The Quest for Self-identity

Abstract

From very early times until the present day, the Theravāda interpretation of anattā has been the subject of much controversy. The common man finds it unintelligible and incompatible with his strong belief in rebirth. Thus throughout the history of Buddhism there has been a quest for a concept of the identity and continuity of the self that steers clear of nihilism and eternalism. This gave rise to different schools of thought that sought to circumvent the difficulties inherent in the doctrine of anattā. As Edward Conze remarks:

Among all the tenets of Buddhism none has occasioned more controversy and misunderstanding than the anātman theory, which suggests that nowhere can a ‘self’ be apprehended. The prospect of complete self-extinction, welcomed by the true Buddhist, seems so bleak and arid to many students of the Dharma that they dream up a ‘true Self’ which, they say, will be realized by the extinction of the false, empirical self. This misinterpretation has proved so popular in Europe that one may be tempted to regard it as either an expression of the typical concern of modern Europeans for ‘individuality’ and ‘personality’, or as a remnant of the Christian belief in an immortal ‘soul’. In fact it is not confined to European Christians or ex-Christians. Everywhere, even in India, it voices the murmuring of the unregenerate Adam when faced with the more magnificent vistas of Buddhist thought. Two centuries after the Buddha’s Nirvana it gave rise to the sect of the Puggalavādins.’¹