by Tang Huyen

In December 2004, Tang Huyen posted to talk.religion.buddhism in the context of a thread about the self and spiritual cultivation. What he offered was a concise map of the Buddhist and Stoic paths as practices of self-opening — and a sharp diagnosis of how blocking oneself from oneself gets mislabelled, by those who practise it, as the achievement of no-self.

Surely the Buddhist and Stoic paths start out with opening oneself to oneself and being honest to oneself, without which nothing works. One opens oneself to oneself without getting attached to (or against) anything that comes into one's consciousness. One cognises it and lets it go, but doesn't push it away from one or draw it toward one. This way, one comes to recognise oneself, reconcile with oneself, reconnect with oneself, and when one is enough at peace with oneself, one can then drop oneself, drop one's self and be free — free of self and what-belongs-to-self (désappropriation).

The whole trick of cultivation in Buddhism and Stoicism is to shorten the distance between what comes up in consciousness and consciousness, so that any in-between mediation thins out and vanishes. This mediation is mentation, in the widest sense, and includes imagination, thinking, remembering the past, expecting the future, etc. When that mediation is dissolved, it no longer creates a self for one to carry around. There is only what happens, received in rapt attention in full devotion.

This opening up of oneself to oneself in utter honesty is the direct contrary to blocking oneself from oneself, hiding oneself from oneself, rejecting oneself to oneself, condemning oneself to oneself, so that whatever comes up in consciousness is instantly rejected and repressed as the most unseemly thing in the world. Some people spend the greater part of their energy doing this all their waking time, and some who practice it and have the intellectual means will try to justify it theoretically as the rejection of self-examination and self-reflection. They can even try to disguise it as no-self, because if they block out anything that comes into their consciousness, they will call the resulting blank the no-self. Of course this is in direct and frontal violation to Buddhist and Stoic theory and practice.

Colophon

Originally posted to talk.religion.buddhism by Tang Huyen, December 18, 2004. Message-ID: <[email protected]>.

Tang Huyen was a prolific and meticulous contributor to talk.religion.buddhism whose posts constitute some of the most rigorous comparative Buddhist philosophy in the Usenet archive. This essay presents what may be Tang Huyen's most direct formulation of the Buddhist/Stoic path as self-opening: receive, cognise, release. The closing observation — that blocking oneself from oneself can be mislabelled as no-self — is a characteristic Tang Huyen move, turning a common misreading into a diagnostic tool.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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