The Buddha Project Reply To: The permanent, unitary and independent self
As Buddhists, we believe that Right Speech takes priority over Free Speech. Put simply, Right Speech means abstaining from gossip and talk which is false, malicious, or harsh. Write only what you believe to be true and relevant, voicing your opinion with kindness and patience. Avoid worldly, partisan, or discriminatory topics and remarks that are patriarchal, misogynist, sexist, racist, anti-semitic, pro-nazi, bio essentialist, xenophobic, transphobic, homophobic or any other kind of hateful views even if such advocacy is couched in terms of ‘discussing the texts’ or ‘maintaining tradition’.
By participating in the forum, you agree to adhere to these guidelines and help maintain the forum as a supportive and enriching place for Dharma discourse. Moderators will be free to delete offensive content without having defend their choices.
If you have a question, need any sort of help, or want to inform us about offensive content or behavior, please contact us at info@thebuddhaproject.org.
When I started studying Buddhism, about 20 years ago, I had left behind a Christian upbringing and had also spent a few years inwardly contemplating reality after finding myself unable to identify with my parental religion. One of the first things I told my late teacher was that I found most parts of Buddhism matched what I myself had found in my investigations, which is why I was interested in learning everything I could about Buddhism. I did however have one problem. Buddhism did not recognise the soul. At that stage, I did not recognise a Western/Christian style soul. To me, ‘soul’ meant the deepest innermost level of my minds – truth/wisdom/knowledge/reality, as opposed to superficial minds dealing with thought, emotion, and sensing. Coming from that viewpoint into Buddhism, I found it easy to accept that there was an ever-changing level of mind that was labeled ‘mental continuum’, as the other levels of mind obviously did change – such as thought, emotion, sensings, etc. My only struggle was working out how come such as reality/truth/wisdom changed because these seemed like rocks as to the waters of other mind levels.