In Buddhism the problem of the real you is better solved by understanding what is not you. Philosophically speaking, this way of looking at yourself is the via negativa. This can be easily illustrated.

If we imagine that we are a radio signal, trying to find ourselves in a radio would be terribly confusing and difficult since we would believe that we are the tuner or the speaker or the antenna and so on.

Further imagine that other radios are telling us there is no such thing as a radio signal. They declare: “You are the sum of the radio with all of its parts.” Now let’s imagine as a radio we start to learn about an enlightened radio called the Buddha. In his discourses the Buddha continually harps on the fact that the radio is not us (anattâ/anatman). He lists all the parts of the radio then says of each part like the antenna, this radio part is not me.

I think this signal/radio analogy is very pertinent. If one bothers to read the bulk of the Buddha’s discourses, the Buddha is always telling his followers that their psychophysical body, which he calls the Five Aggregates (form, sensation, perception, discrimination, consciousness [R.C. Childers’ trans.]) should not be mistaken for their self. In other words, aggregates are not-the-self or in Pali, anattâ. In light of this, those who insist that the Buddha denied the self are completely wrong.

Getting back to the problem of trying to find the real you it becomes almost an impossible task if we strongly desire to identify our self with our physical body since our body is subject to aging and constant change, not to mention degrees of pain. By the same token, it is absurd to insist there is no self or you. It changes nothing. But it does change things if we learn to detach from our strong desire to identify our self with the psychophysical body. In this reflection, we have to learn to see our self as being more like a radio signal which is tuned into a particular body, partaking of its life; that after this body’s death will link with still another body otherwise called, ‘rebirth’.