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| Abbreviations from the Sutta Pitaka of the Pali Canon | |
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| Preface | |
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| Introduction: The Two-Tiered Illusion of Self | |
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| Some Central Distinctions and the Four Noble Truths | |
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| Subject and object | |
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| Subject | |
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| Object | |
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| Distinguishing self from sense of self | |
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| What is the difference between 'self' and, 'sense of self'? | |
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| What is meant by 'sense' in 'sense of self'? | |
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| The Buddhist perspective on the sense of self | |
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| Defining 'person' | |
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| The essence of Buddhist teaching: The Four Noble Truths | |
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| Nibbana | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Unconditioned nibbana is real | |
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| Unconditioned nibbana is experienced directly by the mind of the Arahant | |
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| The mind of the Arahant is (intrinsically) 'luminous', involving percipience and witnessing | |
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| The intrinsic mind of the Arahant is identical to unconditioned nibbana | |
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| By indiscernability of identicals, what is true of unconditioned nibbana is true of the Arahant's mind and vice versa | |
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| Unconditioned by quality | |
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| Unconditioned by space | |
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| Unconditioned by time | |
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| Unconditioned by relation | |
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| Nibbanic consciousness and the khandhas | |
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| The Arahant with 'proximate nibbanic consciousness' | |
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| 'Pre-nibbanic consciousness' of the ordinary person | |
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| The Definition and Status of Self in Buddhism | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Defining the self in Buddhism | |
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| Ownership and identification as reciprocal assumptions of self | |
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| Identification and the self | |
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| Personal ownership, the self and identification | |
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| The sense of self (through reciprocal senses of personal ownership and self-identification) co-arises with tanha | |
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| Further features Buddhism ascribes to the reflexively assumed self | |
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| What nibbanic consciousness could bring to the sense of self | |
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| The definition and status of self in Buddhism | |
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| The misportrayal of Buddhism as endorsing a 'bundle theory' of persons | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| The Reflexively Assumed Self | |
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| An East-West convergence on the description of self | |
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| Roles ascribed reflexively to the self | |
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| Attributes ascribed reflexively to the self | |
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| Role: Knower/observer/witness; Attribute: Mental/aware/conscious | |
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| Roles: Owner, agent, thinker, seeker of happiness; Attribute: Bounded | |
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| Identification as general evidence for boundedness | |
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| Four common modes of assumed self-identity: This-ness, autonomy, consistent self-concern and personal ownership | |
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| Integrating modes of identification into an overall conception of personality | |
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| Identification, ownership, boundedness and tanha | |
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| Attribute: Elusiveness | |
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| Attribute: Unity (singularity) | |
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| Attributes: Unbrokenness and invariability | |
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| Unbrokenness | |
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| Invariability | |
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| Attribute: Unconstructedness | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| How Do We Construe 'The Self Lacks Reality'? | |
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| Introduction | |
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| What does it mean to deny reality to the self? | |
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| What is an illusion? | |
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| The self as construct and illusion | |
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| An intersection of agreement for those who deny reality to the self | |
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| Western thinkers who deny reality to the self | |
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| Buddhist and the Western accounts of 'no-self': Summarising the similarity and differences | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Linking Problems of Consciousness with Awareness | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Awareness as a concept of consciousness | |
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| More on the modus operandi of witnessing | |
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| The intrinsic phenomenal character of awareness | |
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| Linking problems of consciousness with 'awareness' | |
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| Elusiveness | |
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| The synchronic unity of consciousness | |
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| Unbroken and invariable unity | |
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| Unconstructedness | |
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| Awareness as central to phenomenal consciousness | |
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| Why boundedness is not implied by awareness | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| The Unconstructed Reality of Awareness | |
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| Introduction | |
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| The central argument | |
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| The spectre of eliminative materialism | |
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| The object-knowledge thesis | |
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| How the Self Could Be a Construct | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Revisiting evidence that awareness purports to be a bounded self | |
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| Is the bounded self a construct? | |
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| Can awareness exist without sense of bounded self? | |
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| The next steps to arguing that the self is a construct | |
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| The shortfalls of Damasio's theory | |
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| Identification revisited in light of self as illusion | |
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| Integrating concept of identification with Damasio's analysis to yield the two-tiered illusion of self | |
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| The Two-Tiered Illusion of Self | |
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| A schema for the two-tiered illusion of self | |
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| Witnessing presence | |
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| Unity | |
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| Elusiveness | |
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| Unbrokenness | |
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| Invariability | |
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| Summary | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Glimpses Beyond | |
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| Notes | |
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| Bibliography | |
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| Index | |