Hi Douglas, it appears you have a misunderstanding about the Buddhist concept of not self. Instead of trying to explain that viewpoint to you, it’s easier just to show you your own contradiction.

You say we are our thoughts. Well, that’s nonsensical from either a scientific perspective (which has no framework for what “thoughts” even are) or a materialist perspective. So clearly, human beings are not thoughts, if we were; then psychology would have overtaken biology a long time ago.

Are you no longer you when you have no thoughts? When you are sleeping? What if the thought you have about yourself is delusional, say you believe you are an astronaut from the future, is that you?

The Buddhist notion references the non conceptual. By definition it means non thought, or the view or perspective that requires no thought, no concept.

Thoughts are the illusion relative to the viewpoint holding the thoughts.

Map is not the territory

Menu is not the meal.

Self is not a self

“I seem to be a verb” Bucky Fuller put it simply