The Experience of No-Self by Bernadette Roberts

Author:Bernadette Roberts [Roberts, Bernadette]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-02-07T16:00:00+00:00

The usual method of studying self is to view it in relation to the collective, the other, the unconscious, or whatever is designated as not-self. My approach to this study, however, is by a different route. Because of this journey I was able to know the true nature of self solely by its absence or no-self; in other words, I learned what was when I learned what Is. Although every method of learning is by some relative means, the study of self relative to not-self yields a different set of insights, experiences, and conclusions than when it is known relative to its absence or no-self. Naturally, it is only with these latter findings that I am concerned.

Owing to this particular approach, I must leave behind the usual theories, psychological speculations, and methods of studying self, especially when these begin with the assumption that self is a permanent entity, an indelible or permanent fixture of human nature, and my point of departure was the sudden realization this was not so. It is important, I think, to point out these different perspectives because what I have to say may be incomprehensible and unacceptable to those who have taken the traditional route. In turn, I have to admit that I never understood the analytical approach or scheme of the psyche; its failure to recognize God (not the self) as the true center of being, made such an approach foreign and incomprehensible to me.

I think it is safe to begin by saying that without the reflexive ability of the mind to bend on itself, there would be no thinker of thoughts, no doer of doing, no feeler of feelings, and thus, no such thing as self. In the autonomous act of bending on itself, the first thing the mind sees or knows is itself, and without this reflexive action, the mind has no way of knowing itself. Due to this reflexive mechanism, then, the mind can only knows itself as object to itself and thus, in the realm of consciousness, the subject is the object. The true object of consciousness is not an object of the senses, something we can visually see, hear or touch, rather, the true object of consciousness is always and only itself. This means that what the self or subject is, is the mind knowing itself as object to itself, and this subject-object way of knowing is the true nature of consciousness. But the knowing-self is only one of the two experiential dimensions that compose the whole of consciousness. The other dimension is the feeling-self, and about this we will speak latter on.

It is important not to mistake the nature of consciousness for the nature of the sensory system. Where the reflexive mechanism enables the mind to look inward and be self-conscious, the sensory system only looks outward to respond to its environment. The difference between the sensory system and the system of consciousness is actually the difference between animal and man. A problem arises, however, when we fail to

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