David Hume, a British
philosopher of the 18th century, argues that as much as we
want to believe that we have a self, there is no empirical evidence.
All that we have are mental impressions that are banded together by
memory. Because of the constant conjunction of these mental
impressions, a mental habit of connecting these impressions, coupled
with the belief that every effect has a cause, has led to the belief
that there is something that is thinking these mental impressions. We
give it a name: the self. But the self, by itself, is not an
impression.
Grammar may also have
contributed to the belief in the existence of the self. Take, for
example, “Peter is running”. This is the simple 'subject –
predicate' form, which has it that the predicate refers to the
subject. The predicate, in this case, is the action, and the subject
is the acting agent. But, what about 'It is raining'? The predicate
is 'raining' and the subject is the 'it'. What is this 'it” that
rains? Grammar imposes its structure on reality.
Some may argue that
there is a true self that lies behind the mental impressions; or that
there is a true self that is different from the empirical self that
consists of mental impressions (memory). The feeling that there has
to be something does not
guarantee that there in fact is a some thing.
In
other words, we want so much to believe that something of us, the
soul, will live forever, after resigning ourselves to the fact that
something of us, the body, will die and turn into ashes. We crave for
immortality.
It
is this belief in the indestructibility of the self (or, the soul if
you wish to call it) and the experience of pain and suffering, that
makes us insecure. Centered on this insecurity, we plan our lives for
the purpose of surviving.
Wanting
so much to believe that we can and must live forever makes it very
difficult for us to appreciate the value of compassion and love, and
our responsibility towards the well being of the others. We cannot
love the others because we are comfortable with our being insecure.
We act aggressively towards those who rile up our comfort zone.
Until
we let go of the illusion of the 'true' self, we will stay selfish and live in fear.
