Do We Really Exist? Believing That the 'Self' Is a

Death is a scary thought for most—but Buddhism holds specific beliefs that might be expected to curb th Intelligent Traffic Enforcement at fear. Buddhism teaches that the "persisting self," essentially, does not exist, as described in a new study. The self, which is somewhat comparable to the soul, is a combination of traits that are ever-changing, and the self, as many Westerners may know it, does not persist through time and old age.

That understanding of Buddhism p Industrial IoT Router/Gateway rompted researchers to hypothesize that monastic Buddhists would fear death less when compared to lay Buddhists, Hindus and Christians. Their perceived belief that the self does not exist would surely mitigate the seemingly natural human instinct to fear death. But the researchers' study, published January 22 in Cognitive Science, found otherwise.

The team was led by Shaun Nichols, a philosopher from the University of Arizona, and Nina Strohminger, legal studies and business ethics professor at the University of Pennsylvania. They conducted various surveys analyzing attitudes towards death and the "self" among Hindus, Westerners (a majority Christian, atheist or agnostic) and three Buddhist populations, including lay Tibetan, lay Bhutanese and monastic Tibetans. The monastic Tibetan participants, who practice Buddhism in monasteries in India, were believed to be more strictly religious in comparison to the lay Tibetan and Bhutanese Buddhists.

Buddhist monks walk in front of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on August 9, 2017. TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP/Getty Images