Anatt1 is the last of the ‘three characteristics’ (ti-lakkha7a) which is according to Buddhism the general characteristics (samañña-lakkha7a) of the universe and everything in it. Like the teaching of the four Noble Truths, it is the teaching peculiar to Buddhas (buddh1nam samukkamsik1 desan1: M I 380).
Etymologically, anatt1 consists of the negative prefix an plus att1 (cf. Vedic Sanskrit 1tman). There are two Pali forms of the word, namely, att1 (instr. Attan1) and atta (instr. attena). Neither form seems to be used in the plural in the Tipi5aka.
In the texts and the commentaries the words att1 and atta are used in several senses:
(i) chiefly meaning ’one’s self’ or ’one’s own’ e.g. attahit1ya pa5ipanno no parahit1ya (acting in one’s own interest, not in the interests of others); or attan1 v1 kata9 s1dhu (what is done by one’s own self is good);
(ii) meaning ’one’s own person,’ the personality, including both body and mind, e.g., in attabh1va (life), attapa5il1bha (birth in some form of life);
(iii) self, as a subtle metaphysical entity, ’soul,’ e. g., atthi me att1 (Do I have a ’soul’?), suñña9 ida9 attena v1 attaniyena v1 (this is void of a ’self’ or anything to do with a ’self’) etc.
It is with the third meaning that we are here concerned, the entity that is conceived and sought and made the subject of a certain class of views called in early Buddhist texts attadi55hi att1nudi55hi (self-views or heresy of self) and attag1ha (misconception regarding self).
The Sanskrit word 1tman, of which att1 is the Pali counterpart, is found in the earliest Vedic hymns. Its derivation is rather obscure. It is variously derived from an to breathe; at to move; or v1 to blow. It appears in $g Veda which means breathing or the vital essence. This is eventually taken up as the principle of life and sensation, i.e. the soul. It is that which vivifies the body to be the essential part of the living individual. !tman in the sense of breath is correlated with wind, i.e. the breath of the gods. All the worlds are an emanation of this great universal self. Therefore the word 1tman is sometimes held to have meant ‘breath’ in the sense of ‘life’, or what might be called ‘self’ or ‘soul’ in modern usage.
Etymologically, anatt1 consists of the negative prefix an plus att1 (cf. Vedic Sanskrit 1tman). There are two Pali forms of the word, namely, att1 (instr. Attan1) and atta (instr. attena). Neither form seems to be used in the plural in the Tipi5aka.
In the texts and the commentaries the words att1 and atta are used in several senses:
(i) chiefly meaning ’one’s self’ or ’one’s own’ e.g. attahit1ya pa5ipanno no parahit1ya (acting in one’s own interest, not in the interests of others); or attan1 v1 kata9 s1dhu (what is done by one’s own self is good);
(ii) meaning ’one’s own person,’ the personality, including both body and mind, e.g., in attabh1va (life), attapa5il1bha (birth in some form of life);
(iii) self, as a subtle metaphysical entity, ’soul,’ e. g., atthi me att1 (Do I have a ’soul’?), suñña9 ida9 attena v1 attaniyena v1 (this is void of a ’self’ or anything to do with a ’self’) etc.
It is with the third meaning that we are here concerned, the entity that is conceived and sought and made the subject of a certain class of views called in early Buddhist texts attadi55hi att1nudi55hi (self-views or heresy of self) and attag1ha (misconception regarding self).
The Sanskrit word 1tman, of which att1 is the Pali counterpart, is found in the earliest Vedic hymns. Its derivation is rather obscure. It is variously derived from an to breathe; at to move; or v1 to blow. It appears in $g Veda which means breathing or the vital essence. This is eventually taken up as the principle of life and sensation, i.e. the soul. It is that which vivifies the body to be the essential part of the living individual. !tman in the sense of breath is correlated with wind, i.e. the breath of the gods. All the worlds are an emanation of this great universal self. Therefore the word 1tman is sometimes held to have meant ‘breath’ in the sense of ‘life’, or what might be called ‘self’ or ‘soul’ in modern usage.
