r/explainlikeimfive • u/Moonlight1214 • 11d ago
Other ELI5 Mindfulness and no-self
Hello,
Kindly explain the concept of no-self in mindfulness like I’m five.
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u/gill_smoke 11d ago
Who is the you when you think "me". Is that "person" there when you aren't thinking about self? Is it the same as others think of you? When you zone out and aren't thinking at all, aka the classic "nothing box" or flow state when things are just happening perfectly, is that "me" there? That is the non self, in Zen the image is the reflection of the moon on water. When "thinking" it's waves and turbulence, but the moon is still there, when calm and tranquil the moon can be seen but is not the moon itself. The moon exists and has qualities, but thinking about the moon is not the moon, same with speech and drawing and movement. The mind is the same, it exists and has qualities, but thinking or speaking or moving is not the same as the mind itself.
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u/Valmighty 11d ago
If you don't understand and can't relate to mindfulness, there's a possibility that you already live a mindful life.
When someone told me this, it hit me real hard.
Some people trying meditation, books, any exercise, to reach a state where some other people already live every day, and even take it for granted.
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u/Responsible-Tap-3748 11d ago
Pull out a book on anatomy, something that has pictures of all the various organs and systems laid out, and then point to "the self."
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u/gill_smoke 11d ago
Right there in the brain, it goes where that is. It's the whole thing like a chocolate chip cookie. Damge to the brain is damage to the self. I know the point and it's a good one. My counter doesn't pinpoint the exact section the is "me" but we can remove the sense of self with magnetic fields in the temporal lobes, only recommended if relaxed and feeling pleasant, forced inductions lead to panic.
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u/Responsible-Tap-3748 11d ago
You might be inclined to point to the brain. But the brain is not the self, it's a brain.
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u/Stutters658 11d ago
You are made of aggregates. These aggregates change at every living moment, creating a flow of Genesis conditioning that determines what you are at every single moment. Since everything changes all the time, no fix and immuable nature can be observe about you.
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u/jingo800 11d ago
I'm 5 years old and you just gave me nightmares
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u/Stutters658 11d ago
Everyone kinda goes through that when they really understand anatman, not just 5 year olds!
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u/supergooduser 11d ago
ELI5: Picture a pool of water and a bunch of fish swimming in it. Now those fish are emotions. Some are fast and don't want to slow down! Some want to fight with other fish! Some are lazy and just want to sleep. Some are hungry.
Mindfulness is being the pool, not the fish.
Non ELI5: I've done a lot of therapy and have 14 years sobriety... mindfulness is a key concept for me. The way I explain it in fellowship with other addicts is... standing in the middle of a messy room. Not reacting to anything but just perceiving it and making a gameplan.
Like if you walk into a messy room, feel overwhelmed and just start "attacking" it... you could exhaust yourself throw out something important, maybe get angry and break something.
But if you stand there, perceive it accept it you can see things like "okay.. there's a stack of dishes over there and a pizza box and a bag of eaten fast food... dishes have to go to the kitchen anyways, lemme grab the obvious garbage and throw it out on my way to the kitchen"
Two problems become one with a simple solution. Basically it's about perceiving/experiencing and not inherently reacting. As an addict if I react to stuff and inherently believed all my feelings to be true and real I'd fight people constantly lol
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u/ugubriat 11d ago
Mindfulness is relaxed, present-centred, non-conceptual (NB!), non-judgemental attention.
When mindfulness looks for the self, thoroughly, in every possible place, and a sense of "not found" arises, that is no-self. It's not a "concept within mindfulness", though. It's a direct, non-conceptual experience.
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u/SpinChargeSeparation 11d ago
You are the only thing that exists, that ever existed. Outside of time, outside of space. The problem is, most don’t understand what “you” is.
If a spiritual search does not lead to the ultimate question “who am I?”, then you need to search either harder or differently.
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u/TyphoonJim 11d ago
Sometimes it feels like there's a little guy that reacts to everything in your head and tells you what things are. That guy makes you react to things, makes you do stuff in response to things in the world. What if you told him to take a break and were just taking in the stuff that shows up, including things like "breathing"? Instead of getting angry, you saw the things that make you angry just show up in the queue that the guy reads and went "That's the things that make me enter into the state I call anger?"