Who are you?

[Aaron]

Someone asked me this question in another thread and it caught me off guard. I understand why he asked me this question, that the question wasn't so much who am I in a metaphysical sense, but rather who do I think I am, but to be honest I started to think of it as "who am I really?"

 

So my question to you is, "who are you?" I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

 

Aaron

[phore]

I am currently defining my self as a point in consciousness expressing my self through a human form. My body has physical dimensions and is capable of living on planet earth. This body is animated by living energy and is aware of this principle. I am gifted to be a point in consciousness capable of witnessing and guiding this human form through its life journey. I know through the use of my imagination that i am capable of expressing myself in an unimited number of possible forms.

I look around my particular corner of the universe and find that other points of consciousness are constantly finding new ways of expressing themselves. They are all manifested in a particular form through the witnessing awareness that precedes form. This witnessing awareness that expresses itself through everyone is the whole of existence in nonexistence and also the individual parts.

I am constantly refining my approach to self expression. My body recycles all of its cells many times throughout its life journey.

On a very deep level i am nonexistence giving birth to existence and the union of the two. I am both my individual limitations and the unlimited nature that gave birth to limitations to express itself.

[sinno]

I am currently defining my self as a point in consciousness expressing my self through a human form. My body has physical dimensions and is capable of living on planet earth. This body is animated by living energy and is aware of this principle. I am gifted to be a point in consciousness capable of witnessing and guiding this human form through its life journey. I know through the use of my imagination that i am capable of expressing myself in an unimited number of possible forms.

I look around my particular corner of the universe and find that other points of consciousness are constantly finding new ways of expressing themselves. They are all manifested in a particular form through the witnessing awareness that precedes form. This witnessing awareness that expresses itself through everyone is the whole of existence in nonexistence and also the individual parts.

I am constantly refining my approach to self expression. My body recycles all of its cells many times throughout its life journey.

On a very deep level i am nonexistence giving birth to existence and the union of the two. I am both my individual limitations and the unlimited nature that gave birth to limitations to express itself.

classic post bro

[Marblehead]

classic post bro

 

Agree!

[wayki]

awareness of feeling..... "i am."

 

all else is illusory.

[manitou]

And aware of who I Am is...really.

[Otis]

So my question to you is, "who are you?"

The short answer to this is: "I don't know".

 

The long answer is unfortunately very long, so I'll try to skim.

 

Although I don't recognize any way of pin-pointing or confirming who or what I am, there are many forms of mirrors in the world, each which can help give me an imperfect view.

 

Science is my favorite, because it's the least likely to be contaminated by wishful thinking and superstition. From a biological, materialist point of view, I am an animal, one of the great apes. Like other animals, I am an expression of DNA, via millennia of adaptation and most recently, the genetics specific to my parents. I am a body, which consists of structures of mobility, defense, and function. One such structure of function is my brain, which is primarily interested in 1. moderating the other organs, hormones and systems, and 2. enabling my senses and muscles, so that I can find food, eat, run, fight, etc. The brain also has more recent developments, which include abstract thought, problem-solving, language, and empathy, all of which make it easier for me to function, especially as part of a social species. One of those functions (a subset of a subset of a subset of the entire animal) is the sense of self, the feeling that I exist, and the self-reflection that comes from that perception.

 

From a neurological point of view, this "self" that I call "me" is an illusion. There is no one consciousness in my brain, but rather many many functions, which overlap and feedback with each other, giving the overall impression of one emergence. Thoughts are no more "me" than emotions, perceptions, risk-assessment, motor commands, or even temperature or endocrine regulation.

 

From a behaviorist point of view, I am a conditioned being. From birth, I have perceived rewards and punishments, both from "out there in the world" and from my own organism, which have shaped my perceptions, my responses, and even my thoughts.

 

From a cognitive point of view, I am a habitual being. I have habits of perception, of thought, of emotion. These habits tend to work as "if then" algorithms. If I am in X mood, and experience Y perception, in Z context, then I will usually think and respond in relatively uniform, predictable ways. What makes me unpredictable is usually the complexity of the factors in each algorithm.

 

From a phenomenological point of view: I am the center of my universe. Everywhere I go, there I am. There is nothing that comes in or goes out, that is not about me. When I sleep, the world disappears. When I reflect, I am looking at constructs that exist only in my head. When I "figure things out", I am moving mental constructs around. When I love or hate or fear, I am feeling the internal state of my body, in response to some combination of internal and external stimuli. When I justify my feelings or decisions, I am telling myself stories.

 

From a philosophical point of view, "I" am exactly my life, no more and no less. "My life" and "I" occupy the exact same territory.

 

Of course, part of "my life" includes my internal life, the function and feedback of my various organs, including my brain. But indeed, even the "external" world is never perceived directly, but is only assumed, based upon the models that my brain puts together. I am a mostly blind being, with certain small sensory capacities, that paint in certain relevant details, which my habits and heuristics expand into a working model of the world.

