TMingyur wrote:Aemilius wrote: Even Buddha uses the word self, for example in the Dhammapada Canto XII The Self, in verse 160. He says:" Self is the Lord of self; what higher Lord could there be ? etc..."
One does not adhere to a false view merely because one uses the word self, see?
Obviously you do not get the difference between using the word and identifying "self" with one of the aggregates.
It is a difficult question, normally language is used to identify things, like: "this is a car, that is a house,... "
You identify yourself or your classmates in an old photograph on the basis of how they look, which means their "
form" in buddhist terminology.
In remembering you identify your ownself mainly from how you felt and how you thought at that particular time, which in buddhist language means
vedana, samnja, samskara and
vijnana aggregates.
In remembering identification is an essential element.
Even Buddha when He attains enlightenment under the Bodhitree remembers His many hundreds, His many thousands of previous lives, and He sees, "I was this, such was my clan, such was my family, such was my occupation, under such circumstances I lived, under such circumstances I died", thus the element of identification is obvious in Buddha's case too.
(The tradition maintains that everyone who attains enlightenment can see and remember his past lifetimes, to a larger a smaller degree, depending on various factors.)