This is Josh Korda of Darma Punk's New York.

My Buddhist pastoral work is supported by donations only.

If you'd like to help, Venmo Darmapunc's NYC or use the

PayPal button on darmapunx NYC.com. I hope you enjoy this podcast and thanks for your support.

And I am in recovery from COVID, which happened in end of January early this month, which I would not recommend

as the easiest way to go about getting antibodies, but never do things the easy way sometime it seems in life.

We have found ourselves in February, which is the armpit of the year in New York.

Freezing, snow, gray, and tonight's talk is going to be on the self,

perspectives on the self, the true self. Why is it important? How do we get a grasp or

handle on it from different perspectives? At first I'm not going to simplify it, I'm going to problematize it by

trying to present some different perspectives on the core self and so that you all have the opportunity to decide

which perspective feels most appropriate. I'll present at the end a take on the core self that I believe

is useful in my work which is essentially I'm a Buddhist psychotherapist, Buddhist,

Buddhist, spiritual counselor, whatever you want to call me, Buddha's pastor.

So let's dive right in.

One of the Buddha's most profound teachings

known as the Anata Lachana was one of his earliest teachings and it's a lesson where it said that many people who were in attendance became immediately enlightened by his insights.

And in this teaching he profoundly distanced himself

from the spiritual traditions of his time,

by basically proclaiming his path

as to be one that did not enshrine or elevate core self as endemic or central to Buddhist practice.

In the Anatala Khanah Suta, the Buddha says

...