 

From a social point of view, I am "some guy". Just another dude on the street, friends to a few, stranger to most. To most other people in the world, it makes little to no difference, whether I am there or not.

 

As seen within an actual mirror, I am my appearance. I am the shame or pride in my image, plus the stories I tell myself about what it means to be me.

 

From the viewpoint of self-reflection, I am a cluster of data, contaminated by my wishes and fears. I have a general sense of adjectives about myself, although they are often not the same adjectives that are reflected back at me, from the other mirrors in my life. I define myself by my associations, my firm beliefs, my closest friends and family, as well as a sense of my latent potential, that I have not yet explored. My self-description is often based upon what I am not, as I compare myself to my perception and stories about other people.

 

There is also a spiritual mirror, but when I look at it, I do not see "me", only my hopes that I am something more than all of the above. Perhaps I do exist as spirit (and yes, I do have experiences that are inexplicable, by the models that I have mentioned above). But spirit feels like an unnecessary and utterly unknowable realm, not so much a mirror as a placebo, designed to make me feel better. I don't consider myself as spirit, not because I disbelieve, but because I don't yet see a reason to believe.

 

So: "who am I?" These mirrors all point towards some truth, but none is utterly satisfying on its own. I don't want to believe in images of my self, just because they make me special or holy or whatever. In fact, I don't want to derive my value from the "who am I" question, at all. "Who am I" is useful only as a way of looking at how I have come about, what's at the basis of this organism (biology), and what strategies are worthwhile, in dealing with the internal and external.

[manitou]

If we buy into the idea of All being One, then there is only one possible conclusion. We are the direct manifestation of It. We are It. We are the eyes and ears of It. Maybe the fact that it appears that the edges of our universe are expanding is really our mutual consciousness expanding.

 

To know that we are It only works if the ego has been tamed, capable of being transcended, or sidestepped. In all cases, this involves not reacting out of ego when the 'We are It' question arises; particularly when it comes to the individual human being. Ego and an untamed thought process will degenerate the "We are It" mindset, in which manifestations are truly possible. A true humility must be reached first - a humility that is borne from seeing ourselves as we really are - warts and all - and working on those obstructions that keep us from the One realization.

 

Fear must be tamed as well. To try and stay in the Now without fear moment to moment is the challenge. Fear is at the bottom of Anger (fear of not having something in particular, which warps into a type of anger and control).

 

Total love must be the prize, I think. Love is Fearless and Egoless, in its purest state. How can anything or anybody be hated if We are in awareness that we're all One? And the bizarre thing is that the very hardest person to really Love is ourselves - I think this is why it's hard for us to heal ourselves - usually it's easier with another person. But to generate that kind of healing love for ourselves? That's nearly asking the impossible.

[suninmyeyes]

Am I?

[strawdog65]

Who! Who!...

 

I really want to know.......

 

 

 

 

 

I am the sound of running water, heading steadfast... to the sea.

[Aetherous]

I'm a human being. Once this body dies, I'll find out if I'm something else.

[Taomeow]

[fatguyslim]

I am... FAULTY.

 

If I add more to this, then I add more to my faultiness!!!

[forestofemptiness]

I don't think this is something you can elicit thoughts about. It is something that is developed in one's practice.

 

For me, it's not who, but what.

 

What am I?

[Stigweard]

I wake in the spring,

Sleep finds me in the winter.

The moment is gone.

 

[dawei]

I've posted this in another thread but it's one of my favorite considerations, for Liezi:

 

"Your body does not belong to you; its form was lent to you by heaven and earth. Your life does not belong to you; it came into existence with the interactions of the energies of heaven and earth. Your mind and your spirit are not yours to control; they follow the natural way of heaven and earth. . . ."

 

Who am I? not a glib answer like "the divine is me and I am the divine". At least put it in a single word, Ethereal.

[Aaron]

Who am I? not a glib answer like "the divine is me and I am the divine". At least put it in a single word, Ethereal.

 

It's only a glib answer if you don't understand the totality of it, in fact it's exactly what Liezi explained. Divinity isn't necessarily "God", but rather the entirety of everything. In my mind I am everything and I am me. When I die, what becomes of me? Do I waste away and cease to be? If so does that mean that I cease to exist? Perhaps the I that is made up of my thoughts and ideas, but the parts that make up this body merely transform and go on. The universe is connected to everything and we are a part of that universe. Part of understanding that "I am the divine and the divine is me" is understanding that God is in me and I am in God. I am in the Universe and the Universe is in me, how does that contradict anything that Taoism teaches?

 

I think the problem people have is that they look at themselves and consider themselves to be simply the ego self that they have learned to be, not realizing that we are much more than that. I've explained this before and I'll do it again, briefly this time.

