What is a self?

[devilgoob]

The self does not exist. If it really does, it is simply a transient allusion concept created from the existence of an ordered state existing over time to realize it's difference between it and the world.

Basically an ego or as specific of viewpoint you can have. Ants don't have to much ego, they work as one and are not just sitting there eating or working for themselves. Illusions are fake and do not exist, but allusions refer to something that can't be directly interpreted, because each self has a different viewpoint, to what varying degree do these viewpoints go? Well, we do agree on some things and that could be seen as a macro-ego, just like the ants and are very similar, so everything is seen from our view. You could also think the bias of being human could screw with the way we think of the self. Ants, if they could think, probably wouldn't recognize their physical body as selves, but their whole collective colony.

I see myself as a pattern that interacts with other things, but as a baby..I did not see my self different from the world. I was one with my caregiver. Over time I was able to associate my being from what my senses tell me. My senses sense the things around me - so in fact I am my environment, since I cannot exist without biological matter, derived ultimately from the ground.

So the self really is non-existent on a larger level, but each individual is separate and has to communicate for that fact. They do not have roots, or umbilical cords anymore, but without food, without roots in the ground, they would be dead. They are not complete by themselves. Although we can think differently than others, we are still human. We do not think like bugs. We have common feelings, and the more common the feelings the more complete the marco-ego. You can think of groups of people as selves in a way, the way you don't think your singular cells are selves. Of course they do not have self-realization skills, but do recognize bad DNA and do make decisions based on their own specific environment specific to their cell's happenings and not another cell's, meaning they are physically separate and different, yet they communicate and are all one on a bigger level.

 

[EclipseFour20]

What is self...let's ask it differently...what is water? Ice, gas, liquid, solvent, it is required for life--but it provides zero nutrition.

All are "correct", but it depends when and where one's reference point is.

For me--"self" is "soul", the thing that makes you different from me--but yet it also makes us "similar".

One of the huge limitations of conversing in "english" is the limitation of word choice. Example, Inuit speaking people (Eskimos) have a dozen basic words (those not derived from another word) that refer to "snow" and ten words for "ice"; where we have one each.

So there is the issue, we must use "a word" then "define it"--hence you ask 20 people what is "self", and you will have 20 answers.

Cheers! I know who I am, therefor...I am!...lol

 

[skullznroses]

Devilgoob-

Its like you're trying to undefine something that does by very nature of having a word, a meaning, and a reality it exists.

You could say the sky is really just several large layers of gases with no real definition between ground horizon and the heavens. Just because you know that behind the layers of gas trapped by earths rotation and gravity there is void doesn't mean there is no such thing as the sky.

You could cut a frog apart into such small pieces that it could never be reconstructed or refrogged, but that was still a frog.

Sorry you might not understand what self means, but it is indeed an real concept.

 

[southflorida]

The self does not exist. If it really does, it is simply a transient allusion concept created from the existence of an ordered state existing over time to realize it's difference between it and the world.

Basically an ego or as specific of viewpoint you can have. Ants don't have to much ego, they work as one and are not just sitting there eating or working for themselves. Illusions are fake and do not exist, but allusions refer to something that can't be directly interpreted, because each self has a different viewpoint, to what varying degree do these viewpoints go? Well, we do agree on some things and that could be seen as a macro-ego, just like the ants and are very similar, so everything is seen from our view. You could also think the bias of being human could screw with the way we think of the self. Ants, if they could think, probably wouldn't recognize their physical body as selves, but their whole collective colony.

I see myself as a pattern that interacts with other things, but as a baby..I did not see my self different from the world. I was one with my caregiver. Over time I was able to associate my being from what my senses tell me. My senses sense the things around me - so in fact I am my environment, since I cannot exist without biological matter, derived ultimately from the ground.

So the self really is non-existent on a larger level, but each individual is separate and has to communicate for that fact. They do not have roots, or umbilical cords anymore, but without food, without roots in the ground, they would be dead. They are not complete by themselves. Although we can think differently than others, we are still human. We do not think like bugs. We have common feelings, and the more common the feelings the more complete the marco-ego. You can think of groups of people as selves in a way, the way you don't think your singular cells are selves. Of course they do not have self-realization skills, but do recognize bad DNA and do make decisions based on their own specific environment specific to their cell's happenings and not another cell's, meaning they are physically separate and different, yet they communicate and are all one on a bigger level.

Interesting read and excellent examples.

Self can be anything that our awareness attaches to and identifies with, or even be nothing at all.

Since self is a distinction inside of Consciousness, it is this Consciousness fundamentally, and is simply an element in this one structure.

 

[purple_man]

a physical and mental phenotype

blessss

 

[southflorida]

As a self, we are Being. Being and self are not separate.

If you can't experience your being directly, then the most genuine experience of you is found in not knowing who you are, and at the same time in the experience of you being in this moment.

Don’t jump to conclusions or try to fill in the blank that this state creates.

Simply be with the present experience of you in this moment and not knowing what it is or who you are. In this way, you remain closest to your most genuine experience: you don’t know who or what you are—and it’s OK.

This is the place that is most genuine and true; and it is also in this very place that you can find out. But whether you do or not, be happy.

===================================================

...by the way...TRUE happiness is being happy regardless of what is occuring in this present moment experience.

True happiness is NEVER about getting what we want or what we desire.

Getting what we want or what we desire is part of the self-survival principle.

We confuse happiness with a feeling of victory from getting what we want, and unhappiness with a feeling of loss, when we don't get what we want.

Happiness is not dependent on circumstances.

Happiness is about simply being happy, no matter WHAT you are experiencing!

 

[Jaymer]

a self is: only the linage of a descendant and it's interpretation of most of that descendant's ancestors, a limit for oneself or themselves, after a limit has overflown... antibody hinders self... and renders new self... an unadulterated s1 reality; with a self's actuality.