Spiritual Forum. Org

there are a lot of "new age" religions which promote the view that the ego is a "bad thing", or something that is "separate" from the person, or a thing to be "discarded" so that the "true" personality can come through.

these religions often use both the christian bible and particularly buddhism to promote their viewpoint. for an understanding of buddhism i recommend the book "becoming enlightened" by his holiness, the dalai lama, which the following passage is taken from. we begin with this excerpt from page 3.

"some 2500 years ago, buddha set forth a new religion in india. some aspects of his ideas had already appeared there earlier, but no one had defined these perspectives and techniques as conclusively as he would. what is at their core? SELFLESSNESS. long before him, many sought to analyse the status of the self, but not only did they teach that the self exists, they held that it exists independent of the mind and the body.however, buddha concluded that when we assert dthat the self exists independently, our innate sense of self-centeredness increases and solidifies. as a result, the lust, anger, pride, jealousy, and doubt stem from being self-centered grow stronger and more ingrained.

seeing that the defective states of mind such as lust and hatred are rooted in egotism, buddha taught something that had not been explained before him, the view of selflessness. this was exceptional, and indeed for more than 2500 years that have passed since his time, no one outside of his tradition has taught the same view."

all over the internet and some self-proclaimed buddhist gurus use the attutide of selflessness and it's related condition of emptiness to put their own brand of "buddhism" which is really ascensionism in disguise.

some use it to claim that buddhism does not acknowledge the existence of soul, some the importance of a sense of self, others - strangely - use it to enforce the existence of a "higher self", a self outside of ourselves which is supposedly connected with god or more spiritual advanced.

lets look at this last one first. note the bolded text in the excerpt above - not only did they teach that the self exists, they held that it exists independent of the mind and the body. while some 'teachers' and cults are quite happy to claim the opposite to one of the most fundamental buddhist teachings and still claim to be buddhists, the dalai lama clearly has a different idea of what his faith holds to. quoted from page 92 -

"there is no "I" that can be pointed out as an entity separate from the mind-body complex, not only that: if you carefully think about it, an "I" separate from mind and body would involve many contradictions. in addition, our own experiences show there is no such "I". Also, even if it may seem to our mind that there is an "I" that is within our mind and body, but is their controller like a head salesperson among salespersons, that also does not exist. therefore, in brief, the "I" cannot be found when subjected to investigation, yet it undeniably exists, as when we consider self and other; hence the self, or "I" is merely set up as a construct in dependence upon mind and body."

in other words, it is natural to have a sense of self. but buddhism does not support the notion of a separate or "higher" self. you might say that this contradicts with what was said on page 3, but look again.

buddha's belief and teachings opposes the notion that a self existed separate to the physical form; a belief which he termed as "selflessness", as in this separate self which some believed to exist did not.

there is just so much out there written and told by people who are not practising buddhists but who parade themselves as "experts" that i consider the book becoming enlightened by his holiness, the dalai lama to be invaluable to anyone who wishes to understand more about buddhism.