The Hindus call the sun the 1tman of all that moves or stands still and the soma drink is said to be the 1tman of the sacrifice. This 1tman was something that could leave the body and return and, in that connection, manas was used as a synonym (e.g. Rig Veda V 58).
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1. A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, p.135
2. $g-V. 7.87.2: 1tm1 te v1ta#.....
3. $g-V. 10.168.4: 1tm1 dev1n19 bhuvanasya garbha#... – self is the womb of gods and the world.
Such conceptions, coming down from the earliest times, were continued in later systems such as those found in the Upanishads.
Buddhist or non-Buddhist, man has the concept of the nature of man and his destiny centre largely in the belief of soul. In most systems of religion or philosophy this belief is a doctrine which has been variously defined. Some call it the principle of thought and action in man or that which thinks, wills and feels, knows and sees and, also, that which appropriates and owns. It is that which both acts and initiates action.
Generally speaking, it is conceived as a perdurable entity, the permanent unchanging factor within the concrete personality which somehow unites and maintains its successive activities. It is also the subject of conscious spiritual experience. It has, in addition, strong religious associations and various further implications, such as being independent of the body, immaterial and eternal.
The old Indian religion was a kind of pantheism with Brahman (eternal, absolute, etc.) as the first cause of the universe. The manifestation of Brahman was sometimes personified and called Brahm1 (God or the Great Self). Every human being had in him a part of Brahman, called 1tman or the little self, i.e. the embodied self j2v1tman; the dweller in the body (dehin) of a being. It is the innermost essence of an individualized existence known as the individual soul. Brahman and 1tman were one, and of the same ’substance.’ Salvation consisted in the little 1tman entering into unity with Brahman. The 1tman was eternal substance, exempt from the vicissitudes of change and incapable of entering into combination with anything else except itself.
The Self
“That desire, that lust, that lure, that craving concerning body, feeling, perception, the activities or consciousness – entangled thereby, fast entangled thereby, therefore is one called a being”.
Beings are a conflux of mind and matter constituted of various mental and material elements. The samussaya (the body; accumulation) is the result of the temporary collocation of the mental and material qualities. They give each living being its outward, visible shape, its individuality. So n1ma-r3pa is termed as the ‘self’ – that which is but the combination of the five groups or aggregates (Skt. pañcaskandha; P. pañcakkhandha). Four of these are psychological (n1manti catt1ro ar3pino khandh1); namely feeling (vedan1), perception (Skt.sa9jñ1, P. saññ1), mental formations (Skt.sa9sk1ra, P.
............................................
4. BG. II.21;XIII.20,21 & 23,XV.16
5. S.III.190: r3pe (vedan1ya….saññ1ya….sa}kh1resu…. viññ1ne…. ) yo chando yo r1go y1 nand2 y1 ta7h1 tatra satto tatra visatto tasm1 satto ti vuccati.
6. T.W.Rhys Davids (1977 – b) p.175 fn.1
7. It is so-called because these five aggregates never found singly but only in conglomerations.
8. Spk.I.50 & Mah1niddesa.435
sankh1r1) and consciousness (Skt. vijñ1na; P. viññ17a). The one which is material (r3pa) is made up of the four great elements (r3panti catt1ro ca mah1bh3t1). Those are earth (pathavi-dh1tu) with the quality of extension; water (1po-dh1tu) with the quality of cohesion; fire (tejo-dh1tu) with the quality of caloricity; and air (v1yu-dh1tu) with the quality of vibration. “Dh1tu (element) is a force of Nature which behaves in accordance with the laws of Nature”.
Matter is classified into three categories: (i) that which are visible (sanidassana9) and can be apprehended by the senses (sappa5igha9) – such as colours and shapes. (ii) that which is not visible but reacts to stimuli (such as the five senses) as well as the objects of sense which can come into contact with the appropriate sense organs (excluding the visual objects which fall into the first category). (iii) that which is neither visible to the naked eye nor apprehensible by senses but whose existence can either be inferred or observed by paranormal vision. Such, for example, are the essences (oj1) of edible food (kabalink1r1h1ra), which are absorbed by our bodies and sustain it. They are called proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins etc., but in the Dhammasangani the essence (oj1) of edible food is classified as subtle (sukhuma) matter, which is not directly observed or apprehended by the sense-organs. The subtle matter of ‘the realm of attenuated matter’ (r3pa-dh1tu) would also fall in this last category.
