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Simon Blackburn, Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford University Press Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION The ‘self has been the most important matter of concern for human being. Philosophy, religion, psychology etc. have all devoted themselves to the pursuit of the self and its meaning. In the history of Greek philosophy, Heraclitus (Heracleitus, 535 to 475 BC.) said, I pursue my self. Antithesnes (444-368 BC.) said that the purpose of Philosophy was the ability to associate with our self The Delphic oracle ‘Man! know thyself has attracted a great deal of Philosophers. ‘ In the history of Indian philosophy, the self is pursued in the form oi Atman. The term ‘ataia/i'originally meant ‘the breath’." In Sanskrit, it is used as a reflexive pronoun, equivalent to ‘oneself in English, 'sicH or 'selbst in German, ‘se in French. Regarded as the subject of the life, it means principal of life and sensation. All inclusively, it means individual and body. To distinguish its existence from others, it means ‘self. More philosophically and intrinsically apprehended, it comes to mean ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’.^ The pursuit of the a t ma n is ^ Simon Blackburn, Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1994; Y Masih, A Critical History of Western Philosophy, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1994, p.viii; H. Nakamura, Universal Thought [Fuhen 5&o], Shunj}msha, Tbkyo, 1999, pp. 449-457, and The Pursuit of Self \Jiko no Tankydi, Seidosha, Tokyo, 1980, pp.llff. ^ Cf D. H. De A Wijesekera, Buddhist and Vedic Studies -A Miscellany, Forward by R.N. Dandekar, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, p. 258. ^ A Sanskrit-English Dictionaryhy Monier Williams, Oxford University Press, p. 135; emphatically taught in Upanisadic Philosophy/ Buddhists in the early time in India seemed to use the word atman basically as meaning ‘self. The word atman in this context was translated as self) by the people in China at that time. In classical Chinese, the word means the first person singular accusative, that is, it stands for ‘me’ in Enghsh, WcA'in German, tooi’in French. On the other hand, V u ’(^ ) is used as Nominative. Therefore it can be said that the translators in old China understood the word ‘atzna/2'objectively as ‘oneself.^ Buddhism also has been one of its most enthusiastic investigators. One of the examples in Buddhist scriptures shows this point: One day, a man asked Buddha whether he had seen the girl who had ran away from the man. Buddha rephed the man, ‘which, do you think, is better to search for the women or the self.'’ Buddhism emphasizes the need not only to search for self, as shown by the above example, but also to tame and train the self Buddhism, however, has the ‘not-self doctrine which is regarded as one of its essential marks. Because of the negative characteristic of anatta teaching. Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, vol. 2. BPS in Kandy, pp. 316-32. ^ For instance, see the Chindogya Upanisad(yill.l.l). The importance of searching of the ‘self is emphasized in many religioiis writings; ‘A wise man who knows that women are a slough, as it were, will get no harm from them, but will wander about searching for the Self {Uttaradhyayana, 11.17, SEE. vol.45, p. 11); ‘The yogis striving [for perfection] behold A t m i abiding in their heart’ {yatantoyoginascai’naibpasyanty atmany avasthitam, Bhagavad-Glta, 15.11. Cf Ramananda Prasad, The Bhagavad- Gita- The Song of God, Delhi, 1996, p.232). “ H. Nakamura, The Pursuit of Self [Jiko no Tankyu], Seidosha, Tokyo, 1980, pp.l2- 13. Cf E. Kanakura, The Thought of Self in Indian Philosophy [Indo-tetugaku no Jiga-sisd[, Tokyo, Daizo-syuppan, 1974, p. 18-19. ® Vmaya, Mahavagga, 1.13 (vol. 1, p.23). It is interesting to see that there is a smiilar story in a classical Chinese text 'Mo-tzii written by M o Ti (Master Mo, about 468-376 B.C.). It reads as follows: ‘It is pity that everybody goes in search of a dog or a hen when they are missing but he does not search of his true self (Cf The History of Thought {Siso no ReMs^, vol.2, p. 155). Buddhism has been sometimes regarded as nihilism or atheism.' Thus the teaching of Buddhism on ‘self has become comphcated and apparently self- contradicting.® l-l] Object of present studies <1> A question of self and non-self has been an important topic of Buddhist study. Mrs. Rhys Davids once said, ‘the doctrine of Anatta is very deep. One assumes that it will need more than life-time to get to the bottom of it.’ A great number of explanations on anatta are found in Buddhist scriptures, and numerous attempts have been made by scholars to find out what the ‘atta and ‘anatta mean in the Buddhist context. We can find various definitions of ‘anatta’, and a variety of explanations of what anatta doctrine is, not only in the Buddhist original scriptures but also in the books and dissertations by the scholars. Sometimes their interpretations are directly opposite to each other. I will look over in detail these definitions ^ It depends on the definition of‘God’ to decide whether Buddhism is atheism or not. E. Conze states that if indifference to a personal creator of the Universe is Atheism, then Buddhism is indeed atheistic’ {Its Essence and Buddhism: Development, Oxford, Cassirer, p.39). Lai Mani Joshi states: ‘AU the Buddhists are united in rejecting the idea of the reahty of a Personal-Creator-Lord or God. The notion of God-Creator as found in theistic tradition is not accepted by any Buddhists’. And he introduces in his book some of interpretations of the scholars which explain Buddhism as atheistic idea {Discerning the Buddha - A Study of Buddhism and of the Brahmanical Hindu Attitude to It - Delhi, Munshiram Manoharled Publishers, 1983, p . 152-154). Cf. O.H. de A Wijesekera, Buddhist and Vedic Studies - A Miscellany, Foreword by R.N. Dandekar, edited by M.H.F. Jayasuriya, Delhi, MotHal Banarsidass, 1994. p.3; 8. ® Though Buddhism is generally regarded to adopt the avyakata attitude towards metaphysical questions such as ‘soul’, we have to admit that Buddhists have been always interested in the concept of the soid. This is attested by the fact that we can find lively discussions on the subject of such concepts in the history of Buddhism. and explanations in the next chapter in which I shall spend a good deal of space in order to survey previous works on the subject done so for. This fact shows that the question of ‘atta and 'anatta of Buddhism has not been solved yet, despite a larger number of studies. <2> The fundamental problem which makes it difficult to study the concept of self and its negation is due to the fact that the question of self is thoroughly subjective matter, on the other hand, the academic research is basically depending on the objective investigation. In addition to this fundamental difficulty, we have to admit some specific problems when we try to study the concept of self and not self in Buddhist Uterature, which seem to make us produce variety of interpretations on them. In this section, firstly, we shaU consider why so many definitions on 'anatta have been made by the scholars. These reasons are closely related to the difficulties when we try to study this topic. X' As I shall mention later in detail, the concept of anatta has been changed through the process of the doctrinal development of Buddhism. It can be said that one of the reasons why so many explanations on anatta are found depends on the fact that the meaning of anattahdiS been changing historically.® ® The fact that there has been historical development about anatta doctrine is pointed out by the scholars: Mrs. Rhys Davids, Sakya or Buddhist Origins, pp.209-210; P.T. Raju, ‘The Concept of Man in Indian Thought’, in The Concept of Man, ed. S. Radhakrishnan and P.T. Raju, Harper Collins Publishers, 1955, p.258; E. Kanakura, The Thought of Self in Indian Philosophy [Indo-tetugaku no Jiga-sisc^, Tbkyo, Daizo Shuppan, 1974, p. 179; A. Hirakawa, A History of Indian Buddhism - from Sakyamuni to Early Mahayana, translated and edited by Paul Groner, Delhi, Motilal, Since the meaning of anatta has evolved and changed, it is a matter of course that many kinds of definitions of it are possible depending on the texts compiled in various times. Then the definitions of it differ depending on which texts we use for our study, for example, texts in Early Buddhism, Abhidhamma, Mahayana, and so on. (It is notable that, only within the texts in Early Buddhism, as we shall observe later, there is supposed to be a big change in its meaning.) ® Another reason why we can find various types of definitions and explanations about anatta is supposed to be its complexity of the term ‘anatta. The term anatta composed by adding ‘aii to ‘atta, so we can try to interpret its meaning in various ways depending on the meaning of the negative particle ‘aii, and the meaning of the word 'atta. Regarding 'aii, as a negative prefix to ‘atta, it has been a subject of controversy whether it indicates the absolute negation or the qualified negation. Joaquin Prerz-Remon suggests: ‘The reader should always keep in mind the distinction between the doctrine of relative or qualified anatta and the doctrine of absolute or unqualified anatta.’^'^ It will be useful here to make these two types of negation clearer. (1) relative anatta In this type of negation, atta is negated in relation to something (viz. ‘something is not atta). It does not intend to negate the existence of atta but only intends to explain that something is not atta.
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