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PB on Atman
from the Notebooks of Paul Brunton
As an example, take the most prominent feature of many spiritual traditions: the nature of the
individual I. Both Buddhism and Hinduism, to name two, have fundamental practices of
searching for the I. In Mahayana practice, one searches for the I in such teachings as the
“selflessness of persons.” One should investigate deeply the nature of the I, where it comes
from, goes to; its components etc. Not stopping until one gets deep experience of the non-I, or
the non-inherent existence. The purpose of all this is to bring the person to a shift out of the
personal ego-centered position. Similarly, many reasonings in Advaita are aimed at exploring
the nature of the I. The most famous of 20th century proponents, Ramana Maharshi,
continually has the student seek “who am I?” A
tman--one of the most important and basic doctrines in Sanskrit learning. To take Atman as self
is to confirm and strengthen the very error which the doctrine of Atman seeks to refute! Such a
procedure imbues the mind anew with the thought of “I.” For in Atman there can be no such
thing as a personal entity, no existence of an ego at all. Those who have studied both the
Hindu Upanishads and the Buddhist Abhidhamma sufficiently and profoundly cannot fail to
observe that Atman is merely the intellectual parallel and counterpart of Nirvana. And who has
more strongly fought the belief in self than Buddha? (Perspectives p.192)
PB saw the danger in simply translating Atman as self, as it leads to all the associations which
self has for us—as he says “strengthens the very error which … it seeks to refute.” So he
qualified the term as over-self. Some friends of mind in Sweden, masters of the Swinglish
language, recently read a para as referring to “the Ourself.” I loved it! So we continue to evolve
the language. The first point to note here is that what Advaita means by Atma is what
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PB on Atman
Buddhism means by anatma (where the prefix an means NOT.) This has caused much
confusion to Westerners who saw two opposite terms for reality. However, atma which Buddha
refuted, and the self which the atma theory of Advaita refute, are equally the personal, limited
self-subsistent self. We are looking for parallel meanings, not for congruent words.
We need to say a few words about Nirvana. In the Buddha’s teaching of four noble truths,
taught from the very beginning of his teachings, conditioned life is suffering, there are causes of
suffering, there is an end of suffering called Nirvana, and there is a path to nirvana. Since suffering has as its root the mis-identity of ourselves as separate individual entities,
Nirvana ends this separate self-identity once and for all: hence Nirvana a realization of what is
true; a recognition of the primordial nature. Now PB poses a startling juxtaposition: Atma is a
parallel to nirvana--the deepest teaching of anatma--because Atma also is not a thing, but a
realization of freedom from suffering. Both terms point to the deep recognition of intrinsic
nature. So now let us do an experiment, and apply this parallel further, to the nature of Overself,
explained in a para: “Overself is not a goal to be attained but a realization of what already is”…. 22.3.9 Try either word, Atma or Nirvana, in place of Overself and see how nicely they fit: “___is not a goal to be attained but a realization of what already is.” Now we see how both Atma and nirvana are realizations, not goals. If we allow ourselves to
experiment a little more, we can also bring in the relation of Atma and Brahman. If Atma is the
couterpart of Nirvana, then Brahman is the counterpart of Sunya (openness). Why? Both are
words for ultimate reality which is realized. Atma is the realization of what is, just as Nirvana is
the realization of the freedom beyond suffering. Atman is a realization of Brahman, and 2/3
PB on Atman
Brahman Is the ultimate nature which is realized. Likewise, Nirvana is the realization of sunya,
so sunya is the ultimate nature, which is directly realized in the Buddha’s nirvana. Sunya and
Brahman, both are the ultimate denial of nihilism as well as materialism. 3/3