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

by Chris Niebauer

Next, consider this. What if the way to “win” the game of life is to discover experientially that it's all a game in the first place and that you are the creator of the game? I emphasize the experience of this discovery, and I suggest that this is what happened to the Buddha, Laotzu, and other ancient masters from the East so long ago. In their case, identification with the self collapsed, and so did all the mental suffering that went with it. If mental suffering has any benefit, perhaps it is to help you wake up to the game, to the grand drama that is this existence. As it is put in Buddhism, “when there is no mud, there is no lotus flower.” The Buddha was supposedly protected from suffering early in life, and if he had never ventured out to explore suffering, he would have never had his insights. If not for your suffering, you would not be where you are right now.