Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

distinguishes such concepts as "high self" and "low
self," fundamentally the self-idea still remains. "High"
and "low" are just adjectives, relative terms, and as such
are only suitable for describing varying degrees of
height. The self is still there, whether you call it by this
or that name.
However, the Buddha has taught (and we must
emphasize again) that no self can be found in persons,
and no self in dharmas either; so how can people, unless
they are badly deluded, compare the two religions and
loudly bray that Buddhism and Hinduism are the same?
Particularly in respect of the "great self" occasionally
mentioned in the former and the "higher self" of the
latter, we, by an account of these processes, understand
that these words mean quite different things.
b. The Buddha has only mentioned the "great self" in
his teachings in the Mahaparinirvana Sutra (a Sanskrit
work, not the Pali sutra of the same name). At that time
he was about to disappear from this world, and many of
the disciples gathered about him were weeping bitterly.
In their minds, he was about to pass away into nirvana,
which they took to be space, nothingness; the Buddha as
they knew him would, they thought, be gone, finished.
Thus the Enlightened One preached, assuring them on
the true nature of things, and to correct their bias in
thinking of nirvana as annihilation, he preached the
mark of great self.
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