His holiness the Dalai Lama on "self"

His Holiness, The Dalai Lama

Born a Hindu, the Buddha turned his faith upside down when he proclaimed "self" does not exist as we think of it, a stark contrast to Hindu belief in atman (meaning "self"). Sorry, Krishna! The Dalai Lama, in his book From Here to Enlightenment, clarifies the Buddha's concept. In a remarkable way, the Buddha distinguishes true "self" from our wrong perception of "self." The Buddha illustrates this by telling about a person who claims he sees a snake, even though it is only a rope. The snake here did not exist. Similarly, the "self" we claim to see does not exist. Our true "self," on the other hand, does exist, but we are unable to see it while in a non-enlightened state. 

This book elucidates many other aspects of Buddhism, including reality, the nonexistence of things, and enlightenment. One may argue that things exist, right? The Buddha maintains that, yes, they do, but not the way we see them. 

We'll delve more into this book in subsequent posts.