6
No Self
Personal Continuity and Dependent Arising
The Buddhist critique of self as unchanging
The story of the journeying monk in the Kevaddha Sutta (see above,pp. II3-I4) is in fact a very precise parable of Buddhist thought.
To understand the nature of du/:tkha is precisely to reach the lim-
its of the world. Ultimately the monk in the story is directed to
the nature of the mind itself, for it is here that the secret of thearising of the world, the ceasing of the world, and the way lead-
ing to the ceasing of the world is to be found. Thus, although
from a particular perspective the elaborate cosmology outlined
in the previous chapter does indeed represent the completeBuddhist description of du/:tkha, nevertheless it is in the analy-
sis of individual experience of the world-this fathom-long body
with its perceptions and mind-that duJ:tkha's ultimate nature is
to be penetrated. In this chapter I wish to turn to the basic prin-
ciples of that Buddhist understanding of our individual experi-ence of the world, and of consciousness and its workings.
The Buddhist critique of the notion of 'self' or iitman is rooted
in a specific historical context and initially directed towards par-
ticular understandings of the notion of self. The evidence of brah-
manical, Jain, and Buddhist sources points towards the existence
in north India of the fifth century BCE of a considerable variety
of views and theories concerning the ultimate nature of the indi-
vidual and his destiny.
Among the questions the early brahmanical texts known as
the Upani~ads seek to explore are: to whom or what the various