Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment

by Robert Wright

The Buddha does, in this first discourse on the not-self, talk as if “you” abandon consciousness just as thoroughly as you abandon the other aggregates—as if, in other words, the “you” that is left after liberation is no more closely associated with consciousness than with the other aggregates. It’s a valid point. On the other hand, there are discourses—not many, but some—in which the Buddha seems to sing a slightly different tune. In one discourse, describing what happens after you take the not-self teaching seriously and abandon your attachment to the five aggregates, he says that consciousness itself is “liberated.” What’s more, as he describes the state of this liberated consciousness, he shifts almost seamlessly to describing the state of the person who has been liberated. He says of consciousness: “By being liberated, it is steady; by being steady, it is content; by being content, he is not agitated. Being unagitated, he personally attains nirvana.”