The teaching of anattā (“not-self”) points to one of the three fundamental areas of liberating insight taught by the Buddha (along with the teachings on impermanence and on suffering or dukkha). Yet anattā can very challenging and confusing for contemporary practitioners. Is there “no self” (as anattā is sometimes translated)? How do we make sense of our feelings of individuality, identity, ancestry, and vocation? How do we address our own personal experiences of woundedness, trauma, and oppression? Are these all simply to be “transcended”? How is a sense of self actually in many ways important for contemporary spiritual development, and how is working with our own individual conditioning, whether psychological or social in origin, central to our liberation? How do we integrate attending to such conditioning with opening as well to the power and energy of experiences beyond the habitual sense of self? In this daylong, we will explore these vital questions primarily in a practical way. Using the metaphors of “thinning the self” and working with a “thick” sense of self, we will cover three aspects of practice: (1) cultivating, in several ways, the “thinning” of the self, both in meditation and in everyday life, including working with the Five Skandhas or “aggregates” of experience; (2) tracking and working with different manifestations of a “thick” sense of self, both as appearing in experience and as hidden to awareness; and (3) opening to experiencing beyond a fixed sense of self, as awareness, compassion, and responsiveness deepen.

This is the fourth talk in a speaker series titled Fundamental Buddhist Principles 2015. As we observe our daily and meditative experience, the mind naturally begins to notice "universal" qualities of experience: impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dhkkha), and emptiness (anatta). These three - especially impermanence - are gates to spiritual freedom. It's how we relate and react to these three characteristics that determine whether we suffer or be at peace.

Background of Teaching on anattatā - dimensions of impersonality - psychological models of self and possible confusions

Vipallasa Sutta: Understanding perception and the ways in which we have errors in understanding of the three characteristics (anicca, anatta, dukkha) and asubha that keep us spinning in delusion. Doggies and empty boats.

We examine practicing with the Three Characteristics, particularly with Dukkha (suffering) and anatta (not-self). Then we explore "spacious awareness," a type of non-conceptual awareness beyond the splits of knower and known, particularly in the teachings of the Buddha and the Thai Forest tradition, with some reference to Tibetan and Zen traditions. Thirdly, we outline a number of ways to access this kind of awareness.

Beyond developing samadhi and mindfulness, we can turn our attention to developing liberating insight. While these are many insights that can come through meditation, the insight around anicca (change), dukkha (unsatisfactoriness) and anatta (non self) address our compulsion to crave and cling.