In Buddhism,how can one be liberated from the samsara if there is no personal self to be liberated?

I am studying World Religions and this week it is about Buddhism.|||The Buddha taught that when we awaken, we liberate ourselves from anger, desire, and delusion.





More specifically, he taught that, with awakening, we become "unbound" from anger, desire, delusion.





The idea of a personal self is one the many delusions that we create about our life. When we are no longer bound to the idea of a personal and persistent self, which is simply a fabricated idea, we become free of the force of that fabrication. As many teachers have said, there is no self to be liberated.|||Interesting observation.





You've got good eyes.





Now, if you were to experience that, rather than having logically deduced it, you would be all the way gone.





*grin*|||Buddha never was liberated from Samsara, that was a goal of his when he first set out on his conquest to discover how to stop suffering. The goal of self-liberation is to the goal to escape suffering, not to escape the cycle of Samsara, as he later came to realize and write about. There is no Buddhist text about escaping the reincarnation. Enlightenment is something totally different.|||First I will elaborate what Buddhism means by the self or the ego. There are according to Buddha five skandhas (aggregates): 1. Form 2. Sensation 3. Perception 4. Mental Formations 5. Consciousness. the first skandha is our physical form. The second is made up of our feelings, emotional and physical, and our senses -- seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling. The third skandha, perception, takes in most of what we call thinking - conceptualization, cognition, reasoning. This also includes the recognition that occurs when an organ comes into contact with an object. Perception can be thought of as "that which identifies." The object perceived may be a physical object or a mental one, such as an idea. The fourth skandha, mental formations, includes habits, prejudices and predispositions. Our volition, or willfulness, also is part of the fourth skandha, as are attention, faith, conscientiousness, pride, desire, vindictiveness, and many other mental states both virtuous and not virtuous. The causes and effects of karma are especially important to the fourth skandha. The fifth skandha, consciousness, is awareness of or sensitivity to an object, but without conceptualization. Once there is awareness, the third skandha might recognize the object and assign a concept-value to it, and the fourth skandha might react with desire or revulsion or some other mental formation. The fifth skandha is explained in some schools as base that ties the experience of life together. The Buddha taught that our egos, personalities and the sense that the "self" is something distinctive and permanent enclosed within our bodies, are just illusory effects the first skandha is our physical form. The second is made up of our feelings, emotional and physical, and our senses -- seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling. The third skandha, perception, takes in most of what we call thinking -- conceptualization, cognition, reasoning. This also includes the recognition that occurs when an organ comes into contact with an object. Perception can be thought of as "that which identifies." The object perceived may be a physical object or a mental one, such as an idea. The fourth skandha, mental formations, includes habits, prejudices and predispositions. Our volition, or willfulness, also is part of the fourth skandha, as are attention, faith, conscientiousness, pride, desire, vindictiveness, and many other mental states both virtuous and not virtuous. The causes and effects of karma are especially important to the fourth skandha. The fifth skandha, consciousness, is awareness of or sensitivity to an object, but without conceptualization. Once there is awareness, the third skandha might recognize the object and assign a concept-value to it, and the fourth skandha might react with desire or revulsion or some other mental formation. The fifth skandha is explained in some schools as base that ties the experience of life together. The Buddha taught that our egos, personalities and the sense that the "self" is something distinctive and permanent enclosed within our bodies, are just illusory effects of the skandhas. Like a chariot is a mode of expression denoting the aggregate of the axle, whell etc so the self is an expression of the aggregate of skandhas. According to buddhism clinging to eternalism or annihilationism is the cause of bondage. If person says that the self is a permanent, concrete, substantial entity then he is clinging to eternalism. If another says that the self is absolutely non existent then he is clinging to annihilationsim. The Buddha preached the Middle Way, avoiding both the extremes. Clinging to the self gives rise to attachment, avarice, greed, and a whole lot of negative emotions and passions that keep man bound to the world of samsara the world of suffering and the continous cycle of births and deaths. The self is an illusion and with clinging to this illusion come all the passions that cause rebirths. Nirvana is seeing the truth as it is. It is wisdom born of understanding the truth, the truth that frees you from illusion. The illusion of self as a substantial entity ends by realizing the truth and what ceases is this illusion and nothing else. Wisdom is in realizing that the self as we know does not exist, the self is nothing different from the skandhas, that everything is impermanent and unsubstantial. There is an important conversation to this effect between Kutadanta and the Buddha. Kutadanta asked Buddha that Niravana has no locality and so one may assume that it does not exist. The Buddha asked him,"Where does the wind dwell?", "Nowhere", Kutadanta replied. Buddha asked again, "Then does that mean that the wind does not exist being nowhere?" Kutadanta did not reply. Buddha asked again, "Where does wisdom dwell? Is Wisdom a locality? Kutadanta replied, "Wisdom has no alloted dwelling place." Buddha said,"Meanest thou that there is no wisdom, englightenment, no righteousness, and no salvation because nirvana is not a locality? Walk in the noble path of righteousness and thou wilt understand that while there is no death in self, there is immortality in truth." In the Sermon of Rajagaha Buddha said, "Self is an illusion, an error, a dream. Open your eyes and awaken. See things as they are and ye will be comforted. He who is awake will no longer be afraid of nightmares. He who has recognized the nature of te rope that seemed to be a serpent will cease to tremble. He who has found that there is no self will let go all lusts and desires of egotism. Surrender the grasping dispostion of selfishness and you will attain the calm state of mind which conveys perfect peace, goodness and wisdom."