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anatta

anatta

1 9.9
The idea that people have no permanent self or soul
  • noun
  • /əˈnɑːtə/
  • Specialized
: anatta
  • Everything that exists is impermanent (anicca) and not-self (anatta); nothing is permanent and "self."

Examples

  • According to the doctrine of anatta, our identities are shaped by changing experiences rather than by an unchanging essence.

  • All reality is non-self (anatta).

    Blog text (7)
  • The meditator experiences insights into the nature of ordinary experience and phenomena as anicca, dukkha, anatta: as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and selfless.

    Academic text (1994)
  • And Buddhism states that the sense of separate selfhood is illusory (the anatta doctrine), and therefore that what we truly are is nondifferent from existence itself (nirvana, the void, pure consciousness, suchness, etc.).

    Academic text (1990)
  • The Buddhist teaching of anatta emphasizes that there is no permanent self within living beings.

  • In understanding anatta, practitioners learn to let go of attachment to a fixed self and see life as ever-changing.

Synonyms

nonself
vsanatta
  • Jargon
1 9.9

The Buddhist idea that a person has no permanent self

focuses on the formal Buddhist doctrine about all living beings
anatman
vsanatta
  • Specialized
1 9.9

A Buddhist idea that people do not have a permanent self or soul

is the same doctrine but named in traditional Buddhist terminology

Surface Forms

anatta singular
anattas plural

Etymology

Anatta comes from the Pali and Sanskrit parts a- 'not' and atta/atman 'self' or 'soul'. So anatta literally means 'no-self', which explains the Buddhist idea that there is no permanent, unchanging soul.