Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

the teachings of non-self in the skandhas or the
uprooting of pride-in-self by analysis into the elements.
In all Buddhist schools, there are many treatises
(sastras), the contents of which are all directed at the
destruction of self. For instance, groups of self-views
are frequently given and refuted, not merely as wrong
theories, but as basically wrong ideas leading on to
wrong practice. In Mahayana, not only are the personal
components declared to be without self but the dharmas
are shown as void, sunyata in their nature, thus
destroying the idea of self in relation to one's
surroundings. To make perfectly clear the non-self of
dharmas, there are so many lists of different conditions
of sunyata, from two aspects of sunyata up to eighteen
different kinds.
Purification by analysis in the Hinayana and sunyata
sublimation in the Mahayana hit at one point, at only
one point—to destroy the self.
It is true that in Hinduism, the lower self is said to be a
bad thing, but no theory appears to exist to destroy it
and the various philosophies of Hinduism are not
fundamental in this respect. Why? Because they still
carry a "high" or "pure" self on their backs and make no
attempt to root out the self idea completely. It is a
well-known law of psychology that from the concept of
self held in the mind derive ideas, emotions, and
subsequent actions. Even though Hindu doctrine
671