Defense of the concept of a self: The evidence is immediate and overwhelming, thus shutting out ability to have some

sort of concrete conceptual thought about the opposite. So when there is someone that says that a soul exists, then he or she will look for the immediate, practical aspects of it. Thus we will be looking at how it can affect our daily lives, which will then reinforce the idea of the self existing. This is the basis of a belief. When a belief is backed up by emotion, then we have a stage of thought where the person will fully believe the idea of a soul and reinforce it with evidence of everyday life. The concept of no self: First, we will define the soul. Then we will chip away at it, finding the contradiction and then using the contradiction as a attack point towards the concept that there is no soul to begin with.

What if there was some truth behind the idea of a soul? What if we see the practical aspects, the positive emotions that it provokes and use it to show that there is more. The mental state or the perception that the concept opf a soul provokes leads to the cause of action. It is a causal creator.

Similie of the balloon We have air trapped in a ballon, the balloon holds the air in, you can feel it, thus imagine air as pressure and whanot. But then, if we pop the balloon, we get a greater understanding of air. That air is around us, that air is also the medium for sound, other greater if not equivalent truths about air arise from our letting go of the concept that the air is just the stuff inside the balloon. The same way, I can explain the soul. The soul is a concept, people trap it with other ideas, other emotions, they solidify it as this construct, thismental process in their head that they are their soul. They are their unchanged structure of moral evaluation and permanence. However, if we are looking from the concrete side of the view, we can argue that the soul cannot exist through contradictions What kind of contradictions? Is there evidence for the concept of a soul? That is the easy part. What about marrying the two views and uncovering the true nature of nonexistence? Conventionalist point of view vs the ultimate truth view Conventional view is easy

Ultimate truth requires internalization of the conventionalist views and then seeing the truth behind each one. A belief is like a piece of land, a different beliefe is a another piece of land separated by a large river. To see the other side of the beliefe, one must give up all attachment to the current belief in order to truly learn from the new one.m

Outline: Ask about beliefs, Talk about the soul being just a belief brought on by practical aspects Talk about the Buddhist argument against the soul. Talk about the practical aspects: 1) control over the mind, 2) Compassion = communication with people (having reinforcement that what the person does is a good thing (aka giving them reason to live.)) Also the idea or concept of the ghettos in which there are people who view life diffrerently. The concept of searching for what happiness really is. Fidning out the concept of nirvana as a stage in which the fire is extinguis