no-self / not-self

In inSelf yoga, there is a coreSelf which is perpetual. This self is denied in some other meditation sects and that is fine. Merely because some other sect denies this or some other teacher does so, does not mean that one cannot learn from that other sect or teacher. There may be some other information/experience in another sect which is useful to the inSelf yogi. In which case he/she should not be close minded and arrogant towards the other sect.

We have to accept that this creation has much variation. It will continue like this till it reaches its end. There is variation in personality. That alone causes difference of opinion and closemindedness. Hence an inSelf yogi should break the habit of being dogmatic. Buddha was vague about self and not-self but over all his proposal was not-self or no-self. But this does not mean that one cannot learn from Buddha. There is much that one can learn from him. One reason for this is that in certain areas of the yoga disciplines, he excelled everybody, so much so that in the future no one in this particular cycle of manifestation will outperform him. Why do I say that?

It is because when we read of his inner conquest with the adjuncts of the psyche, we are amazed at what he did and with the details of his psychic perception. You cannot see the skeleton of the person who stands near to you but an Xray machine can perceive it. The machine has an ability which you do not have. Buddha has very keen and distance subtle perception and that is how we know of his superior practice.

It breaks down to this. Those who feel that there is no self, should find a teacher who supports that belief. Those who feel that there is self, should find someone who supports that belief. If in the progression each finds evidence that disproves, then the person is free to change opinion and also free to change the teacher selected for instructions.

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In inSelf yoga the only temporary self is the conventional self which is the identity which one finds oneself to be and which develops socially after birth of the present body. However even this temporary self is not dismissed as mere illusion because we find that it is binding. Hence in inSelf yoga that temporary self is taken seriously and figures into the calculation.

Besides this temporary self there is a coreSelf which serves as the basis for the temporary self and which though it is different to the temporary self, is affected by that temporary identity complex.

inSelf yogis are advised to figure both the temporary self and the coreSelf but with the coreSelf being given emphasis because it is proposed as permanent. Permanent does not mean that it is always conscious or that it is absolute unto itself. It just means that it is eternal as a subjective reality and not necessarily as an objective reality.

The yogi must take responsibility for the temporary self and also for the temporary identities he/she assumed in previous lives and must negotiate through this existence in the best possible least harmful way. At the same time, he/she must work to free the permanent self from its submission to the temporary self.

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My personal view is that denial of a self means absolutely nothing. None of the teachers who profess it and these include Gautam Buddha ever relinquished their selves in fact because they had disciples and kept themselves as selves so long as their bodies existed.

If there is an opinion, there is a self. That is my view.

Even the obvious temporary self which is the identity of the body in human society is something to recon with because we are held accountable for it. There is a whole discourse about dharma or righteous lifestyle and that concerns the behavior of the temporary self. Why bother to do disciplines and to restrict oneself for a temporary self or to eliminate a temporary self? Why deny self when it is all-pervasive on the physical and psychic levels?

My advice: Work to reduce the traumas which one is afflicted with because of the behavior of the temporary self and shift one’s focus and identity to the coreSelf which is the factor on which the temporary self develops.

The sense of identity of the coreSelf seems to be obsessed with creating and maintaining a temporary self. It should instead focus on the core and be content with that as the primary identity. That is the inSelf Yoga.