Recognition of not-self ☀️ bright
In The Path of Dhamma (Dhammapada)
DhammaPada verses 44-59 share on the trainee, nature of the body, what happens to one who dwells with an attached mind, how a sage should wander in village, one who speaks on virtue and wisdom though various similes. The fragrance of virtue is compared to the fragrance of flowers, and the virtue of the noble person is said to spread in all directions.
Dhammapada verses 273–289 emphasize the eightfold path as the foremost way to liberation, seeing the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self nature of all things. Further, the verses mention the relation of meditation and wisdom, They mention restraint, how wisdom through meditation, on cutting off the forest as well as the undergrowth, and making swift effort to purify by the way of practice leading to Nibbāna.
In Middle Length Discourses (Majjhima Nikāya)
The Dhamma can be like a snake that bites if grasped wrongly. This discourse tackles the danger of misinterpretation, sparked by a bhikkhu who claimed sensual pleasures weren't obstructions. The Buddha warns that a “wrong grasp” of the teachings leads to harm, while the right grasp leads to liberation. The ultimate goal is to use the teachings like a raft to cross over, letting go of all views—especially the view of a permanent self—to end suffering.
The Buddha instructs Rāhula on how to regard the five aggregates as not-self which he immediately applies to practice. The Buddha then teaches Rāhula on how to meditate on the elements, the divine abodes, unattractiveness, impermanence, and mindfulness of breathing to abandon unwholesome mental qualities and cultivate wholesome mental qualities.
The Buddha teaches a progressive path of mental refinements to transcend the world, moving through the imperturbable and the formless attainments. He warns Ānanda that even the highest equanimity can become a “best clinging.”
The Buddha teaches about the person who has had “a single auspicious night”. One who neither revives the past nor places hope in the future, but diligently discerns present phenomena with insight—without taking them as self, and practices with urgency today without being carried away by presently arisen phenomena, that wise one is one who has had a single auspicious night.
Venerable Ānanda is reciting the exposition and summary about the person who has had “a single auspicious night” to the bhikkhus in the assembly hall.
The Buddha systematically deconstructs sensory experience into six sets of six. By demonstrating the constant arising and passing away of the sense bases, consciousness, contact, felt experience, and craving, he dismantles the illusion of self, revealing the path to liberation.
In Connected Discourses (Saṁyutta Nikāya)
The Buddha uses a simile of a bronze cup of beverage mixed with poison to illustrate how craving for agreeable and pleasant sense experiences leads to acquisition and suffering, while wisely seeing their impermanent nature leads to the end of suffering through the abandoning of craving.
The Buddha shares a reflection on the three characteristics of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and not-self for the five aggregates of form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness.
Only after fully understanding the gratification, drawback, and escape in the case of form, felt experience, perception, intentional constructs, and consciousness, the Buddha declared that he had attained the unsurpassed perfect awakening.
The Buddha describes on the impermanent, stressful and not-self nature of the five aggregates of form, feeling, perception, formations and consciousness.
A teaching on the fearless resolve that severs the lower fetters, followed by the exact inquiry needed to immediately wear away mental defilements.
The Buddha shares verses on the great heroes who wander freely, taintless, boldly roaring their lion’s roar.
The Buddha explains that those recollecting past lives are merely recalling one or more of the five aggregates. He defines each aggregate and shows how a noble disciple sees them as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not suitable to identify with, leading to disenchantment, dispassion, and liberation.
When wanderers press Anurādha to define an Awakened One after death, he struggles to answer. He approaches the Buddha for guidance, and the Buddha uses an inquiry based on the five aggregates to demonstrate that an Awakened One cannot be found even in this very life.
“One who sees the Dhamma sees me.” When the dying Vakkali regrets not visiting the Master, the Buddha offers a radical correction: the physical body is not the Buddha. It ends with a dramatic search by Māra the Evil One, who hunts in vain for a consciousness that has found no footing.
Imprisoned by the aggregates, the uninstructed ordinary person does not see the near shore or the far shore, grows old in bondage, dies in bondage, and passes from this world to the next still bound.
Which things should a virtuous bhikkhu carefully attend to? Venerable Sāriputta explains how a bhikkhu at each stage of awakening should carefully attend to the five aggregates that are subject to clinging.
By clinging to the five aggregates, one experiences pleasure and pain.
When the venerable Ānanda wishes to go for a solitary retreat, the Buddha teaches him to contemplate the five aggregates subject to appropriation and being assumed as one’s self.
Recognizing the six internal sense bases as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self leads to disenchantment, dispassion, and subsequently, liberation.
When one learns that “nothing is worth holding on to,” they directly know and completely comprehend all things. By seeing the sense bases, their objects, and resulting feelings as not oneself, ignorance is abandoned and true knowledge arises.
The world is empty of self and what belongs to self.
A dying lay disciple, Dīghāvu, invites the Buddha to his sickbed. Already established in the four factors of stream entry and in deep insight into impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and dispassion, he receives a final exhortation to keep his mind on the Dhamma. After his passing, the Buddha declares Dīghāvu a non-returner who will attain final Nibbāna.
In Numerical Discourses (Aṅguttara Nikāya)
Before his awakening, the Bodhisatta reflected on the gratification in the world, the drawback in the world, and the escape from it.
The Buddha describes these four inversions of perception, thought, and view, and the four non-inversions. An uninstructed ordinary person perceives permanence in the impermanent, pleasure in the unsatisfactory, a self in what is impersonal, and beauty in the unattractive.
The Buddha shares the four kinds of persons — those who cultivate loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity while perceiving drawbacks — and the difference in their rebirths.
The Buddha teaches the importance of frequently reflecting upon the five subjects of 1) aging, 2) illness, 3) death, 4) separation from everyone and everything dear and pleasing, and 5) one’s relation to one’s actions.
Seven perceptions, of 1) unattractiveness, 2) death, 3) unpleasantness of food, 4) non-delight in the whole world, 5) impermanence, 6) unsatisfactoriness in impermanence, and 7) not-self in unsatisfactoriness, that when cultivated and frequently practiced lead to the deathless, in brief.
Seven perceptions, of 1) unattractiveness, 2) death, 3) unpleasantness of food, 4) non-delight in the whole world, 5) impermanence, 6) unsatisfactoriness in impermanence, and 7) not-self in unsatisfactoriness, that when cultivated and frequently practiced lead to the deathless, in detail.
In Inspired Utterances (Udāna)
After his full awakening, the Buddha surveys the world, seeing beings aflame with passion, aversion, and delusion. He reflects on the nature of the world and the suffering inherent in existence. By seeing the world as it truly is, he points to the path of liberation.
When the venerable Meghiya seeks solitude for meditation before his mind is mature, unwholesome thoughts arise and disturb him. Returning to the Buddha, he learns of five conditions that lead to the ripening of the undeveloped mind, beginning with good friendship.