This is a problem I have had since I was very young and I’m only just now discovering that it is a problem.
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What do you mean by solipsism?
Usually I think of solipsism as a philosophical stance, in which case, if you’ve already disavowed it as a belief, then it isn’t a problem any more.
If by solipsism you mean a lack of empathy, then I don’t think reading a sutta alone will cure that. For that, you’ll need to go out and make friends and support them; practice generosity and deep listening; maybe read some poetry, etc. Building empathy is a lifelong process, not something that is solved in an afternoon!
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Oxford has these two definitions of solipsism:
- The quality of being very self-centered or selfish.
- The view or theory that the self is all that can be known to exist.
I’ve also commonly heard it being similar to the “simulation” theory where one sees only themselves as existing.
Once you’ve clarified as how Venerable Khemarato asked, this will be easier, but I believe I already have a feel for what you’re asking.
There are no texts that will cure selfishness. You should see first that reading some albeit meaningful lines of text won’t cure that kind of thing. All the suttas that talk about this always frame it in terms of it being realized by someone through the path of meditation, not just through hearing or reading about it. Studying it is still important as distant first steps.
It’s hard for me to tell, but if you feel really insecure and worried about this then you don’t need to read these as they probably won’t help too much, and you should take this up later after dealing with that and becoming quite confident.
If your goal is refining some philosophical view you have and you want some reasons otherwise, reading these can be good, but that doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you’d have since being very young.
That said, SN22 is definitely significant for that topic. That collection has 159 suttas, but searching “self” on SN22 will narrow it down. Secondarily, I say SN12 and SN24. Those especially occasionally have some confusing phrasing if you aren’t familiar with the language of the suttas.
And again, reading those won’t “cure” that. When it comes to texts regarding selfishness, I just think that these ones are superior, but it’ll only offer some potentially good ideas for your mere consideration. Real wisdom isn’t found in words or speech, it happens in the heart after a while of patience. That’s how selfishness is actually dealt with. Rushing to that is ironically just selfish. That’s what those very texts are suggesting.
Those suttas might be really relevant topic wise, inspiring and rightening some views when taken with care, but you may be surprised to find that something like appreciation and compassion could help resolve selfishness and solipsism even more, especially as an alternative for our text-clingers. The meditation on compassion also recognizes yourself as part of the many other beings without comparison and discrimination, relating to that 1st-person delusional aspect of solipsism. If you haven’t already, I’d say focusing on all of that first is better, as well as the general path of virtue and meditation, but other people may search this topic looking for a general answer, and I say SN 22 and 12 are made for this. Those ones were incredible to read myself after having already gained experience through reading most of MN, some DN, some of the KNs, and the preceding parts of SN at the time I had read it as it clarified a lot of the uncommonly-spoken-about loose ends of dependent origination and soul theory.
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The Buddha says that having Kalyanamittas is the whole of a holy life.
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sacca/sacca4/samma-ditthi/kalyanamittata.html
I’ve found that being with good people inspires me to be a better person and for a personal benefits, helps me to be calm and more tolerant of the world.
Just my two humble cents
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By solipsism do you mean the belief and felt experience that there is nothing outside of you? Maybe accompanied by a feeling of being disconnected and some additional unhelpful beliefs following from that belief in solipsism?
In that case, I wonder if something I’ve heard Ajahn Sona say about rebirth might be helpful. He says there is an element of choice involved. We’ll never get 100% evidence for a belief like that - as long as we want to doubt we can find reasons to doubt. But we can make a choice to adopt a belief. Or, as he says, choose a conviction. (And we’ll then see the positive outcomes of that conviction in our emotional life.)
I wonder if instead of looking at solipsism as a possibility to be confirmed or disconfirmed, it would be helpful to look at believing there is something beyond yourself as a conviction you choose.
Please ignore if I’ve misunderstood what you meant, or if my answer isn’t helpful. Good luck! 
Hello Aahan,
I’m only replying to your post because of something I encountered on my walk in the woods today.
I crossed paths with two ladies that were chatting quite loudly, but all I heard was one lady say to the other, ‘My problem is…’ and that’s all I heard because I had passed them, yet my brain filled in the gap with a reply, it said, ‘I believe I have a problem!’
It kind of somehow fits in with your post, ‘my problem is, I believe I have a problem!’
I’ve always found that once you are aware of a problem, and speak of the problem externally instead of internally, the problem magically rectifies itself. I believe the word is Awareness, but don’t quote me on that.
Not that I have a dickie bird of a clue what Solipsism is, I’m a bit reluctant to look it up as I have a backlog of thousands of other words I’m still trying to learn! 
