The Self

The self is not easily defined due to the fact that all its factors are impermanent and bound to the laws of cause and effect. Because of this their is no intrinsic self due to the fact that all its factors are impermanent. The extrinsic self defines reality, the consciousness of the self acts as a filter for the objects of consciousness creating a continuity of consciousness that is immersed in a dichotomy of subjective and objective thinking, creating a dissonance and a dualistic view of reality. We separate ourselves from the real and immerse ourselves in a plethora of impermanent objects and concepts. We look for and identify ourselves with things that can not possibly hold the true breadth of the actual self and as such are lost as to the true meaning of existence. Life sucks but its so much fun

I like this a lot. "To live as life"--as life itself and not a life. The "self" might be nothing more than a partial perspective on life; and so to gain the full and true perspective, we must cease to be a self, a persona, and strive become Life, the Spirit outside the finite, material mask.

This I feel aligns with the buddhist principal of nonduality. Their is no separation between subjective and objective or the self and reality as such the "self is the lord of the self"

Hi all,

Can personal identity be thought of as the self? This may be a common error of the public, but in philosophy I think it is acknowledged that personal identity is NOT ones essence. "The self in one, is the self in all," this accordding to Hindu philosophy. The essence of life I think, is what the self is, and it is immuntable. Personal identity is a exclusionary process, for that which I deem other, defines the I which is my identity. The limits you might say of familularity of other things is the limit of identity. Identity is only a sense of identity, rather than something fixed and concrete, it is a centred experence, the relation of a subject to its object [environment]. "Subject and object stand or fall together." Schopenhaure

" This I feel aligns with the buddhist principal of nonduality. Their is no separation between subjective and objective or the self and reality as such the "self is the lord of the self "

:)As long as people enquire about the nature of the self or personal identity, its is the duality from which they speak.

yes i do think that personal identity is the essence of the temporal self. However due to its impermanence, i would call personal identity something that is less concrete, and there by less real then the atemporal self which is consciousness-awareness

vajrasattva,

I think we are in agreement, personal identity reminds me perhaps of a cloud yet formed, it is a condition. We mistakenly take this conditon as an object and as is fitting, it is more temporal than its surroundings. It is constently renewing itself with its changeing environment/surroundings. Identity, the condition of a said experience of it's environment???????????????????????????:eek: It just dawned upon me, there must be a co-relation between the environment and the process of identity, identity is reactive to its environment, reaction being consciousness, life.

read my blog i think youll like it
thanks
alex aka vajrasattva