Freedom from the Self

Table of Content: HOW TO RAISE A RESILIENT KID: I AM NOT RIGHT BUT THAT’S OK

The first episode of The Matrix movie series is a good one to watch. It will help you to understand the concept of “no self”. It is not necessarily the same concept as the one taught by the Buddha. Nevertheless, understanding the concept of “no self” will help you to achieve Nirvana, the state of no suffering. If you have no self, where is the “self” to bear the suffering? Everything that we experience with our eyes, ears, noses, skin, tongues, and mental perceptions are illusions, although these feel so real. It feels real because our minds make it so. If you have total control of your mind, you can become whatever you think you are and able to do whatever you think you can do. Your mind is controlled by you; your mind is not the real you. Who are you actually?

I am not sure whether anybody ever achieve the freedom from the self, or the true awakening to the reality of “no self”. I don’t know anyone who have total control of his mind and able to become whoever and whatever he think. Regardless of whether you believe in the concept or not, it can be applied for your benefit. I am a Professor in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. I know many scientific theories are not true; they are just ways to explain certain physical phenomena, although they can be scientifically proven and repeatable experiments can be conducted. The controlled experiments only proves that a cause leads to an effect. What or who makes it that way cannot be explained. We just say that is how the Nature works. Why gravity only pull two objects towards each other instead of repelling each other? There are many crazy concepts in Quantum Mechanics. They don’t truly represent what actually happen, but that doesn’t mean they are not useful in predicting the effect of a cause. What is not right doesn’t mean it is not useful. What we think is right doesn’t mean it is always useful.

Back to the concept of “no self”. If you choose to regards everything as illusions or mind manifestations, the whole world is not real, the sufferings are not real, you can self-hypnotize to feel nothing. Everything which impacts your body or your mind perceptions (or feelings) does not really affect the real “you”. “You” are nothing. The whole world is like a vehicle; “you” are not hurt when the vehicle breaks down. Because “you” are nothing, no “dirt” or anything else can attach to you. If you have no attachment to the vehicle, letting go of it is not even a question of whether you can or cannot let it go. You have nothing, so you can’t have anything to lose. The vehicle is not you, and it doesn’t really belong to you, it doesn’t really exist (it is just an illusion). Why should you feel anything when something happens to the vehicle? Why should you dance to the music? If your “heart” moves with the changes in the outside world, you can potentially be manipulated. If your “heart” doesn’t move, you will have no greed or craving, therefore you will never commit a crime. If your emotion is not stirred by right and wrong, you will have no feeling (no ecstasy and no sadness) therefore no suffering when something happens to your body or someone else. There is no good and there is no bad. There is no clinging to anyone and there is no hatred against anyone. There is no aversion to anything. You don’t expect anything must happen or mustn’t happen, therefore no ignorance or delusion.

Ecstasy is the extreme of happiness. A simple happiness is simply no suffering. When you have no self, you will simply be happy perpetually.

Causes and their effects are natural phenomena. Although everything is an illusion, there are unknown rules which govern how it works (like computer programs). Nobody can change the natural rules. While we are having the illusions, we must play by the rules. Trying to cheat will just invoke a different set of rules. Don’t try to be clever, but be wise. Flow with the river. The supposedly sad incidents are useful for one to know what happiness is. It is part of the journey of life without which one may never achieve the state of Nirvana. When you reach the island of perpetual happiness, you will naturally stop feeling sad because there is no such thing as supposedly sad incident. Akusala karma or unwholesome actions will naturally lead to negative results. The opposites of those or kusala karma will naturally lead to positive results. Don’t just follow the Five Precepts (no killing, no stealing, no self-indulgent in sensual pleasure, no intoxication, and no unhelpful speech/lie), but do the opposite. Save lives, enrich others or make donations, and help others to find the path to happiness. Love everyone and hate no one. The kusala karma will naturally bring you closer to the island of perpetual happiness. It is for your self-interest; the “self” of nothingness. No fear, obligation, and guilt.