Anatta: The Teaching of No-Soul

无我论：

The Buddha countered all soul-theory and soul-speculation with His Anatta doctrine. Anatta is translated under various labels: No-soul, No-self, egolessness, and soullessness.

To understand the Anatta doctrine, one must understand that the eternal soul theory _ 'I have a soul' _ and the material theory _ 'I have no soul' _are both obstacles to self-realization or salvation. They arise from the misconception 'I AM'. Hence, to understand the Anatta doctrine, one must not cling to any opinion or views on soul-theory; rather, one must try to see things objectively as they are and without any mental projections. One must learn to see the so-called 'I' or Sour or Self for what it really is : merely a combination of changing forces. This requires some analytical explanation.

The Buddha taught that what we conceive as something eternal within us, is merely a combination of physical and mental aggregates or forces (pancakkhandha), made up of body or matter (rupakkhandha), sensation (vedanakkhandha), perception (sannakkhandha), mental formations (samkharakkhandha) and consciousness (vinnanakkhandha). These forces are working together in a flux of momentary change; they are never the same for two consecutive moments. They are the component forces of the psycho-physical life. When the Buddha analyzed the psycho-physical life, He found only these five aggregates or forces. He did not find any eternal soul. However, many people still have the misconception that the soul is the consciousness. The Buddha declared in unequivocal terms that consciousness depends on matter, sensation, perception and mental formations and that is cannot exist independently of them.

佛陀以「无我论」反驳了一切灵魂和灵魂思想。无我(Anatta)，可解释为没有自我或没有灵魂的存在，要了解无我，必须先了解「常见」──即认为世间有个恒常的‘我’或‘我所有’，和「断见」──认为没有任何的因、没有任何的缘，人死亡后色法、名法都灭尽，死后什么都不存在了。「常见」和「断见」都是由「我执」生起的「邪见」。要了解「无我」就不要执着于任何灵魂学说或思想。相反的，我们必须客观的、实事求是的去了解事物的本性，不要凭感觉而捕风捉影。一个人必须先要了解「我」、「我执」、「灵魂」到底是什么？这一切只不过是因缘条件的假合和变化罢了。这一点需要进一步的分析，佛陀教导我们：那些我们认为永恒的，其实是名色和五蕴的因缘假合，身体是色(物质)、名(心识)和五蕴(色、受、想、行、识)所组成的，这些力量一直在发生作用和不停的变化，它们没有一个片刻是相同的。它们组成了身、心和感官。当佛陀分析身、心和感官时，他只发现了五蕴中「识」的力量，并没有发现灵魂的存在。但是，很多人对「识」产生错觉，以为「识」就是「灵魂」。佛陀分析的很清楚，识是依赖受、想、行而存在，「识」无法单独存在。

The Buddha said, 'The body, O monks, is not the Self. Sensation is not the Self. Perception is not the Self. The mental constructions are not the Self. And neither is consciousness the Self. Perceiving this, O monks, the disciple sets no value on the body, or on sensation, or on perception, or on mental constructions, or on consciousness. Setting no value of them, he becomes free of passions and he is liberated. The knowledge of liberation arises there within him. And then he knows that he has done what has to be done, that he has lived the holy life, that he is no longer becoming this or that, that his rebirth is destroyed.' (Anatta-Lakkhana Sutta).

「诸比库！色中无我、受中无我、想中无我、行中无我、识中无我。诸比库！了解了这一些，就不会把价值观建立在色、受、想、行、识上面。就这样，他能弃除烦恼而获得解脱，解脱的智慧也因此而产生。跟着，他清楚的了解自己的所作所为，修行的基础也奠定了，以后不再有轮回了。」《无我相经》(Anattalakkhaõa Suttaü)

The Anatta doctrine of the Buddha is over 2500 years old. Today the thought current of the modern scientific world is flowing towards the Buddha's Teaching of Anatta or No-Soul. In the eyes of the modern scientists, man is merely a bundle of ever-changing sensations. Modern physicists say that the apparently solid universe is not, in reality, composed of solid substance at all, but actually a flux of energy. The modern physicist sees the whole universe as a process of transformation of various forces of which man is a mere part. The Buddha was the first to realize this.

佛陀的「无我论」在二千五百多年前提出，和今天的科学思潮是一致的。在现代科学家眼里，人类只是一堆一直在变化的感受。现代物理学家认为，宇宙坚实的外表，实际是不存在的，宇宙只不过是一种「能」的流变。现代物理学家了解，宇宙的整个转变过程是由许多物质聚集而成的，而人类只不过是其中的一小部分。而这一切佛陀在二千五百多年前就已经了解了。

A prominent author, W. S. Wily, once said, 'The existence of the immortal in man is becoming increasingly discredited under the influence of the dominant schools of modern thought.' The belief in the immortality of the soul is a dogma that is contradicted by the most solid, empirical truth.

