Quote from
Gerhard on April 26, 2024, 6:40 am
Dumb question? It tis not!
Who am I? — is the megalith question of self-enquiry. Students aren't probed with this question as some means of SQ test (Spiritual Quotient) — they are given this question as a probe to discover who they themself are — at every increasing depth.
So let's walk through the classic reasoning. Who are you?
Are you the body? Well, if you think about it, clearly not. Your body changes and morphs over time, you can lose a piece of your body — such as a finger, or get a liver transplant, or lose some functioning of the brain — and still you will be there.
Are you the mind? Well, perhaps? The content of your mind are ever fluctuating — so which part of the mind are you? Are you the consciousness? Are you the space that holds perception? Is your soul seated as perceiver of the mind? These questions are more abstract, which means you are on the right track!
Let's take another approach. Can you point to where you are?
The answer of who you are has many depths. No one can honestly tell you that one answer or the other is wrong. However, what I can tell you, is that identity is an illusion. As much an illusion as the colours — the brain spins this illusion of self or identity — and it has been doing this for millions of years. As far as a tool of survival goes, consciousness can be useful, if Darwinian forces convince the consciousness that you are a separate being that can be hurt, killed, needs food, has desires, etc. — Identity is the illusion created by the mind — spectacularly useful for helping an animal survive and reproduce.
But you do exist, obviously. It is just that you are not a human! Ok, on some level you are a human, but no more so than you are a citizen of country X or Y. Think of it this way. If you were to discover tomorrow, that you were actually born in another country, and your citizenship changes to another country, would that change who you are? How about if you discovered you were adopted? Would that change who you are? How about — if scientists discovered that you are not a human at all, but the last surviving Neanderthal! Would that change who you are? It may change your identity, but will it change the essence of you?
All of this is to say — that your experience of life is a morphing, changing, abstract notion. The brain is great at solidifying this abstraction into a solid, functioning identity — which is useful to us. But it is exceeding possible to experience the identity drop off from being "you" — and to experience the abstraction of bubbling flow — which is what you really are.
Asking "Who Am I?" is the scalpel for this endeavour. It can probe though the layers of mentality, emotion and the ancient, bodily identity.
[sc name="art_thou_a_human"][/sc]
Dumb question? It tis not!
Who am I? — is the megalith question of self-enquiry. Students aren't probed with this question as some means of SQ test (Spiritual Quotient) — they are given this question as a probe to discover who they themself are — at every increasing depth.
So let's walk through the classic reasoning. Who are you?
Are you the body? Well, if you think about it, clearly not. Your body changes and morphs over time, you can lose a piece of your body — such as a finger, or get a liver transplant, or lose some functioning of the brain — and still you will be there.
Are you the mind? Well, perhaps? The content of your mind are ever fluctuating — so which part of the mind are you? Are you the consciousness? Are you the space that holds perception? Is your soul seated as perceiver of the mind? These questions are more abstract, which means you are on the right track!
Let's take another approach. Can you point to where you are?
The answer of who you are has many depths. No one can honestly tell you that one answer or the other is wrong. However, what I can tell you, is that identity is an illusion. As much an illusion as the colours — the brain spins this illusion of self or identity — and it has been doing this for millions of years. As far as a tool of survival goes, consciousness can be useful, if Darwinian forces convince the consciousness that you are a separate being that can be hurt, killed, needs food, has desires, etc. — Identity is the illusion created by the mind — spectacularly useful for helping an animal survive and reproduce.
But you do exist, obviously. It is just that you are not a human! Ok, on some level you are a human, but no more so than you are a citizen of country X or Y. Think of it this way. If you were to discover tomorrow, that you were actually born in another country, and your citizenship changes to another country, would that change who you are? How about if you discovered you were adopted? Would that change who you are? How about — if scientists discovered that you are not a human at all, but the last surviving Neanderthal! Would that change who you are? It may change your identity, but will it change the essence of you?
All of this is to say — that your experience of life is a morphing, changing, abstract notion. The brain is great at solidifying this abstraction into a solid, functioning identity — which is useful to us. But it is exceeding possible to experience the identity drop off from being "you" — and to experience the abstraction of bubbling flow — which is what you really are.
Asking "Who Am I?" is the scalpel for this endeavour. It can probe though the layers of mentality, emotion and the ancient, bodily identity.
