The Buddha’s No-Self Argument: A Drastic Emendation

Author: Ferenc Ruzsa | AAV 37 (2024) | Pages: 215–234 | https://doi.org/10.60018/AcAsVa.edsz6184

Abstract

The first part of the Buddha’s second sermon, “The Characteristic of No Self”, is extremely problematic. It does not fit the cultural context, philosophically it is silly, it does not agree with the Buddha’s central doctrines, and it contradicts the second part of the same short text. Moving a single word (“not”) up a sentence we get a clear and coherent argument; this must have been the original text. The Chinese version corroborates this. This particular type of corruption shows that here we have something exceptionally rare: a demonstrably verbatim quotation from the Buddha himself.

This article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

References

Pali texts are quoted from (but numbering and pages given according to the PTS edition): Chaṭṭha Saṅgāyana Tipiṭaka 4.0 (version 4.0.0.15). Text copyright © 1995 Vipassana Research Institute. Chinese texts are quoted from (but references given according to the Taishō edition): https://suttacentral.net/

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