In the earliest texts r3pa in its widest sense of ‘matter’ as including the organic body as well as the external physical world is defined as ‘what undergoes change’ (ruppati) under the impact of temperature (such as heat and cold), atmospheric changes (such as wind and heat), organic affections (such as hunger which is defined as ‘heat inside the belly’ – udaraggisant1pa), thirst and the changes affected by the bite and sting of gnats and snakes etc.
The interpretation of n1ma-r3pa found in the Sa9yutta-nik1ya is “Feeling, perception, volition, contact, attention – this is called mentality. The four primary elements and the material form derived from them – is called materiality. Thus this mentality and this materiality are together called mentality-materiality”. N1mar3pa as a compound term is used in the suttas to signify the psychophysical organism exclusive of consciousness. So when mentality-materiality is correlated with the five aggregates, materiality is identified with the aggregate of material form (r3pa). Likewise, mentality is associated with the three aggregates of feeling (vedan1), perception (sañña), and mental formations (sa}kh1ra). Consciousness serves as the condition of n1ma-r3pa. All of them are
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9. Mah1niddesa.435. Cf. D.I.76; M.I.500; S.V.369: “k1yo r3p2 c1tumah1-bh3tiko….”
10. Ten Suttas from D2gha Nik1ya – Long Discourses of the Buddha, p.314,fn.1
11. K.N. Jayatilleke, The Buddhist Conception of Matter & the Material World, (Wheel 162-164) p.69: The
general definition that is adopted in the commentaries is that matter is so called because “it undergoes
change, i.e. becomes subject to modifications under the impact of cold and heat etc. – ruppat2ti s2ta-
u7h1d2hi vik1ra9 1pajjati.
12. S.II.3~4 : Vedan1 saññ1 cetan1 phasso manasik1ro, ida9 vuccati n1ma9. Catt1ro ca mah1bh3t1 cetunnañca mah1bh3t1na9 up1d1ya r3pa9, ida9 vuccati r3pa9. Iti id1ñ ca n1mam idañ ca r3pa9. Ida9 vuccati n1mar3pa9
13. Bhikkhu Bodhi,The Great Discourse of Causation – the Mah1nid1na Sutta and its Commentaries, p.15
mutually dependent (S.II.114).
The components of the mind are classified into four branches, namely (i) feeling or hedonic tone (vedan1), (ii) sense-impressions, images or ideas and concepts (saññ1), (iii) conative activities and their concomitants (sa}kh1r1) and (iv) intellectual activity (viññ17a)
Vedana is the feeling-component, which accompanies our impressions and ideas. They would range from the pleasant to the unpleasant through the neutral. Its source may be physical or psychological. When we cut our finger we feel physical pain. When we hear that a close friend or relative has died suddenly the anguish we experience has a psychological origin. These feelings are classified as six according as they originate in the five senses or in the mind with an idea or concept. Since these may be pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, there would be eighteen in all.
As associated with one’s family life or with a life of renunciation, there would be thirty six, and as past, present or future one hundred and eight in all. Likewise, pleasure may be material (amisa) as being associated with the satisfaction of needs or wants, or spiritual (niramisa) as being associated with a life of selflessness, compassion and understanding. The pleasures experienced in the mystical states of consciousness, personal or impersonal (i. e. rupa or arupa jhanas) are classified in an ascending scale each one being “higher and more exquisite” (uttaritaram) than the lower. Nirvana is the “highest happiness” (paramam sukham) but the happiness in it is not conditioned. It is not subject to the presence of any conditioned vedana although the happiness can be positively experienced (vimuttisukha-patisamvedi). (for detailed information refer M.59 & 137 // MLDB fn.616)
The experience of conditioned pleasant, unpleasant and neutral hedonic tone is associated with the impressions and ideas we have as a result of sense-contacts or the conceptual activity of the mind in imagining, remembering, reasoning, listening to others, reading books etc. These impressions, ideas and concepts constitute sañña.
