In the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the term “Self” (ātman) is employed in a strikingly affirmative way to articulate the Buddha’s eternal nature. While earlier teachings emphasize that the conditioned aggregates are not-self, this text speaks of a true, unconditioned Self that is permanent, blissful, pure, and sovereign. This Self is identified with Buddha-nature (tathāgatagarbha) and with the Buddha’s dharmakāya, the truth-body that remains untouched by physical death. It functions as an ultimate reality underlying changing phenomena, free from birth, aging, and death, and is presented as the true identity of an awakened being.

At the same time, this Self is carefully distinguished from the ordinary ego or personal soul that Buddhism typically denies. The familiar doctrine of no-self is reaffirmed with respect to impermanent, compounded phenomena such as body, feelings, and consciousness, which are explicitly not the true Self. The Self affirmed here is non-egoic and unconditioned, transcending the skandhas and ordinary personality. In this way, the sutra can deny selfhood in what is transient while affirming a deeper, deathless reality associated with Buddhahood.

The text also attributes to this Self the four perfections of permanence, bliss, Self, and purity, thereby offering a positive characterization of nirvāṇa rather than a mere negation or annihilation. By speaking in this affirmative language, it addresses the existential fear that liberation might mean simple extinction, and instead presents awakening as the realization of an indestructible, blissful reality. Realizing this Self is thus equated with realizing one’s Buddha-nature and attaining final liberation from suffering and delusion.

This use of “Self” introduces a deliberate tension with the more familiar teaching of anatman, and has been understood as a skillful means to counter nihilistic misreadings of the Dharma and to provide a more accessible, affirmative path for those strongly attached to the idea of self. The Self of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra therefore serves as a paradoxical pointer: it does not restore a separate, individual soul, yet it refuses to leave ultimate truth in purely negative terms. It speaks of an eternal, unchanging Buddha-nature that abides beyond death, inviting contemplation of a dimension of reality that transcends both ordinary selfhood and its negation.