@InfraBlue,
InfraBlue wrote:
By reification, are you saying that the "self" is not a real thing?
Well according to the Buddha, he taught that there are five aspects that make up a being. These are the five skandhas and if you investigate them, none of them have a self or contain the self.
Let me use an analogy to explain it. A car is made up of parts, lets simplify it by saying a car is made up of only five parts. A motor, wheels, a frame, steering wheel and seats. If you were to disconnect these parts would you still call it a car? If you remove the motor, would you refer to the motor as a car? If you tossed out the seats would you still call it a car? No. It is ONLY a car when all the parts are assembled and functioning. Remove any one of them and the car ceases to be a car.
The five skandhas are form, sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness. There is no self contained within any of them. It is only by them coming together does a being arise. Without them there is no being. It really needs to be examined to fully understand it. Just a basic understanding will still leave you assuming that there is a self, and that the self IS the culmination of these five aspects. Or you may assume that the Buddha is wrong, these five aspects are in error.
This is the whole point in Buddhism. Once you see that these are the case and the self is an illusion it puts you on the path. Just believing them to be the case is not enough. You have to see into them.
But to say "you are your self" is just a tautology. What if I lose an arm or leg? Am I any less me? What about the Ship of Theseus paradox?