The last on the list of mental factors is viññana which covers knowledge and belief. Knowledge of moral and spiritual matters constitutes pañña. This involves greater depth of understanding regarding the nature of reality. The difference between sañña, viññana and pañña is well illustrated in the Visuddhimagga by the simile of the coin. When a child sees a coin it is only the colour and shape that interests him. A peasant knows its value as a means of exchange. A master of the mint knows its exact value and nature since he can distinguish between a counterfeit coin and a genuine one. There is a wider sense in which the word viññana is used but we shall examine that below.
Sankhara
We have left out the word sankhara, which in a psychological context is used in three senses. Firstly in the sense of volitions, because this is the sense in which it is used in the sentence avijja paccaya sankhara, which means that our volitions are conditioned by our true or false beliefs, which constitute ignorance. We sometimes think rightly and do good, or think wrongly and commit evil. We tread in samsara like a blind man with a stick, who sometimes goes on the right track and sometimes on the wrong track in trying to reach his destination.
In the second sense, sankhara is used to denote our connative or purposive activities. They may be bodily processes and may include reflex actions such as breathing (assasa-passasa) as well as conditioned behaviour such as habits. They may be verbal activities involving cogitative and discursive thinking in waking life or even in dreams. Finally, they may be purposive thinking or ideation involving impressions, ideas or concepts associated with feelings. These are called kaya-sankhara, vaci-sankhara and citta-sankhara respectively.
We may perform these actions or indulge in these activities aware that we are doing so (sampajañña) or unaware that we are doing so (asampajañña). We can walk, aware or unaware that we are walking. We can talk aware that we are talking or as in sleep unaware that we are talking. We can think or have trains of thought aware of what we are doing or unaware of what we are doing. The latter would constitute unconscious mental processes.
Likewise, we perform these activities with varying degrees of control. Normally we have no control over our reflexes but it is said that the yogin who has attained the fourth jhana has them under control. Lastly these activities may be initiated by an internal stimulus (sayam-katam) or an external stimulus (param-katam).
The third sense of sankhara denotes all those factors which accompany conscious volitional activity. If, for example, we are bent on doing a good deed these may be right beliefs (sammaditthi) some degree of awareness (satindriya), a quantum of selflessness etc.
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1. A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, p.135
2. $g-V. 7.87.2: 1tm1 te v1ta#.....
3. $g-V. 10.168.4: 1tm1 dev1n19 bhuvanasya garbha#... – self is the womb of gods and the world.
Such conceptions, coming down from the earliest times, were continued in later systems such as those found in the Upanishads.
Buddhist or non-Buddhist, man has the concept of the nature of man and his destiny centre largely in the belief of soul. In most systems of religion or philosophy this belief is a doctrine which has been variously defined. Some call it the principle of thought and action in man or that which thinks, wills and feels, knows and sees and, also, that which appropriates and owns. It is that which both acts and initiates action.
Generally speaking, it is conceived as a perdurable entity, the permanent unchanging factor within the concrete personality which somehow unites and maintains its successive activities. It is also the subject of conscious spiritual experience. It has, in addition, strong religious associations and various further implications, such as being independent of the body, immaterial and eternal.
The old Indian religion was a kind of pantheism with Brahman (eternal, absolute, etc.) as the first cause of the universe. The manifestation of Brahman was sometimes personified and called Brahm1 (God or the Great Self). Every human being had in him a part of Brahman, called 1tman or the little self, i.e. the embodied self j2v1tman; the dweller in the body (dehin) of a being. It is the innermost essence of an individualized existence known as the individual soul. Brahman and 1tman were one, and of the same ’substance.’ Salvation consisted in the little 1tman entering into unity with Brahman. The 1tman was eternal substance, exempt from the vicissitudes of change and incapable of entering into combination with anything else except itself.
The Self
“That desire, that lust, that lure, that craving concerning body, feeling, perception, the activities or consciousness – entangled thereby, fast entangled thereby, therefore is one called a being”.
Beings are a conflux of mind and matter constituted of various mental and material elements. The samussaya (the body; accumulation) is the result of the temporary collocation of the mental and material qualities. They give each living being its outward, visible shape, its individuality. So n1ma-r3pa is termed as the ‘self’ – that which is but the combination of the five groups or aggregates (Skt. pañcaskandha; P. pañcakkhandha). Four of these are psychological (n1manti catt1ro ar3pino khandh1); namely feeling (vedan1), perception (Skt.sa9jñ1, P. saññ1), mental formations (Skt.sa9sk1ra, P.
