# Buddhist non-self is not automatically a universal Self

Commentary on Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton.

On [CH08.P009](https://glosses.org/orthodoxy/pg16769-r1/CH08.P009/#char=298,325): "and which often is Buddhism"

The qualification ‘often’ does not make Buddhism synonymous with pantheism. It nevertheless introduces a grouping that needs testing before the ensuing argument is accepted. A revealing counterpoint is the *Anatta-lakkhana Sutta* (Saṃyutta Nikāya 22.59), here inspected in Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s 1993 Pali translation, Access to Insight’s 2013 revision. The discourse examines bodily form, feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness, refusing to identify any with a self because they change and cannot be commanded at will. Its stated result is release through relinquishing attachment. [SN 22.59, PTS S iii 66](https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn22/sn22.059.than.html).

That argument does not replace individual persons with a single divine person or world-consciousness. It therefore cannot simply be treated as the doctrine of a universal Self attacked later in this chapter. This is a limited comparison with one Buddhist discourse, not an assertion that one passage exhausts Buddhism’s diverse traditions. The ancient discourse has no securely identifiable modern-style first-publication date; 1993 dates the translation used here.

## Sources

- [Pañcavaggi Sutta: Five Brethren (SN 22.59), translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu](https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn22/sn22.059.than.html), PTS S iii 66; opening analysis of the five aggregates and final paragraph describing disenchantment and release; translation copyright 1993, page revised 30 November 2013

Revision 1 · 2026-11-07 · https://glosses.org/a/a_xipxbpa6/