Nonself

With thinking we may be beside ourselves in a sane sense. By a conscious effort of the mind we can stand aloof from actions and their consequences; and all things, good and bad, go by us like a torrent. We are not wholly involved in Nature. I may be either the driftwood in the stream, or Indra in the sky looking down on it. I may be affected by a theatrical exhibition; on the other hand, I may not be affected by an actual event which appears to concern me much more. I only know myself as a human entity; the scene, so to speak, of thoughts and affections; and am sensible of a certain doubleness by which I can stand as remote from myself as from another. However intense my experience, I am conscious of the presence and criticism of a part of me, which, as it were, is not a part of me, but spectator, sharing no experience, but taking note of it, and that is no more I than it is you. When the play, it may be the tragedy, of life is over, the spectator goes his way. It was a kind of fiction, a work of the imagination only, so far as he was concerned. This doubleness may easily make us poor neighbors and friends sometimes.

《法句經》第95偈中提到 Indra's pillar，若非經過考據，是不會有人瞭解它背後的含意的。古漢譯將此偈譯為：不怒如地，不動如山，真人無垢，生死世絕。原文翻成英文為：There is no more worldly existence for the wise one who, like the earth, resents nothing, who is firm as Indra's pillar and as pure as a deep pool free from mud.

Indra 是印度教中司地，也是雷雨神。Indra's pillar 是放在城門口的石柱，受人供奉鮮花貢品；然有些對此習俗不以為然的人則會在此便溺。此偈便以 Indra's pillar 來形容有智慧的人，對於別人的看法不為所動。梭羅說我既可以是漂流的浮木，亦可以是空中俯視它的 Indra; 我的存在只是人性單元，是思想和情感的舞台。這樣的說法就很像佛教術語「有情」。佛經上說，因執著故為有情。但是當你不再執著，你只是這個舞台的旁觀者，當戲落幕時，你就像觀眾一樣的離開戲院。

有人問何謂「無我」。答曰：『人和一切有情感的生物都叫做「有情」。佛教的緣起論認為所謂有情，無非是種種物質和精神元素的聚合體。有情不是固定的單一獨立體，而是種種元素的聚合體，而所有元素是剎那剎那依緣而生滅著的，所以找不到一個固定的有情在支配著身心，也就是找不到「我」的存在。
　
當初笛卡兒提出精神和物質二元論，是因為當時科學界不斷地與宗教界發生衝突；提出精神和物質二者是平行的論點等於是向宗教界宣告科學的研究不會侵犯到宗教的領域。但不久就有唯物論者挑戰笛卡兒的說法，認為所有的精神作用也不過是各種物質之間的互動造成的，完全是機械式的；本體論者則認為所有物質不過是心靈客觀的具體形式。

佛教也把組成有情的要素分為精神和物質兩類，就是所謂的「名色」。名是精神的要素 -- 受、想、行、識；色是物質的要素。（色、受、想、行、識又稱「五蘊」。）名色就是身心合成的存在。無論組成有情的要素為何，如果對自己的身心只是因緣所生的道理不能自覺，以為其中有常住的、惟一的、做主宰的我，那就是「無明」，就會因此而起煩惱。』