The History of Buddhist Thought c16.35

c16.35

It is an illusion to suppose that we can prove that Buddha taught the doctrine of non-self in so many words, though it can be deduced, as the Buddhists themselves deduced it, from the doctrine of the khandhas and the other formulæ in which the individual is analysed into his elements. The term anattavāda has no meaning without stating what theory of the ātman was denied. It shows that some form of ātman-belief came to be rejected, and that this also included a belief in its eternity, but what philosophical system was opposed when the term was invented remains a mere supposition.