Use code SUMMERPRACTICE for a 25% discount on all On Demand Courses through August 31.

Self and Not-Self: Who (What) are You?

With Eugene Cash recorded on October 25, 2020.

Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.

This talk explores classic Buddhist teachings about anatta: self and not-self as well highlighting how other traditions and modalities recognized self and what it means to be free from self. We investigate self and not-self through spiritual, poetic cultural and personal perspectives.

Listen to the audio version below, or click here to download the mp3.

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Zohar Lavie

    Everyday Equanimity; Shifting from Reactivity to Responsiveness

    The practice of equanimity supports us to find balance, stability and steadiness within the changing conditions of our lives. We can then respond with wisdom and compassion to whatever is unfolding. Equanimity is a fruit of the practice, as well as a way of relating that we can cultivate intentionally. We will explore ways to…

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Caverly Morgan – Week of June 22

    We’re very grateful to have Caverly Morgan hosting our Daily Meditation Series for North America. To find out more about Caverly, and to view her past recordings and contributions to Sangha Live, click here. Monday, June 22 Returning to “I don’t know” mind, part 1 Wednesday, June 24 Surrendering to silence Friday, June 26 Collective…

    Read More

  • Zohar Lavie

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of May 30, 2022

    This week’s theme is: Bringing the Practice to Life. The Buddha’s teachings emphasise the whole of our lives as a rich ground for exploration and growth.  Through meditation, we cultivate skills and ways of relating that can be applied beyond formal meditation. This week we will explore bringing the practice to different areas and aspects of our lives. We will open to taste how this enlivens and rejuvenates our practice, and how it can nurture wellbeing for others and ourselves.

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings with Nathan Glyde – Week of September 16, 2024

    This week’s topic is “That Changes Everything”. The Buddha instructed us to “notice how all conditioned things change”. How we understand this instruction changes depending on which words we emphasise. If we emphasise ‘change’ it sounds like “that’s simply how it is”. If we emphasise ‘how’ and ‘conditioned’, it invites us to question and play a part.

    Read More

  • Justine Dawson

    The Appropriate Response

    When a monk asked the 10th Century Zen master Yunmen, “What are the teachings of a whole lifetime?” Yunmen replied, “An appropriate response.”  What is this appropriate response and how do we know we’ve got it right? Beyond linear formulas, Dharma teachings point to a natural intelligence that guides us in a spontaneous responsiveness to life….

    Read More

  • What is the Ultimate Truth?

    The world of mind-body, mindfulness, meditation and well-being maximises priority on conventional or relative truth. This requires wise attention and change relative to our experience. We are familiar with taking up views, remaining neutral with views or holding onto views. We might call these views relative or absolute. Can we discover (ultimate) truth not bound…

    Read More

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    The nature of experience. Part 1: Impermanence.

    Today’s session is the first in a special run of three consecutive sessions with Martin, where he looks deeply at the nature of experience through Buddha’s profound descriptions of reality – Impermanence, Emptiness, Non self-existence. The classes point directly to how these themes can come alive in our practice and understanding, looking at the personal,…

    Read More

  • Zohar Lavie

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of March 14, 2022

    This week’s theme is: Gathering in the Goodness. ‘Drop by drop the pot of goodness is filled.’ -Buddha. Gathering in community we become more than the sum of our parts. We are each supported by, and supporting others — meditating alone is far less easy. Just so, in each moment of mindfulness we gather body-heart-mind from distraction into presence and open possibilities for greater and greater well-being; not just for ourselves, but for all beings.

    Read More