 

As human beings we have tiny bacteria that resides within our stomach and digestive tract. This bacteria helps us to digest food, in fact it's required in order for us to do this. We look at these bacteria and we say, we are not this bacteria, but in fact we are. We are our hair, toe nails, bile, and tears. And just as there is bacteria in our stomach, we reside within the body of the universe, and whether we believe it or not, we are a necessary part, just as the many species on this world are. Are we necessary for the existence of the Universe to continue, no, but the truth is, even in death we continue, perhaps not as humans, but as energy and matter that transforms and continues to be a part of the universe.

 

Who am I really? Well I am the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. I am the sky and the earth, the water in the ocean and the tree in the valley. I am the spirit and the body, the infinite and finite. I am more than just the ideas that allow me to understand that I am here, I am the body given birth and awakened, to question and know that in this breath I breathe I am more than simply one man, but everything that exists. It's only when I can see this that everything you've said really makes sense.

 

If that's glib, then I don't know what else to say.

 

Aaron

Edited July 7, 2011 by Twinner

[manitou]

Incredibly put, Aaron.

 

I Am.

 

It lies there in its totality.

[Bluefront]

I am in the Universe and the Universe is in me, how does that contradict anything that Taoism teaches?

 

It contradicts everything

 

This is a dualistic view of reality. I'm not that into taoism, but I do know that non-duality is it's central core. For there to be one without a second there can't be anything outside of the one, the universe. Honestly this is very hard to put into words. Actually it's impossible, since our language is constructed in a dualistic manner.

 

There is nobody to be the universe, and there is no universe to be in somebody. There is just the universe. Make any sense?

 

I mean, there is no separate self that is distanced from the universe, outside of it, and neither is there a separate self containing the universe, since it only exists as an idea.

[sifusufi]

Question...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answer...

 

 

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=5K9OFZ98zq8

 

 

[Aaron]

It contradicts everything

 

This is a dualistic view of reality. I'm not that into taoism, but I do know that non-duality is it's central core. For there to be one without a second there can't be anything outside of the one, the universe. Honestly this is very hard to put into words. Actually it's impossible, since our language is constructed in a dualistic manner.

 

There is nobody to be the universe, and there is no universe to be in somebody. There is just the universe. Make any sense?

 

I mean, there is no separate self that is distanced from the universe, outside of it, and neither is there a separate self containing the universe, since it only exists as an idea.

 

Actually I'm proposing non-duality, there is only one. I'm not sure how you read that I was proposing otherwise. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but the definition of the Universe is essentially everything, so your little innards and such are actually "the universe" or at least pieces of the universe, hence the universe is literally in you.Also what you said actually didn't make sense to me, but as long as it makes sense to you, that's cool.

 

What I actually said is that there is no separate self, so I'm not sure where you're getting your ideas from, but perhaps you need to look at what I actually wrote. There is only "It". You are "It". I am "It". Everything is "It". I hope that helps to clarify things.

 

Sorry if I sound a bit cranky, just got back from work and I had to ride the bus for two and half hours and walk two miles in the pouring rain. Hopefully I'll have my car on Monday and I wont have to worry about this.

 

Aaron

Edited July 8, 2011 by Twinner

[Bluefront]

..

 

I thought that I might have misunderstood you. Let's not care about right or wrong here. Let's just flow with this discussion

 

"You are "It". I am "It". I hope that helps to clarify things."

 

Well, what do you refer to when you say You, Me & I here? Who/what is "It" ?

 

PS

You don't have to explain yourself for being "cranky". It's life bro

You can hit me with anything, I won't take it personally. Promise! : - )

Edited July 8, 2011 by Bluefront

[Aaron]

I thought that I might have misunderstood you. Let's not care about right or wrong here. Let's just flow with this discussion

 

"You are "It". I am "It". I hope that helps to clarify things."

 

Well, what do you refer to when you say You, Me & I here? Who/what is "It" ?

 

PS

You don't have to explain yourself for being "cranky". It's life bro

You can hit me with anything, I won't take it personally. Promise! : - )

 

Hello Bluefront,

 

When I say "It", I mean literally everything in existence, what we see and don't see. The dualistic view is that the world is made of matter and consciousness, but I don't think that's so, I think our consciousness is as much a part of "It" as we are. The problem is that we have developed this idea of separateness that is founded upon our consciousness, that somehow our thoughts are not a part of the physical world, that we are drivers within vehicles, but in fact we are the vehicles and the vehicles are "It".

 

I've actually gone into great detail in another thread regarding this, so I wont bore people again, suffice it to say that consciousness isn't the entirety of our being, there was a "It" before we became we. The trick for me is getting back in touch with the "It" that I am and you are and everything else is. When I can do that, then I am working in harmony with the world, rather than against it.

 

Aaron

 

edit- You're right though, I didn't need to apologize, I needed to not be cranky. That's part of "It", the part that we "cultivate".

Edited July 10, 2011 by Twinner

[Otis]

Am I the only animal in here?

[Aaron]

Am I the only animal in here?

 

 

Well you may be the only animal, but not the only mammal.

 

Aaron