On not-self, existence, and ontological strategies

[Sunyo]

I’m not sure if this was linked here, but I continued the discussion with Sujato in the following two topics. After some initial getting used to, I actually quite like “survive”.

Pali present tense referring to the future (and Vacchagotta's "there is no self")

Hi SC, A while ago @sujato wrote an essay on the meaning of n’atthi atta in SN44.10–the sutta on Vacchagotta’s questions on the existence of a self. That topic is old and has sparked many discussions already. I have a point related to it, but which is also wider, so I thought I’d open a new topic to make that point. Sujato argues the verb atthi often describes what he calls “absolute existence”. This may be true, but atthi is far from always used in this sense, so maybe there is som…

Translating ‘hoti’ and ‘atthi’ in context of rebirth

Venerable, I’m just going through these passages once more, trying to wrap my head around it! I like your approach and I want to see in what way it should be applied. So far we have considered the cases of hoti tathāgato paraṁ maraṇā. Previous discussions have touched on atthi attā: And atthi devā: In the latter cases I have used “exist absolutely”. This is not very idiomatic English, and according to your argument, also misses the nuance of the verb “to be” here, which is about time no…

By the way, MN22 clearly denies the existence of a self, if it wasn’t already clear from other suttas. I’m surprised people are even arguing this central idea of the Buddha’s teachings.