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===== Anatta ===== The Buddha saw his analysis of dependent origination as a "Middle Way" between "eternalism" (''sassatavada'', the idea that some essence exists eternally) and "annihilationism" (''ucchedavada'', the idea that we go completely out of existence at death).{{sfnp|Siderits|2019}}{{sfnp|Gombrich|2009|p=131}} in this view, persons are just a causal series of impermanent psycho-physical elements,{{sfnp|Siderits|2019}} which are ''[[anatta]]'', without an independent or permanent self.{{sfnp|Hamilton|2000|p=22}} The Buddha instead held that all things in the world of our experience are transient and that there is no unchanging part to a person.{{sfnp|Gombrich|2009|pp=9, 67}} According to Richard Gombrich, the Buddha's position is simply that "everything is process".{{sfnp|Gombrich|2009|p=10}} The [[Buddhist philosophy#Anatta|Buddha's arguments against an unchanging self]] rely on the scheme of the five skandhas, as can be seen in the Pali ''[[Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta]]'' (and its parallels in Gandhari and Chinese)''.''{{sfnp|Hamilton|2000|pp=19–20}}<ref>Andrew Glass, Mark Allon (2007). ''"Four Gandhari Samyuktagama Sutras"'', pp. 5, 15.</ref><ref>Mun-keat Choong (2000), ''"The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism: A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta-Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama",'' Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, p. 59.</ref> In the early texts the Buddha teaches that all five aggregates, including consciousness (''[[Vijñāna|viññana]]'', which was held by Brahmins to be eternal), arise due to dependent origination.{{sfnp|Gombrich|2009|pp=119–120}} Since they are all impermanent, one cannot regard any of the psycho-physical processes as an unchanging self.{{sfnp|Gethin|1998|pp=136–137}}{{sfnp|Siderits|2019}} Even mental processes such as [[Vijñāna|consciousness]] and will (''[[cetana]]'') are seen as being dependently originated and impermanent and thus do not qualify as a self (''atman'').{{sfnp|Siderits|2019}} The Buddha saw the belief in a self as arising from our grasping at and identifying with the various changing phenomena, as well as from ignorance about how things really are.{{sfnp|Gethin|1998|pp=146–147}} Furthermore, the Buddha held that we experience suffering because we hold on to erroneous self views.{{sfnp|Gethin|1998|p=148}}{{sfnp|Hamilton|2000|p=27}} As [[Rupert Gethin]] explains, for the Buddha, a person is {{blockquote|... a complex flow of physical and mental phenomena, but peel away these phenomena and look behind them and one just does not find a constant self that one can call one's own. My sense of self is both logically and emotionally just a label that I impose on these physical and mental phenomena in consequence of their connectedness.{{sfnp|Gethin|1998|p=139}}}} Due to this view (termed ), the Buddha's teaching was opposed to all soul theories of his time, including the Jain theory of a ''"[[jiva]]"'' ("life monad") and the Brahmanical theories of [[Ātman (Hinduism)|atman]] (Pali: ''atta'') and [[purusha]]. All of these theories held that there was an eternal unchanging [[essence]] to a person, which was separate from all changing experiences,{{sfnp|Gethin|1998|pp=134–135}} and which transmigrated from life to life.{{sfnp|Hamilton|2000|p=20}}{{sfnp|Gombrich|2009|pp=62–64}}{{sfnp|Siderits|2019}} The Buddha's [[Anti-essentialism|anti-essentialist]] view still includes an understanding of continuity through rebirth, it is just the rebirth of a process (karma), not an essence like the atman.{{sfnp|Gombrich|2009|pp=73–74}}
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