The Buddha's strategy in this discourse was to shake the monks confidence in their traditional ideas about the self, by asking them where exactly in a human being, we find anything that warrants the label self. And he does this search systematically, he looks through each of the five aggregates. And according to Buddhist philosophy, that's all human being is these five aggregates and they are in brief, the physical body or form basic feelings, perceptions, that is sights and sounds. Fourth is mental formations. Robert Wright said this is a big category that includes complex emotions, thoughts, inclinations, habits, decisions, and finally, five consciousness or awareness. Notably, the awareness of the contents of the other four aggregates are Skandhas. So the Buddha runs through this list, and asks if any of these qualify as a self. And his criterion is, do you have control over any of these? Here's what he says about form. If form were self, then form would not lead to affliction. And it should obtain regarding form may my form be thus, they may form not the thus. But he notes, our bodies do lead to affliction. And we can't magically change that by saying May my form be thus. So form, the stuff the human body is made of, isn't really under our control. Therefore, it says the Buddha, it must be the case that form is not self. Or we could say I am not my body. And then he goes through all the other four aggregates. And it's the same with all of them. It's sort of like what's given, we have a body, we have thoughts, we have perceptions, we have feelings, all of them enter the mind, we become aware of them, but we don't control them, we may try to control them, but each one of us runs up against that difficulty. Top down does not work very well. And what the Buddha is saying is there is no top from which to control it top down.