Yes. That’s kind of a problem for me. Sometimes when I was starting out in grade school, I would stare at my hands during recess and contemplate if everything outside of my mind is real and where I came from and what happens when we die and the simulation ends, and I developed a fear of death and the world going black. And I just never moved on from that.
Even when I was with other people, I always felt kind of lonely and wondered if all of my experiences were fake.
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The questions you ask yourself are eternal questions of humanity that are discussed in traditional Western philosophy.
Would it change anything if life were a “simulation”? The experience is compelling and does not change. Having the flu, if just an illusion, will not affect you less. So you might as well just carry on! Regarding the uncertainty of life after death, you share that with all the rest of mankind. No one has ever died knowing for sure.
Try to forget it or study philosophy to find out what other theories are at least as likely as solipsism. If you get mentally unstable, seek professional help.
I can’t think of a particular sutta that addresses solipsism. I would suggest reading the suttas broadly. Just read one after the other and you will gradually develop a more and more accurate idea of what the Buddha taught. I think you will find that He did not teach solipsism. If you’ve sincerely taken refuge in the Triple Gem, learn the Teachings, and work on putting the Dhamma into practice in your daily life, I’m confident that distressing solipsistic thoughts will gradually become less of a problem and eventually no problem at all.
May you be free from those distressing thoughts!
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The following sutta does not talk about solipsism. However, there is this passage from the sutta that talks about beings trapped in the far reaches of the Universe who are perplexed to discover that they are not the only beings living in that place:
when the Bodhisat ceases to belong to the hosts of the heaven of Delight, and enters a mother’s womb, there is made manifest throughout the universe—including the worlds above of the gods, the Maras and the Brahmas, and the world below with its recluses and brahmins, its princes and peoples—an infinite and splendid radiance, passing the glory of the gods. Even in those spaces which are between the worlds, baseless, murky and dark, and where even moon and sun, so wondrous and mighty, cannot prevail to give light, even there is made manifest this infinite and splendid radiance, passing the glory of the gods. And those beings who happen to be existing there, perceiving each other by that radiance, say—“Verily there be other beings living here!”
A practical way to counter solipsism is to practice generosity and virtue. Abandoning gross forms of selfish behavior favors the abandonment of these self-centered ideas.
If you want a more reflective, philosophical way to overcome this fixed idea, one possibility is to examine your own sensory experiences (sight, hearing, smell, taste, body and mind), in the following aspects:
- three aspects of sensory experience: internal base, external object and contact.
– In fact, the average person can only directly know the contact between object and sensory base. This is true for the eye+visual forms, ear+sounds, nose+smells, tongue+tastes, body+tactile sensations, and the mind-base (heart or brain, it is up to you)+mental objects (thoughts, memories, beliefs, emotions). - cause-and-effect:
– what is the cause for the arising of contact bases?
– what is the cause for the arising of external objects?
– what is the cause for the arising of contact?
– What is the role of your will and desires in this process of arising of these phenomena? Did they arise only from your will? or can they arise against your will?
– What are the effects of these contacts on you? Do they generate good feelings, bad feelings? Desire, aversion? Thoughts, memories, beliefs, emotions? Do you have full control over these effects?
By doing this exercise with yourself, you can do the same with other beings around you:
– this being that I observe, how did it come to be? Did it has come to be only because of my will?
– Does this being that I observe have the conditions to have sensory experience? Does it have eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind-base? Can it have visual, auditory, olfactive, gustative, bodily and mental experience?
– When this being comes into contact with sensory objects, it presents reactions. Is it possible to explain these reactions as a consequence of the presence of good feelings, or bad feelings? Can they arise from desire or aversion? Can these actions arise from thoughts, memories, beliefs, emotions?
– Is it possible for me to control the reactions of this being that I observe? To what extent?
These reflections are roughly based on the doctrine of Dependent Coarising.
In fact, everyone lives in his own private world, assumption about one world common to us all, while it works quite well on certain level, has to be understood, as merely assumption.
In the Dhamma, to cure solipsism one must arrive at the end of the world and realise the cessation of being.
Understanding the connection between anicca, dukka, anatta (or anicca, dukkha, suñña, anatta) for seeing yourself as you really are (spiritually/mentally and physically), and thought of detachment, of non-malice, and thought of non-harming, could help to cure solipsism (according to, e.g., the Sutta-anga portion of SN/SA).
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Hi @Aahan
One thing. There is a dissociative disorder called derealization:
If you think that might describe what you are experiencing, it would be worth talking to a mental health professional. Also, just so you know, meditation is contraindicated in cases of derealization.
Much Metta
Jim
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What do you think about cultivating body awareness or metta in this instance?
One will feel good for oneself if being able to save a life, mentally or physically.
E.g. I feel very happy if successfully being able to donate blood/plasma to save a life.
My life exists in the present moment (anicca, dukkha, anatta).