Anatta is the belief that there is no permanent self. This means that we have no soul. This is because everything keeps changing. For example, our bodies change all the time - cells die and new cells are created. Anatta is a challenging idea for many non-Buddhists because the idea of a soul is so central to other religions.

One example of this concept is the story of Theseus' ship. Over its life, a wooden sailing ship will have different parts of it replaced at different times. Over time, every part of Theseus' ship had been replaced. Is it the same ship? Now imagine that someone had collected all the old parts that had been removed. If they then built a ship from those parts, there would be two identical ships. Which one would be Theseus' ship?

Y9 Buddhism

Anatta - no permanent self