'taming the mind' , page-33

It is a mistake to extrapolate, from that, the Buddha taught there was no soul or 'abiding self'.

Dazed & Confusion says all of the following famous Buddhist teachers are "mistaken"


These, the Buddha pointed out, are neither a being, nor a person, nor a self, nor a soul, nor us, nor they. They are merely elements: earth, water, fire and wind...

Ajahn Chah


That which is called "atta" or "self" corresponds to the Latin word "ego". If the feeling of self-consciousness arises, we call it egoism because once the feeling of. "I" arises it naturally and inevitably gives rise to the feeling of "mine". Therefore. the feeling of self and the feeling of things belonging to self, taken together, is egoism. Ego can be said to be natural to living beings and, moreover, to be their center. If the word "ego" is translated into English, it must be rendered as soul, a word corresponding to the Greek "kentricon" which in English means center. Ego and kentricon being the same thing, the soul (atta) can be regarded as the center of living beings, as their necessary nucleus, and therefore is something that the ordinary person cannot rid themselves of or refrain from.

So it follows that all unenlightened people must experience this feeling of egoism arising continually...Buddhadasa



The Buddha was very uncompromising when he taught anatta and it’s one of the reasons why people find it a bit difficult because there’s no way around. When you read the Buddha’s teachings, there’s no way around coming to the conclusion that there is no-one in here. There is no controller. There is no knower. There is no doer. There is no self, no soul, no being. And this uncompromising conclusion which you get from looking at the teachings causes you to actually investigate because so much other teachings of the Buddha seem to be so powerful, so deep, so true, so effective, and this one, seems to be the hard one. It is the hard one because on the realisation of anatta, of uncovering the illusion of self that, the whole path towards enlightenment revolves. This is the insight, the discovery, the understanding which changes one from just being a person who wanders around the samsara, lifetime after lifetime, to one who is on the way out of the samsara, inevitably, certainly, surely bound for Nibbana. It’s the crux, the fulcrum, of the whole practice. Why is it difficult to see? It’s difficult to see because we don’t want to see it. Brahmavamso