03: A Concise Introduction To Tibetan Buddhism / John Powers

I would like to write about what I understand Buddhism and think so far except about the question like "all phenomena are selfless" through this book and the difference between Buddhism and other religions.

Introduction
“All phenomena are selfless” signifies that there is no stable existence in this world. In this paper, there are three parts which describes 1) why all phenomena are selfless, 2) what the concept of self influences to us, and 3) how Buddhism differs from other religions.

No Stable Existence
There is no stable existence—this phrase is expressing what Buddhists think. In the viewpoint of Buddhism, everything is changeable without any exceptions. For example, all natures such as plants, fishes and animals including human beings would die but also non-natures such as technology would disappear. Although everything seems stable in a moment, it always changes and nothing in this world can be allowed to be permanent.

This definition of “everything” includes not only visible phenomena such as creatures but also invisible phenomena such as minds. In general, people tend to believe that they have consistent minds. Although they might admit their minds can change, they still comprehend that there is concrete mind and this generates their differences. This idea is self. According to the viewpoint of Buddhism, however, this self is a misconception. Except for nothing, all phenomena are selfless and the idea of self is just a hallucination.

There is a reason why Buddhists assume all phenomena are selfless. They explain that we suffer from a lot of things because we are convinced of a permanent self. Nevertheless all things are impermanent, we tend to understand that our minds are consistent: thus we suffer from all phenomena because of the misunderstanding. In order to avoid suffering, it is essential to accept that there is nothing stable including “self.”

Self Generating Differentiations
The notion of “self” produces some bad influences for monks because “self” differentiate one from another. In other words, “self” separates ourselves into each individual and give each identity. In Buddhism, each existence is just like a shadow generated through the surroundings. It is by far different from a solid existence because our existences are connected with all our surroundings which is totally changeable. Since all environments are continually changing, our existences involving them also should be changing as well. Nevertheless, we tend to believe that we are separated from others and each person is an individual apart from the surroundings at least partly. This notion is the misconception in Buddhism and it keeps us from understanding what emptiness is.

Emptiness in Buddhism is being an entity. For the sake of being emptiness, it is necessary to stop separating us from their environments perfectly. Person is connected with everything and emptiness involves everything. In this sense, the altruism in Buddhism is not hypocritical because it is not exactly for others in the context of Buddhism. For Buddhists, the altruism happens since they think all phenomena are selfless and there is no discrimination there.

The Difference of Buddhism from Other Religions
In Buddhism, all compounded phenomena are impermanent and there is no exception even if it is god. God is the solid symbol which compounds of the religion and it is definitely independent from other existences. Buddhism, however, denies such a god because everything is changeable and even god cannot be permanent. In other words, ultimately speaking, Buddhism might deny the use of symbolism. That is, god is an important symbol in any religions and all well-known religions contain such symbols. On the other hand, all phenomena are changing in Buddhism; thus stable symbols cannot exist there. In this sense, Buddhism is different from other religions. While all religions are dependent on the power of symbolism, Buddhism functions without t that of symbolism in deep levels. Although the goal of Buddhism is to achieve Nirvana, Nirvana does not function as the symbol but signifies some physiological and cognitive statement.

Conclusion
To sum up, all phenomena are selfless because “self” is a misconception and there are no stable existences including “self”. Since we assume that there is such a “self,” we suffer from this world. Also, the notion of “self” prevents us from the comprehension of emptiness because emptiness is all beings but “self” splits them. In this sense, self is a symbol because symbols have power to differentiate one from others. In contrast, Buddhism does not function with such symbolism; therefore Buddhism differs from other religions.