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**Fetowip** · 05-08-2011, 10:19 PM

If Buddha asserts that "this is not me, this is not mine, this is not my self." what does that mean?

My understanding is that there is nothing that can be truly called a 'self', yet mistakenly clinging to such notions is what people tend to do, and this is what results in suffering.

Conventionally, "me" and "mine" is what we experience.
"I" am typing this on "my" computer.
But ultimately, as Buddha says, "this is not me, this is not mine, this is not my self."

This is what I understand to be the distinction made between relative reality and ultimate reality, or sometimes called relative truth and ultimate truth. It's not that two separate realities exist, rather that two views of the same reality exist, one that is based on clinging to a self, and one that isn't.

05-08-2011, 10:19 PM	#27
Fetowip Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 548 Senior Member	If Buddha asserts that "this is not me, this is not mine, this is not my self." what does that mean? My understanding is that there is nothing that can be truly called a 'self', yet mistakenly clinging to such notions is what people tend to do, and this is what results in suffering. Conventionally, "me" and "mine" is what we experience. "I" am typing this on "my" computer. But ultimately, as Buddha says, "this is not me, this is not mine, this is not my self." This is what I understand to be the distinction made between relative reality and ultimate reality, or sometimes called relative truth and ultimate truth. It's not that two separate realities exist, rather that two views of the same reality exist, one that is based on clinging to a self, and one that isn't.
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