Showing posts with label Paul F. Knitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul F. Knitter. Show all posts

Friday, June 28, 2024

in the midst of constant change - we are not "selves"

 






But just why is everything impermanent and in constant change? 

The answer has to do with what might be called 
the flip-side of anicca: pratityasamutpada, 
or, technically, “interdependent origination.”


More simply: everything changes because everything is interrelated.
 Everything comes into being 
and continues in being 
through and with something else.

Nothing, Buddha came to see, has its own existence.


In fact, when he wanted to describe the human self, 
or the self/identity of anything,
 the term he used was anatta,
 which means literally no-self. 

We are not “selves” in the sense of individual, 
separate, independent “things.”
 Rather, we are constantly changing
 because we are constantly interrelating.





~ Paul F. Knitter
Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture
 at Union Theological Seminary in New York
with thanks to love is a place