I can agree with generally all Buddhists that the Five Aggregates have no self. Where the problem begins to develop, if we just stick with the aggregates and the fact that they are suffering; they are impermanent; they lack a self—Oh, and they happen to belong to the Buddhist devil, Mara, we are not left with much else. It is a rotten life all the way down.
What chance we have for happiness is extremely limited, especially, when it seems like all is suffering and not even death is an escape according to the Buddha. The only 'out' a Buddhist has, who upholds this rather bleak outlook is to hope the Buddha was wrong about rebirth which then would make death nirvana. Death would be final—no transmigration.
Despite such a pessimistic outlook, the good news is many of Buddhism’s Western interpreters have been wrong for a long time. The Nikayas and the Agamas don't present such a dark picture. What we learn is that we suffer because we cling to what suffers. It is also impermanent and is not our self. In order to transcend suffering we have to recognize our true nature which is intrinsically free of suffering. But since we don’t know what our nature exactly is we have to search for it until we find it. This is not as bleak as to accept that it’s impermanence, suffering and no self all the way down—a rotten life.
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