No Self, No Problem: How Neuropsychology Is Catching Up to Buddhism

by Chris Niebauer

Language creates a story, and this story—combined with our memories and the sense of a command center behind our forehead—creates an illusion of self that virtually everyone on the planet identifies with.

When we identify entirely with the left brain and believe that it's us, however, the suffering can be overwhelming.

Rather than embrace reality as it is, the left brain is hopelessly addicted to storytelling and interpretations about reality, which provide a short-term hit of purpose and meaning but an inevitable crash of suffering.

In the next few chapters we will focus on the right brain, and how the left-brain interpreter has dismissed, devalued, or downplayed it—all, in my view, to our detriment as a species. The good news is that as you bring your awareness to the functions of the right brain, you come into a state of balance and experience less suffering as a result.

The left brain is seduced by consistency, even though the world is in continuous flux as Buddhism often points out. This need for consistency supports the illusion of a solid self, unchanging and in control.

Noting just how many “yous” appear in a day works to dismantle the illusion of a singular “you” behind it all. A sense of freedom can emerge from the realization that you are under no obligation to be consistent.

There need be no conflict between these selves—so you can abandon the wrestling match between “sinner you” and “saint you.” This frees up an enormous amount of mental energy and fundamentally changes how we can experience the world.

The abstract stories themselves aren't the problem, but becoming lost in them creates the problem. Our suffering comes from getting swept up in these stories and forgetting that they are not themselves reality.

In this way, the story is always an illusion; it only exists in the mind—and only when we are in the process of telling it in words or thoughts. Perhaps you can see that this is true not only of the story but also of the storyteller, the self, which is another very convincing illusion and exists only when someone is thinking about it.

Later we will aim to find a balanced approach that allows us to keep the benefits of the interpreter without getting lost in the story itself.

no matter how busy the left brain believes it is, there is always time for one conscious breath. Never underestimate the power of a single conscious breath to bring you out of a left-brain fantasy and back into the real world.

the self we all take for granted is in fact an illusion and that this illusion is the cause of much, if not all, of the mental suffering we experience as humans. This can be difficult to consider, especially because the left-brain interpreter is not only convincing in its illusionary nature, but also working feverishly to prevent its fiction from being realized.