The Aggregate Self
In the Axial Age, before the concept of supernaturalism as we think of it today, approaches to the soul were often more like a materialist theory. In Phaedo, the character Simmias argues that the soul is like “a harmony played on a lyre”. While the strings and parts are material, through their action they produce what we call harmony. When the strings are broken, the harmony ceases to be1.
This recalls Heraclitus similarly explaining polarity with the example of a strung bow held in shape by an equilibrium of the string's tension and the bow spring2. These are explanations of the mind coming about through the interaction of physical components in a system. In the case of Simmias' argument, these explanations pertain to the human mind or soul - not metaphorically, but as an attempt to describe the natural mechanisms of consciousness.
The Stoics believed that humans were ensouled just as the universe was ensouled. Both in the case of the breath of persons and the breath of the universe, this soul is an active force moving throughout which animates. In essence, the Divine Fire is possible because of the Logos. That Divine Fire is the creative force which makes possible all emergent properties, including our rational minds - which emerge from the interdependence of our parts.
When we think about what we are we might imagine, “I have memories”, “I have thoughts”, “I have sensations”, “I have a will that can make selections”, “I have a personality”, “I have emotions”, and so on. Yet, we will not find the “I” that has any of these things. Instead, like a distributed computer network with no central control - we are that collection of traits, all interconnected in a distributed way.
This aligns with the Buddhist notion of no-self (or non-self, not-self)3 in which it is understood that we are but aggregates, which they delineate into five kinds of mental aspects such as form/matter, sensation, perception, impulses, and consciousness. Stoic philosopher and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius speaks of a practice of separating yourself (intellect) from your thought, and delineating the parts of you (body, breath, intellect)4.
The Buddhist meditation on our aggregate nature is designed to show us more viscerally that, in these constituents and traits, there is no "me"5. We are more than the sum of our parts, but not independent of any of them.
However, the phrase 'no self' can be misleading to those first hearing it. Of course there is something we are meaningfully discussing when we say “I meditated today” or “she spoke to me”. But, as with the broader concept of emptiness, that thing called self is empty of the singular, defined, and unchanging characteristics we ascribe to it.
This is why there is a distinction between conventional truth and ultimate truth. There is a practical utility to conventional truth, but ultimate truth is more enlightening6.
For this reason, I use the term, "The Aggregate Self". The concept is consistent with the ancient Western philosophies which seek to identify the different parts and workings of the mind, and the Eastern philosophies which show that this notion of the self, the way we typically imagine it, is illusory. And so, awareness of the Aggregate Self requires understanding of the other cosmic traits described above: the Logos, Divine Fire, Emergence, Interdependence, and Subsistence. Deep grasping of these concepts, and forming the mental habit of thinking in these terms, is the first step.