............................................
4. BG. II.21;XIII.20,21 & 23,XV.16
5. S.III.190: r3pe (vedan1ya….saññ1ya….sa}kh1resu…. viññ1ne…. ) yo chando yo r1go y1 nand2 y1 ta7h1 tatra satto tatra visatto tasm1 satto ti vuccati.
6. T.W.Rhys Davids (1977 – b) p.175 fn.1
7. It is so-called because these five aggregates never found singly but only in conglomerations.
8. Spk.I.50 & Mah1niddesa.435
sankh1r1) and consciousness (Skt. vijñ1na; P. viññ17a). The one which is material (r3pa) is made up of the four great elements (r3panti catt1ro ca mah1bh3t1). Those are earth (pathavi-dh1tu) with the quality of extension; water (1po-dh1tu) with the quality of cohesion; fire (tejo-dh1tu) with the quality of caloricity; and air (v1yu-dh1tu) with the quality of vibration. “Dh1tu (element) is a force of Nature which behaves in accordance with the laws of Nature”.
Matter is classified into three categories: (i) that which are visible (sanidassana9) and can be apprehended by the senses (sappa5igha9) – such as colours and shapes. (ii) that which is not visible but reacts to stimuli (such as the five senses) as well as the objects of sense which can come into contact with the appropriate sense organs (excluding the visual objects which fall into the first category). (iii) that which is neither visible to the naked eye nor apprehensible by senses but whose existence can either be inferred or observed by paranormal vision. Such, for example, are the essences (oj1) of edible food (kabalink1r1h1ra), which are absorbed by our bodies and sustain it. They are called proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins etc., but in the Dhammasangani the essence (oj1) of edible food is classified as subtle (sukhuma) matter, which is not directly observed or apprehended by the sense-organs. The subtle matter of ‘the realm of attenuated matter’ (r3pa-dh1tu) would also fall in this last category.
In the earliest texts r3pa in its widest sense of ‘matter’ as including the organic body as well as the external physical world is defined as ‘what undergoes change’ (ruppati) under the impact of temperature (such as heat and cold), atmospheric changes (such as wind and heat), organic affections (such as hunger which is defined as ‘heat inside the belly’ – udaraggisant1pa), thirst and the changes affected by the bite and sting of gnats and snakes etc.
The interpretation of n1ma-r3pa found in the Sa9yutta-nik1ya is “Feeling, perception, volition, contact, attention – this is called mentality. The four primary elements and the material form derived from them – is called materiality. Thus this mentality and this materiality are together called mentality-materiality”. N1mar3pa as a compound term is used in the suttas to signify the psychophysical organism exclusive of consciousness. So when mentality-materiality is correlated with the five aggregates, materiality is identified with the aggregate of material form (r3pa). Likewise, mentality is associated with the three aggregates of feeling (vedan1), perception (sañña), and mental formations (sa}kh1ra). Consciousness serves as the condition of n1ma-r3pa. All of them are
....................................
9. Mah1niddesa.435. Cf. D.I.76; M.I.500; S.V.369: “k1yo r3p2 c1tumah1-bh3tiko….”
10. Ten Suttas from D2gha Nik1ya – Long Discourses of the Buddha, p.314,fn.1
11. K.N. Jayatilleke, The Buddhist Conception of Matter & the Material World, (Wheel 162-164) p.69: The
general definition that is adopted in the commentaries is that matter is so called because “it undergoes
change, i.e. becomes subject to modifications under the impact of cold and heat etc. – ruppat2ti s2ta-
u7h1d2hi vik1ra9 1pajjati.
12. S.II.3~4 : Vedan1 saññ1 cetan1 phasso manasik1ro, ida9 vuccati n1ma9. Catt1ro ca mah1bh3t1 cetunnañca mah1bh3t1na9 up1d1ya r3pa9, ida9 vuccati r3pa9. Iti id1ñ ca n1mam idañ ca r3pa9. Ida9 vuccati n1mar3pa9
13. Bhikkhu Bodhi,The Great Discourse of Causation – the Mah1nid1na Sutta and its Commentaries, p.15
mutually dependent (S.II.114).
