Clinging to the false self?

The Buddhist teaching of no-self (anātman) is better stated: overcoming the false self.  If one decides to read Buddhism this way it ceases being so enigmatic. 

At the same time, we can see that Buddhism is a path of transcendence which is about overcoming the powerful attraction of the false self (anātman).  Nowhere in the Buddhist canon did the Buddha teach there is no self (P., natthattā).

Adding to this, the Buddha also teaches that no-self is suffering (yaṃ dukkhaṃ tadanattā).  This is not a good state to be in, in other words.  Logically, the Buddha would not teach no-self as a refuge (saranā) from suffering. 

But if our actual self mistakenly yoked with a false self, yes, there would be suffering.  And we would have to learn how to overcome this suffering by first comprehending just what the false self is.

But the modern Buddhist is not interested in learning anything about the false self.  Sometimes I think that modern Buddhists, who are agnostic or atheistic, imagine that Buddhism is a religion just made for them.  It is not.  Buddhism is perhaps the most profound religion on the face of this planet.  When we follow its path it gets more profound.

Comments

[Bodhiratna]

To the commentator,

You can't understand it until you get the first glimpse of the 'Juice'.

The 'Juice' shows you the 'real Self' in a fraction of a second.

Using words and intellectual to find the 'real Self' do not work.

The human body is nothing but a waste-making machine looking for a grave....

What does your face look like before the universe is here?

Bodhiratna

[TheZennist]

Dichotomous knowing or in Sanskrit, vijñāna (lit., in two parts knowing) is the barrier. What, for example, is the source of the binary 0 and 1? In the Zen oxherding pictures you'll always see an ensō/円相 which signifies the perfect transcendence of vijñāna. When Hakuin heard the churring of the cricket, suddenly, vijñāna was transcended. This was kenshō.

[trekai]

thank you for this.

i'm afraid i still cannot understand this distinction between self and false self.

the Lankavatara Sutra doesn't help either:

"...Mahamati, the Tathagata-garbha holds within it the cause for both good and evil, and by it all the forms of existence are produced. Like an actor it takes on a variety of forms, and [in itself] is devoid of an ego-soul and what belongs to it."

"Again, Mahamati, there are others who, believing in such things as ego, being, vital principle, nourisher, supreme spirit, or personal soul, will seek Nirvana in them. Again, Mahamati, there are still others who, seeing that all things exist by depending upon causes, will recognise in this the way to Nirvana. (64) But, Mahamati, as they have no insight into the egolessness of things, there is no emancipation for them. This, Mahamati, is where those of the Sravaka-vehicle and the philosophers make the mistake in their insight by regarding non-deliverance as deliverance. Therefore, Mahamati, you ought to discipline yourself in order to escape this wrong view."

"Again some conceive this to be Nirvana: that in consideration of generality and individuality recognisable in all things inner and outer, they are never destroyed, maintaining their being throughout the past, present, and future. Again some conceive that Nirvana is an ego-soul, a being, a vital force, a nourisher, a supreme spirit, and the indestructability of all things."

"Again, Mahamati, some philosophers owing to their foolishness declare this to be Nirvana: that there is a primary substance, there is a supreme soul, and they are seen differently by each, and that they produce all things from the transformations of the qualities."

"Mahamati, the Tathagata-garbha holds within it the cause for both good and evil, and by it all the forms of existence are produced. Like an actor it takes on a variety of forms, and [in itself] is devoid of an ego-soul and what belongs to it."

If a self (ego-soul) exists, the eternalists are right.
If no self exists, the materialists/nihilists are right.

I can't see any way out from this dichotomy :/