| Summary: | 碩士 === 佛光大學 === 佛教學系 === 97 === The uniqueness of Buddhism that makes it different from all other religions is the denial of a permanent self. The concept of a non self is the core teaching of Buddhsim which liberates the sentient beings from countless cycle of birth and death. While the Buddha speaks of the non-self doctrine, the existence of a true self is revealed in His final discourse Mahaparinirvana sutra before He entered the final nirvana.
The true self is Buddha nature which is intrinsically exhibited in all sentient beings. The practice of non self progressively lead one to rediscover the true self that is inherited in every one of us. The concept of the true self in Linji Lu will be explored in this paper.
This thesis will be divided into 4 chapters. The first chapter will give a brief account of the purpose, motivation, the background material, methodology, challenges and solutions, literature review, research questions and the structure of this paper. The second chapter will throw some light on why did the Buddha deny the existence of a permanent self and why the clinging of a delusion self will lead to suffering. The teaching of non-self to free the sentient beings from suffering in various sutras will then be discussed. The last part of the second chapter unfold the teaching of the true self in the Mahaparinirvana sutra followed by a further discussion on various school of thoughts on the true self (The Buddha nature) by Zhu Daosheng, Dogen and Zongmi.
The third chapter will take a look at the concept and the significance of the true self in Linji lu which finally wraps up with a conclusion in chapter 4.
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