Anattā

Translations of
Anatta
EnglishNot self, nonself
Sanskritअनात्मन्
(IAST: anātman)
Chinese無我
(Pinyin: wúwǒ)
Japanese無我
(Rōmaji: muga)
Korean무아
(RR: mua)
Tibetanབདག་མེད་པ
(bdag med)
Vietnamesevô ngã
Glossary of Buddhism

In Buddhism, the term anattā (Pali: 𑀅𑀦𑀢𑁆𑀢𑀸) or anātman (Sanskrit: अनात्मन्) is the doctrine of "no-self" – that no unchanging, permanent self or essence can be found in any phenomenon.[note 1] While often interpreted as a doctrine denying the existence of a self, anatman is more accurately described as a strategy to attain non-attachment by recognizing everything as impermanent, while staying silent on the ultimate existence of an unchanging essence.[1][2][3] In contrast, dominant schools of Hinduism assert the existence of Ātman as pure awareness or witness-consciousness,[4][5][6][note 2] "reify[ing] consciousness as an eternal self".[7]


Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ Gombrich 2009, p. 69–70.
  2. ^ Wynne 2009, p. 59–63, 76–77.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Selves was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Deutsch 1973, p. 48.
  5. ^ Dalal 2010, p. 38.
  6. ^ McClelland 2010, p. 34–35.
  7. ^ Mackenzie 2012.