psychology as “knowing” that one’s Self is “not-a-thing,” not an actual “thing” or “entity” that is “moving ahead through time,” but mental construction that has been taken too literally, a cognitive projection (of an image onto a screen) that has been mistaken for something real, for something that actually exists.
It’s heavy-duty stuff, I admit. Berkow offers some normalization as well: he speaks of the anxiety that comes with the realization of this “situationlessness,” of the attempts to ground and anchor this fleeing image that we have of our Selves with various circumstantial accoutrements of traits, identities, and roles.
Berkow writes: “‘Self’ may consist of memories, experiences, feelings, values, roles <…> Health in the sense of balance and well-being is the relinquishment of any attempt to hold experiences, the release of the fear of losing self, relinquishment of the effort to maintain the believed-to-be-necessary self-at-the-center” (p. 188, in “The Sacred Mirror”).
Self-liberation – in this context – means not liberation of Self, but liberation from the illusion of Self… What general psychology would consider to be regressive defense mechanism of disassociation here acquires the status of a recovery path. There’s a lot to ponder here as these Nondual psychology “bamboo-shadows” do, indeed, stir a good bit of dust on the stone-steps of our self-growth ladders…
So, what is your image of Self? Is your Self-Image an image of an image on a canvas? Or is your Self-Image an image of a canvas adorned by a never-ceasing procession of bamboo shadows and reflections of the moon? Do you envision your Self as Contents or as a Container, as a Mirror or a specific reflection in it?
And what is the day-to-day psychology of re-thinking your Self as a stage rather than its performer, as the surface of a lake rather than the familiar pattern of cognitive ripples from the daily drip of your self-talk about who and what you are?
Here’s a little exercise to try: go look at yourself in the mirror, and make a scary, scary face…
Boo! Do you think the mirror is afraid?
In this deprecation of the non-existent Self, you make such scary faces even the Buddha laughs…
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Thank you Pavel,
I appreciate your efforts to get us thinking outside the box.
You are welcome, Adam.
Ancient and new ideas.
I must say, this post is.
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