1. Whether or not one believes in a “sense of me,” that “sense of me” is in everyone except for an Arahant.
- It is a “sansāric bond” (specifically “asmi māna” samyojana) that binds all except Arahants to the rebirth process.
- The easiest way to check this is to think about the following: Are you not afraid to die? If someone tries to kill you, would you not panic and try to avoid getting killed using all your resources?
2. In the same way, all ten samyojana (sakkāya diṭṭhi, vicikicchā, silabbata parāmāsa, kāma rāga, paṭigha, rupa rāga, arupa rāga, māna, uddaccha, avijjā) are in an average human (puthujjana).
- See #14 of “Etaṁ mama, esohamasmi, eso me attā’ti – Connection to Taṇhā, Māna, Diṭṭhi“ and my comments on May 25, 2025, above.
- They can be broken only by fully understanding the Buddha’s worldview, i.e., by cultivating paññā. That is a step-by-step process. Getting rid of asmi māna comes at the end. Even thinking about how to remove the “sense of me” is unfathomable even to a Sotapanna. It is like trying to learn calculus without knowing how to add and subtract.
