Is self-transformation possible and, if so, how can it be achieved?
An initial reading of Buddhist philosophy might suggest a simple but perhaps unilluminating answer. The Buddha taught that attachment to self is a central cause of human suffering. It underpins many of the psychological states that detract from our happiness and that we might wish to change. However, the Buddha also taught that attachment to self is rooted in ignorance because there is, in fact, no self. Taken at face value, this might seem to suggest that self-transformation is not possible because there is no self to transform. You can’t change what’s not there.
While there is a seed of truth to this, it is too simplistic to see it this way. When the Buddha taught that there is no self, he meant to deny that we have a permanent, unchanging essence. The idea is that if we analyse ourselves into all of our constituent parts (our physical bodies, beliefs, desires, memories, dispositions and all other psychological tendencies) we will find that each is impermanent; none remains the same across a lifetime. And we will not find a single substance underlying these components that unifies them all as aspects of ‘me’.
Join the conversation