一位杰出的作家 W.S.维利说过：「在现代思想的主要学派中，人类不灭灵魂的存在已经受到怀疑了。」灵魂不灭的信念，是教条主义，它抵触了可被证实的真理。

The mere belief in an immortal soul, or the conviction that something in us survives death, does not make us immortal unless we know what it is that survives and that we are capable of identifying ourselves with it. Most human beings choose death instead of immortality by identifying themselves with that which is perishable and impermanent by clinging stubbornly to the body or the momentary elements of the present personality, which they mistake for the soul or the essential form of life.

灵魂不灭的信仰，相信在我们死后还有某些东西存在。可是这存在物到底能不能令我们永恒的存在？除非，我们有能力知道那存在物到底是什么？并且，我们还要证明我们到底是不是存在于那存在物里面？可是，大多数人宁可相信死后有不灭的灵魂的存在，他们顽强的执着与攀缘于肉体或人性的某些因缘假合的东西，并错误的认为灵魂是生命的基本形式。

About those researches of modern scientists who are now more inclined to assert that the so-called 'Soul' is no more than a bundle of sensations, emotions, sentiments, all relating to the physical experiences, Prof. James says that the term 'Soul' is a mere figure of speech to which no reality corresponds.

It is the same Anatta doctrine of the Buddha that was introduced in the Mahayana school of Buddhism as Sunyata or voidness. Although this concept was elaborated by a great Mahayana scholar, Nagarjuna, by giving various interpretations, there is no extraordinary concept in Sunyata far different from the Buddha's original doctrine of Anatta.

现代科学家通过研究后，对所谓“灵魂”描述如下：「灵魂只不过是一些感知、感受的情绪，与生理的经验互相作用的关系。」詹姆斯教授说：「灵魂这名词，最多是代表语言的一种图象，并不反应任何事实。」佛陀的「无我论」在大乘佛教里，称为「空性」或「空义」。这观念是由大乘著名学者龙树(Nagarjuna)大士提出的。但是「空性」(Sunyata)并非有别于「无我」，也不见得比佛陀原始的教义「无我论」 来得高明。

The belief in soul or Self and the Creator God, is so strongly rooted in the minds of many people that they cannot imagine why the Buddha did not accept these two issues which are indispensable to many religions. In fact some people got a shock or became nervous and tried to show their emotion when they heard that the Buddha rejected these two concepts. That is the main reason why to many unbiased scholars and psychologists Buddhism stands unique when compared to all the other religions. At the same time, some other scholars who appreciate the various other aspects of Buddhism thought that Buddhism would be enriched by deliberately re-interpreting the Buddha word 'Atta' in order to introduce the concept of Soul and Self into Buddhism. The Buddha was aware of this unsatisfactoriness of man and the conceptual upheaval regarding this belief.

All conditioned things are impermanent, All conditioned things are Dukka? Suffering, All conditioned or unconditioned things are soulless or selfless. (Dhammapada 277, 278, 279) There is a parable in our Buddhist texts with regard to the belief in an eternal soul. A man, who mistook a moving rope for a snake, became terrified by that fear in his mind. Upon discovery that it was only a piece of rope, his fear subsided and his mind became peaceful. The belief in an eternal soul is equated to the rope? man's imagination.

相信灵魂、自我或造物者的存在，已成为一般的的想法。佛陀为何不接受这种多数宗教都认为绝对必要的说法？事实，当许多外道得知佛陀拒绝这种观念时，感到十分的惊讶。但是，很多对佛教存有偏见的学者或心理学家，在深入的研究和比较后，都与佛教站在同一立场。也有一些学者，他们固然非常欣赏佛教，可是却企图将灵魂或自我的观念推荐给佛教，曲解了「无我论」，以为这样就可以把佛教发扬光大。可是，佛陀早就觉察到，这种思想是一种邪见，对人性的提升一点帮助也没有。

一切行无常。

一切受是苦。

一切法无我。

《法句经》V227、228、229

在佛经里，有一则关于灵魂的寓言故事：「有如把一条动着的绳子当作是一条蛇，因此内心产生了不必要的恐惧，当他发现那是绳子时，那种恐惧就完全消失了。」相信不灭的灵魂，就好比那个人对绳子产生的错觉──其实，只不过是个人心中的想像罢了。