Reference: Postulate Mechanics (PM)
Buddha’s Four Noble Truth’s, that were announced to the world about 2500 years ago, have had a wonderful effect of bringing civilization to the world. Today, we need to revisit these truths and see how they can be applied more effectively under present conditions.
According to Buddha, one must let go of attachments, greed, and delusion in order to eliminate the cause of suffering. But this is increasingly becoming difficult in today’s societies because of misconceptions. This primary misconception is the view one has of “I” that is suffering.
In this paper we examine the view of “I” following the process of “Neti, neti.”
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The Soul
In Abrahamic Religions, a person views himself as the eternal soul. When applying the process of “neti, neti.” I look at “What is this thing called soul?” “Do I fully understand the nature of soul?” “Am I this soul that I am thinking about?”
The concept of soul started as a life‑principle, something that animates the body and departs at death. it was closely linked to breath. In the Hebrew Bible, the soul (nephesh) primarily means a living being, life, or throat/breath, not an inherently separable, immortal inner entity. In Christianity, a more dualistic model takes hold: humans are mortal bodies plus immortal souls, and death is seen as the separation of soul from body, destined for resurrection and judgment. Islamic thought affirms that God creates each human soul and “breathes” it into the body. A widely held traditional view is that the soul enters the fetus around 120 days after conception.
Here soul is defined as an entity that exists separate from the body and gives life to the body. Thus, there are individual souls that are created by God; but, once created, these souls exist eternally without disappearing. This idea of soul basically originates from the phenomena of life and death. It is a postulate that tries to explain life and death.
Am I this postulate of soul as described above? According to “neti, neti,” I am not. If not, then who am I?
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The Thetan
In Scientology, a person views himself as an eternal thetan. A thetan is different from soul in the sense that a person may say that he has a soul; but he does not have a thetan, because he is the thetan. This difference between soul and thetan is a big deal in Scientology.
Scientology defines thetan as the awareness of awareness unit which has all potentialities but no mass, no wave-length and no location. It is the being who is the individual and who handles and lives in the body. A thetan has no time or location in space except by consideration or postulate. The thetan is not a thing; it is the creator of things. Scientology does not teach that the thetan was “created” by something else; rather, thetans are taken to be beginningless, immortal spiritual beings that either always existed or, in some accounts, “willed themselves into existence” and then collectively created the universe.
The concept of thetan was put forth by L. Ron Hubbard to explain the source of life and life itself. Is the individuality of the thetan another identity? Scientology does not venture further into this area.
Am I this postulate of thetan as described above? According to “neti, neti,” I am not. If not, then who am I?
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The Jivatman and Atman
In Eastern religions, Atman is the universal divine essence, or pure consciousness, which is not identified with anything in the universe. It does not have any individuality. However, Atman reduces to jivatman as it identifies with its postulates and considerations, and accumulates unsettled karma (action).
Jivātman (or Jīva) is the individual representing the conscious life force that inhabits a physical body. Jivatman is essentially wrapped up in a bundle of karma (identifications). As jivatman resolves the unsettled karma, it rises in consciousness to Atman.
Upon death of a body, the bundle of karma continues as genetic programming in other bodies, where it is activated by the jivatman of those bodies. If a person thinks that he is that jivatman, he is basically identifying with the unsettled karma.
The idea of “reincarnation” has to do with the continuation of unsettled karma that the “I” is identifying with. There is no more “reincarnation” when all karma is resolved.
Am I this unsettled karma or the jivatman? According to “neti, neti,” I am not.
Am I this Atman? Certainly not as an individuality, because Atman does not have any individuality. Now we are looking at an anomaly and a misconception.
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The Anatman
Buddha was the first to call out the anomaly of Atman. This shall be taken up in the next chapter.
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