In Theravāda texts, the teaching of non-self (anattā) is unfolded through a careful analysis of lived experience. What is ordinarily called a “person” is examined as a composite of five aggregates (pañcakkhandha): form (rūpa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saññā), mental formations (saṅkhārā), and consciousness (viññāṇa). Each of these is shown to be impermanent, subject to suffering, and not fully under one’s control; therefore none can rightly be regarded as a permanent, independent self (attā). Because they are conditioned and constantly changing, these aggregates do not provide a secure basis for the sense of “I” or “mine.” Anattā thus does not assert a nihilistic void, but reveals that what is taken as a solid self is, in fact, a dynamic process.

This teaching is closely linked with the three characteristics of existence (tilakkhaṇa): impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha), and non-self (anattā). Since all conditioned phenomena are impermanent and bound up with unsatisfactoriness, they cannot be an enduring self. Theravāda texts use this insight to dismantle self-views (attavāda), showing that no enduring essence can be found either within the aggregates or apart from them. The analysis that a being is “neither the same nor entirely different” from moment to moment underscores a continuity of causal processes without a fixed identity at their core.

From this perspective, talk of a “person” or “being” functions as a convenient designation for a stream of causally connected phenomena, rather than as a statement about an ultimate entity. This middle approach avoids both eternalism, which posits an unchanging soul, and annihilationism, which assumes that such a soul is destroyed. The teaching of non-self is therefore not merely a philosophical thesis but a practical tool: by seeing that body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness are not truly “I” or “mine,” attachment and clinging are gradually undermined. As this insight deepens through contemplation and meditation, the grip of self-view loosens, opening the way to disenchantment, the cessation of suffering, and liberation (nibbāna).