Who Are You ?
Where Do You Come From ?(Before This Life)
Where Will You Be Going To ?(After This
Life)
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An Interesting Conversation On Dependent
Origination
The following is edited from a Dharma talk at National University
of Singapore Buddhist Society:
(Ven: Venerable Thubten Chodron, Aud:
Audience
Ven: The same is true
for our "self" or "I." Remember a time when you were very angry.
How did "I" appear then? It seems very solid - as if there is a
real me that someone is insulting. That "I" feels real, as if it
were independent, yet still somewhere inside our body and Mind. We
get angry in order to defend that "I" that seems so real. If that
solid, independent "I" exists as it appears to us, we should be
able to find it, either among our body and Mind or separate from
them. There is no other place such an "I" could be. Let's
see. Are you your body?
Aud: Yes.
Ven: Which part of your
body are you? Are you your arm? Your chest? Your little toe? your
brain? It's clear that we aren't any of the parts of our body.
Let's try again. Are you your
Mind?
Aud: I must
be.
Ven: Which Mind are
you? Are you your visual consciousness? Your
auditory consciousness? Your mental consciousness? Are you one
particular characteristic? If you were your angry self, you would
always be angry!
Aud: "I" am what
goes from one life to the next.
Ven: But what goes from
one life to the next is constantly changing. Can you point to one
moment of your Mind that always has been and always will be
you? Are you yesterday's Mind? Today's Mind?
Tomorrow's Mind?
Aud: I'm all of
them together.
Ven: But that's a
collection of parts, none of which are "I". To say that is "I" is
like saying a group of grasshoppers are a
butterfly.
Maybe
you're completely separate from your body and Mind. That is, can
you take away your body and Mind and you ("I" ) still remain
independently? If the "I" is separate from the body and Mind, my
body and Mind could be here and I could be across the room. Is that
possible?
The
"I" or self doesn't exist independently of the body and Mind. It is
not the body and it is not the Mind. Neither is it the body and
Mind together. In other words, the solid "I" that we felt when
we're angry doesn't exist at all. What we are negating is its
independent or inherent existence. There a conventionally existent
"I" that is angry and that "I" does not exists independently.
The "I" depends on causes and conditions the coming together of the
sperm and egg of our parents, our consciousness from a precious
life and so on. The "I" also depends on the parts, which compose
it: our body and Mind. The "I" also depends on concept and label.
That is, on the basis of our body and Mind being together, we
conceive of a person and label it "I". We exist by being merely
labeled on a suitable basis - our body and
Mind.
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I am looking for me.
I look and look.
Who am I?
I can't find.
I can't define.
I can't see.
Who am I?
I AM looking.
There is no looker and nothing looked.
There is only the looking.
The looker and the looked are one.
