When this paper talks about a thing called ‘the real self,’ this does not mean that the author thinks that Buddhism accepts that there is some kind of self taught in Buddhism. As we know, Buddhism teaches that there is no self. But the self rejected in Buddhism is metaphysical self. The real self mentioned in this paper is empirical self, the self that we can experience. The paper does not intend to explore the metaphysical self; so the real self given in the paper can be based on any metaphysical view. That is, it does not matter you are materialist (who believes that life consists of matter only and the brain is responsible for all mental properties) or idealist (who believes that besides the material body there exists the mind or the soul and the latter is responsible for every mental property such as thinking), all of you can perceive the real self, the self that tends to anything to make life higher from merely instinct-based life.
