Does Non-Self Mean That the Body or Thoughts Do Not Exist?
A question came in saying that impermanence and dependent origination are understandable to some extent, but non-self is difficult to grasp. Impermanence means that nothing remains permanent and that all things change. Dependent origination means that every phenomenon arises through causes and conditions. That much makes sense. But what exactly does it mean to say that there is no “self”? Does it mean that my body does not exist? Does it mean that my thoughts or social identity do not exist? This is where the question begins.
When I explain non-self, I believe we must first examine how we receive the word “self.” We normally hear it and immediately think of the everyday “me.” That me is certainly included. Yet the central meaning of the self denied by non-self is not limited to an individual named Yoon Deok-man, a body, a thought, or a social position. More fundamentally, it means an unchanging being: some substance imagined to have existed yesterday and the day before, before birth, and to continue even after death.
The heart of non-self is not the strange declaration that “I do not exist.” It is the question of whether an independent being exists that never changes and continues forever.
The Idea of an Unchanging Being
Indian philosophy has used such names as Atman and jiva for that kind of being. Whatever the name, the core idea is the same. It is a being that remains essentially unchanged through time, exists before birth, and continues after death. We must then ask immediately: does anything truly remain unchanged?
This question collides directly with impermanence. If we say that everything in the world changes but think that the self alone continues without changing, the two ideas do not fit together. Non-self does not tell us to erase the body before our eyes or insist that our present thoughts and social identities do not exist. The body, thoughts, and identities do exist. The question is whether an independent substance truly runs through them all, unaffected by any condition and remaining eternally identical.
We cannot say that everything is impermanent while imagining that the self alone never changes. Non-self exposes precisely that contradiction.
The Concept of God Cannot Avoid the Same Question
This issue is not confined to the individual self. Consider God. God, too, is a word and a concept made through language. I regard claims that people have directly seen God as arising from delusion, imagination, or perhaps a dream. Still, for the sake of discussion, let us suppose that God exists. We may posit a creator god, like the Christian God or Brahma in India, who creates and destroys the universe. Is that god eternal? Is that god unaffected by anything else?
To understand non-self, we must look directly at this point. We should not confine the word “self” to a person’s everyday ego. We must ask whether there really is something that can be called a being—independent, unchanging, affected by nothing, and eternally indestructible. Buddhism denies God because it holds that such a being cannot exist.
If the world is dependently originated, we cannot accept a god who exists alone without causes or conditions, affects everything else, yet is affected by nothing.
Dependent Origination Is a Worldview of Relations and Influence
Everything arises through conditions. Things relate to and affect one another, arising and disappearing within cause and effect. To arise within relationships means to give and receive influence. Something arises because of something else and changes through something else. Dependent origination is a worldview about how we see the world.
When we observe the world, everything gives and receives influence. Within those influences, things are formed and disappear. I am no exception. I, too, am a result of the gatherings and dispersals taking place in this world. I am not an independent soul that arose alone. Yet people imagine an identical “me” that existed yesterday and the day before and will continue into the future. We must examine whether that imagined entity actually exists.
I am not a being standing alone, separated from the world. I am a result temporarily formed by countless causes and conditions.
To Be Eternal, Something Must Be Unaffected by Anything
Here we can see why impermanence, dependent origination, and non-self sound so similar. For something to remain permanent and eternal, it must not be affected by anything at all. The same applies to the claim of an immortal soul. If it is affected by something else, it must change; if it changes, it cannot be called an eternally identical being.
A creator god is said to make and destroy the world and to affect it. Yet that god is also said to be affected by nothing. Can something that exerts influence while receiving none actually exist? The world we observe is not like that. Because this world is dependently originated, it is impermanent. Because it does not remain permanent, there is no independent and unchanging self—or any eternal substance that deserves to be called “this.” That is non-self.
Because things arise dependently, they are impermanent; because they are impermanent, they contain no independent and unchanging substance. This is non-self.
The Premise Behind an Immortal Soul and Rebirth
If the world consists of causes, effects, relations, and influences, it is difficult to accept a god who simply exists without a cause. The same applies to an unchanging self. To say that an unaffected self remains immortal, undergoes rebirth, or goes to heaven or hell, we must first posit a substance that remains unchanged even after death. To posit such a self is ultimately to posit something much like a god.
But when we see the world through dependent origination, such a being cannot exist. The Buddhist worldview of dependent origination looks at cause and effect, relations, and influence. I call it a scientific worldview repeatedly confirmed through observation. When we examine phenomena that we can see, nothing arises entirely on its own and remains independently forever.
Once we establish an abstract “me” that continues unchanged after death, we have effectively created an eternal god in the mind even while speaking of dependent origination and impermanence.
Non-Self Does Not Apply Only to Human Beings
Non-self does not apply only to the person called me. Whether it is a finger, a tumbler, or anything else, nothing is independent and unchanging. Everything changes within relationships. Thus non-self is not different from impermanence, nor is it different from dependent origination. The three expressions look in slightly different directions, but they are conclusions drawn from the same dependently originated phenomena.
Because things arise dependently, they are impermanent and without self. This is why, if Buddhism had to be reduced to one principle, it would be dependent origination. Once we see the world through that worldview, the other conclusions follow. There can be no unchanging god, no eternally immortal and independent soul, and no abstract self that continues unchanged in this world and after death.
Dependent origination, impermanence, and non-self are not three disconnected teachings. They describe a dependently originated world from the different directions of relation, change, and the absence of substance.
Questioning Even the Way We Separate Something as “This”
Of course, the discussion of non-self does not end here. In our minds, we distinguish an object and call it “this.” Yet the object distinguished in that way does not actually exist independently, severed from everything else. People and things all move within relationships.
Understanding non-self therefore does not mean denying the body or thoughts before us. It means refusing to believe that behind an object we have grouped and named for convenience, there is a separate eternal essence wholly free from relations and change. Non-self is the conclusion reached when dependent origination and impermanence are followed all the way through. It is to see the world not as a collection of independent substances, but as processes of relation that affect one another, arise, and disappear.
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