In Week 2 of his Tricycle Retreat, “Selfless Practice,” Rodney Smith asks: “Who wants to deal with anatta [selflessness] when they could deal with impermanence?” It’s a fair question. Most of us, Smith contends, are much more comfortable coming to terms with impermanence. Why is this? Well, first of all, we know what it is. […]

In the January 22nd, 2010 Times Literary Supplement, the philosopher Peter Hacker considers Galen Strawson’s book Selves, which at 452 pages seems like a dense and weighty philosophical tome. In his review, Hacker traces the use of the word “self” from its early Middle English origins up to its (problematic, he says) use by John […]

Rodney Smith’s new book Stepping Out of Self-Deception is going to be the subject of our upcoming Tricycle Community Book Club Discussion, starting Monday July 26th. The book is premised on the often difficult idea of anatta, variously anglicized as no-self, not-self, or non-self. From Chapter 1 (pp. 4-5): The fundamental principle we must remember […]