While Descarte shares the Uppanisadic theory of self as " I think, therefore I am. " Sartre maintain that the self is constituted by impure reflection. In this respect, his position is similar to the Buddha's idea. The Buddha, like Sartre, think that the self is constituted by unwise attention and become one of fifty mental formation of the fourth aggregate. Thus the Sartrean impure reflection and the Buddhist unwise attention appear to be more or less alike. The difference between them, however lies in the fact that whereas impure reflection is reflection in bad faith and creates the self in order to hide from his freedom , unwise attention is attention influenced by desire [ tanha ] and creates the self in order to satisfy the desire. Buddhism recognizes the impact of desire on man's view. Therefore, it is said, " conditioned by desire is grasping. "
From this, it follows that grasping of the self is caused and conditioned by desire . That is why the Buddha says ; " The five aggregates of grasping are rooted in desire." There are three kinds of desire, according to Buddhism, namely, the desire for existence [ bhavatanha ] and desire for annihilation [ vibhavatanha]. It is interesting to note that the Buddhist threefold division of desire is comparable to Freud's conceptions of libido, ego instinct and death instinct. Sartre has also described that all of them are reducible to either the desire to be or the desire to have, which, in Buddhist opinion, is equivalent to the desire for existence.
The desire for existence is man's craving for self - preservation. It drives him to search for something in himself that can survive after death. The belief in the immortal self [ sassata - dithi ] is therefore influenced by this desire. The desire for annihilation [ vibhavatanha ]on the other hand, is the craving for self extinction . The belief in self - annihilation [ uccheda - dithi ] is rooted in this desire. It manifests itself in the form of self - disgust and despairs. The nihilist seeks for extinction of this life because he believes that " as soon as this self is annihilated on the dissolution of the body, after death, that is peace, that is the supreme goal, that is reality. "
By THE BUDDHA'S Core Teachings
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