Who Are You, Really?

Re: Who Are You, Really?



So you are saying I am an a $$ hole right?

Hey, I believe you just misquoted me. :wink:

Incidentally, I was agreeing with your thought that the true self is truly an 'unknowable.'

They think I am nuts, I think I am not, and the general public does not care.

And it doesn't really matter. That's the best part of it.

Nope JLN because I paint and have fun with my friends. It could be that I am different than they want me to be or it could be that I am not like them.

One benefitinf life I have always enjoyed is that you can pick your friends. Family, co-workers, neighbors well they are there but you do not have much choice.

What other people think about me relevant people or not has never been a priority. All of us are just the way we are. What other people see and think is beyond our control I think.

I agree, of course. Way beyond our control. There's no way of knowing how people respond to you--until they tell you.
Who am I? Bond, Herbie Bond.

And they do not know what you are thinking until you tell them. Often people, including me, tend to judge without knowledge. I hate it when I do that but it seems impossible not to on occasion.

JimmyK .........you are wrong!

JoanneDoral &JLNobody..........You are what you do, don,t you think? After all, if you are what you think, you would have to be the centre of all existence, and obviously so, since your thoughts emenate from the centre of reality , which is your reality....the only reality.
What you do is perceived by your
significant others, always.

Whether or not that 'defines' you is open for debate, alikimr.

The question "Who are you really?" brings to mind the Hindu dictum "Tat tvam asi"--Thou art that. This means, of course, a denial of the subject-object split. You do not HAVE experiences; you ARE your experiences. As such, every object of experience IS YOU. The zen buddhist have the saying "All things enlighten me." This means that all things (all content of experience) show me my true self.
There's a humorous account by Meister Eckhard, I believe (the Christian mystic).
The Seeker approaches God's door:
Knock, knock.
God: "who's there".
The Seeker: "Me"
God: "Go away."
Years later, after considerable study and mediation, the Seeker returns to God's door.
Knock, knock.
God: "Who's there?
Seeker: "You."
God: "Come in."

Who are YOU?

Way cool JLN the best knock, knock joke I have ever heard.

JLNobody :
I enjoyed your references. However I
do question your interpretation of "All things enlighten me" . Increasing your understanding of
life around you by soaking up the full content of your experiences indeed changes ,and mostly enhances your being......and inevitably is expressed to others by your actions
I do not understand your reference to
"my true self". I cannot conceive an "untrue self".

As I understand it, my "false self" is ego. As I understand the dictum, "All things enlightening me," it does mean that all things provide empirical evidence or data which can be interpreted as knowledge ABOUT the world. Since I AM my experience, not some ego to whom experience happens, each experience of color, smell, sound, etc. etc. reveals to me my true self. Tat tvam asi. Every experience IS me, as they come and go.

JLNobody:
"Ego" is derived from the Greek word 'ego' meaning 'myself', or 'the self'. Webster's
definition is " the consciousness of an individual's
distinction from other selves".
Every experience is indeed ME. as you say, and reveals your "true self" ......but your extension to a "false self", particularly when you call this your "ego" ,opens your proposition to serious question.

JLNobody:
I must say, I am enjoying this little debate very much, as I hope you are. I forgot to ask you if in your travels through the paradoxes of
Zen reality you actually came across the reference to a "false self"........I have not. Ego , ofcourse, is
in continual involvement.

All I know is that I just noticed that my loving dog is a work of art in fur and hair. He is mostly white, with large brown splocthes, and long brown ears that are technically hair, not fur. The texture is completely different from the fur that covers the rest of him in waves and contrasting colours, especialy when the wind is blowing. Who he is could never truly be captured in a photograph or a painting. There are too many variables, that no still form of art could capture. It rests in the eye of the observer, and therein lies life to me.

Tywvel, I knew you'd come when needed. Your knack for explaining this very subtle point amazes me.
Alikimir, it will require effort, of course, but you should, as I have, benefit from this insight.

Twyvel : You say "consciousness..........cannot observe itself". I say that thought cannot observe itself and you cannot observe thought. Same thing.
I see some clever semantic ambiguities but no insight into the question of "false self", or the validity of "ego". Ego is not a" pseudo 'object or subject. It is the conscious ego that distinguishes
"being" from "nothingness"and it very self-evident that consciousness of itself is the emminent characteristic of consciousness.