Page "Anatta" Paragraph 43

While the pre-Buddhist Upanishads link the Self to the attitude " I am ," others like the post-Buddhist Maitri Upanishad hold that only the defiled individual self, rather than the universal self, thinks " this is I " or " this is mine ".

According to Peter Harvey, This is very reminiscent of Buddhism, and may well have been influenced by it to divorce the universal Self from such egocentric associations.

The Upanishadic " Self " shares certain characteristics with nibbana ; both are permanent, beyond suffering, and unconditioned.

However, the Buddha shunned any attempt to see the spiritual goal in terms of " Self " because in his framework, the craving for a permanent self is the very thing which keeps a person in the round of uncontrollable rebirth, preventing him or her from attaining nibbana.

Harvey continues: Both in the Upanishads and in common usage, self / Self is linked to the sense of " I am " ...

If the later Upanishads came to see ultimate reality as beyond the sense of " I am ", Buddhism would then say: why call it ' Self ', then?