Greetings,
tiltbillings wrote:This seems a bit cryptic. It might help if you were to draw out what you mean in more detail.
The "more detail" is that if people weren't so obsessed with trying to prove (either to themselves or others) the validity of this inappropriately derived view that "I have no self", both this topic and their own thought processes might be greatly simplified.
"This is called a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing of views, a fetter of views. Bound by a fetter of views, the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person is not freed from birth, aging, & death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair. He is not freed, I tell you, from suffering & stress.
"The well-instructed disciple of the noble ones — who has regard for noble ones, is well-versed & disciplined in their Dhamma; who has regard for men of integrity, is well-versed & disciplined in their Dhamma — discerns what ideas are fit for attention and what ideas are unfit for attention. This being so, he does not attend to ideas unfit for attention and attends [instead] to ideas fit for attention."
It's relevant to this topic, because "I have no self" is listed in MN 2 as an inappropriate view, and inappropriately held views feed the asava of ignorance. In other words, they directly oppose the causes for wisdom, which are the subject of this topic.
"And what are the ideas unfit for attention that he does not attend to? Whatever ideas such that, when he attends to them...the unarisen fermentation of ignorance arises in him, and the arisen fermentation of ignorance increases. These are the ideas unfit for attention that he does not attend to."
Metta,
Retro.
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."