A Discourse on the Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta

All teachings or beliefs outside of the Buddha’s Dispensation fall under the category of beliefs in a self, attā. They hold to the view that there is such a thing as a soul, a living entity, which actually resides in all living creatures.

In the midst of the world holding fast to notions of self or soul the Buddha declared, “Attā, soul or living entity, is not a reality; it is only a conventional nomencla-ture. What really exists, in the ultimate sense, is a continuous flux of corporeal and mental processes, impersonal phenomena.”

It is essential to thoroughly and comprehensively understand anattā, the doctrine of impersonality propounded by the Buddha. He first touched on the doctrine in his elaboration of the Four Noble Truths in the Dhammacakka Sutta. He touched on it again when he taught the Hemavata Sutta, explaining that “with the arising of the six sense bases, (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind) there arises a world, a being.” Then the Buddha brought forth the doctrine of not-self explicitly and comprehensively in this Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta.

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