Just as the Uppanisadic conception of moksa can not be justicfied without assuming the existence oa atman, so also the Buddhist concept of Nirvana can not be accounted for without admitting the anatta doctrine. According to the Buddha, the idea of the self is a wrong view because it has not corresponding reality. What is worse is that the idea itself generates suffering.The Buddha says :
" I do not see, monks, that grasping of the theory of self, from the grasping of which there would not arise grief, suffering, anguish, lamentation, despair. "
Also in brief, the five aggregates are also suffering. That is the crux of Buddhist attitude towards the theory of self. The grasping called attavadupadana. This grasping to the self is the main origin of suffering. It is similar to " self love " which Freud believes to be the center of all desires and actions. This self - love, according to William James, is the cause of selfishness. " A man in whom self seeking or any sort is largely developed is said to be selfish. "
If manifests itself as the sense of " I " and " Mind " [ ahankarammankara ]. We may liken the grasping of self to " narcissm " in Freudian psychoanalysis. The similarity between them is implied in the words of Erich Fromm : " It is the goal of man to overcome one's narcissm. Perhaps this principle is nowhere expressed more radically than in Buddhism. "
Thus the main purpose of the Buddha's teaching of anatta is to enable his disciples to shed the grasping of the self - theory. To attain Nirvana, one has to get rid of the personality belief [ sakkayaditthi ] and the conceit of " I am " [ asmimana ]. So long as grasping of the self in any form persists, there can be no real emancipation. The Buddha emphasizes the need for absolute abandonment o the conceit of " I am " i all things including Nirvana. And it is on account of grasping of the five aggregates that the conceit of " I am " arises.
" It is by grasping that the conceit of " I am " arises and not without grasping. By grasping of what ? It is grasping of corporeality, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness that the conceit of " I am " arises, and not without grasping. "
The conceit of " I am " is considered so detrimental to the religious quest that it is singled out as one which must be eliminated. With regard to the question, which one thing is to be got rid of. The answer is that " the conceit of I am " is the one thing which is to be got rid of. It is by eliminating the conceit of " I am " in the five aggregates that one attains liberation. The Buddha says :
" Whatever corporeality, Kappa, be it past, present or future... You behold thus ; This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self. So knowing things objectively as they are by the perfect insight, one, having forsaken grasping, is free. Thus knowing, thus seeing, Kappa, the mind has gone away from all sense of
" I " and " Mine ", [ ahakara mamankara ] gone away from egoism [ mana ], gone away from all distinctions, calmed and wholly released. "
By THE BUDDHA'S Core Teaching
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