The components of the mind are classified into four branches, namely (i) feeling or hedonic tone (vedan1), (ii) sense-impressions, images or ideas and concepts (saññ1), (iii) conative activities and their concomitants (sa}kh1r1) and (iv) intellectual activity (viññ17a)
Vedana is the feeling-component, which accompanies our impressions and ideas. They would range from the pleasant to the unpleasant through the neutral. Its source may be physical or psychological. When we cut our finger we feel physical pain. When we hear that a close friend or relative has died suddenly the anguish we experience has a psychological origin. These feelings are classified as six according as they originate in the five senses or in the mind with an idea or concept. Since these may be pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, there would be eighteen in all.
As associated with one’s family life or with a life of renunciation, there would be thirty six, and as past, present or future one hundred and eight in all. Likewise, pleasure may be material (amisa) as being associated with the satisfaction of needs or wants, or spiritual (niramisa) as being associated with a life of selflessness, compassion and understanding. The pleasures experienced in the mystical states of consciousness, personal or impersonal (i. e. rupa or arupa jhanas) are classified in an ascending scale each one being “higher and more exquisite” (uttaritaram) than the lower. Nirvana is the “highest happiness” (paramam sukham) but the happiness in it is not conditioned. It is not subject to the presence of any conditioned vedana although the happiness can be positively experienced (vimuttisukha-patisamvedi). (for detailed information refer M.59 & 137 // MLDB fn.616)
The experience of conditioned pleasant, unpleasant and neutral hedonic tone is associated with the impressions and ideas we have as a result of sense-contacts or the conceptual activity of the mind in imagining, remembering, reasoning, listening to others, reading books etc. These impressions, ideas and concepts constitute sañña.
The last on the list of mental factors is viññana which covers knowledge and belief. Knowledge of moral and spiritual matters constitutes pañña. This involves greater depth of understanding regarding the nature of reality. The difference between sañña, viññana and pañña is well illustrated in the Visuddhimagga by the simile of the coin. When a child sees a coin it is only the colour and shape that interests him. A peasant knows its value as a means of exchange. A master of the mint knows its exact value and nature since he can distinguish between a counterfeit coin and a genuine one. There is a wider sense in which the word viññana is used but we shall examine that below.
Sankhara
We have left out the word sankhara, which in a psychological context is used in three senses. Firstly in the sense of volitions, because this is the sense in which it is used in the sentence avijja paccaya sankhara, which means that our volitions are conditioned by our true or false beliefs, which constitute ignorance. We sometimes think rightly and do good, or think wrongly and commit evil. We tread in samsara like a blind man with a stick, who sometimes goes on the right track and sometimes on the wrong track in trying to reach his destination.
In the second sense, sankhara is used to denote our connative or purposive activities. They may be bodily processes and may include reflex actions such as breathing (assasa-passasa) as well as conditioned behaviour such as habits. They may be verbal activities involving cogitative and discursive thinking in waking life or even in dreams. Finally, they may be purposive thinking or ideation involving impressions, ideas or concepts associated with feelings. These are called kaya-sankhara, vaci-sankhara and citta-sankhara respectively.
We may perform these actions or indulge in these activities aware that we are doing so (sampajañña) or unaware that we are doing so (asampajañña). We can walk, aware or unaware that we are walking. We can talk aware that we are talking or as in sleep unaware that we are talking. We can think or have trains of thought aware of what we are doing or unaware of what we are doing. The latter would constitute unconscious mental processes.
Likewise, we perform these activities with varying degrees of control. Normally we have no control over our reflexes but it is said that the yogin who has attained the fourth jhana has them under control. Lastly these activities may be initiated by an internal stimulus (sayam-katam) or an external stimulus (param-katam).
The third sense of sankhara denotes all those factors which accompany conscious volitional activity. If, for example, we are bent on doing a good deed these may be right beliefs (sammaditthi) some degree of awareness (satindriya), a quantum of selflessness etc.
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