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The Unfolding Logic of the Pali Anatta-Lakkhaṇa Sutta, and the Issue of Control

Author: Peter Harvey | AAV 38 (2025) | Pages: 55–83 | https://doi.org/10.60018/AcAsVa.ddou4623      cc by nd

Abstract

This article explores how the phases of the Anatta-lakkhaṇa Sutta relate to each other and to those it is said to have been taught to – ascetics who had just become stream-enterers after being taught the Dhamma-cakka-ppavattana Sutta. It is shown not to be about explicitly teaching that “there is no Self” but about inducing a radical letting go of all things taken as “mine”, “what I am” and “my Self”. As its hearers become arahats, the overcoming of the ingrained but vague “I am” conceit is a key aim of the sutta. The article critiques certain points in Ferenc Ruzsa’s analysis of the sutta, especially his argument that the Pali version of it must be inauthentic due to its claim that the khandhas are non-Self because they cannot be controlled at will, while what is Self could be controlled at will.

 

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

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