How do you define the self? (ritual, soul, creation, hell)

[Sunstone]

Originally Posted by Engyo

Buddha taught the concept of anatta, or no-self; meaning in simplest terms, that the self is illusory, and impermanent.

Many people -- perhaps most people --- tend in practice at least to think of themselves in terms of their relationships to various things. "I am a mother, wife, homemaker, president of my bridge club, vice president of my charity, on the school board, a Methodist, and kind to others." That is, one defines oneself in terms of one's relationship to one's children, husband, home, bridge club, charity, community, church, and people in general.

But all these things are impermanent, subject to change, subject to happenstance, and ultimately insecure. Therefore the definition of one's self in terms of these things is impermanent, subject to change, etc.

When these things change, when we loose them or even when they change just enough that we must re-examine ourselves, it can cause us emotional pain and suffering to the very extent we were emotionally attached to these things.

For this and other reasons, to become attached to one's realtionships to things, even to things like kindness, makes one a hostage to fortune, prone to suffering, and to emotional ups and downs.

[Mavrikmind]

I think our spirit continues after death. Think about it this way. I would hate to think that all the love, anger, curiosity, devotion, beauty and other emotions and memories we collect during our life would cease to exist. that would be an awfull wast of time.
I think we all underestimate the power of our concious selves or our force of will. I think our inate curiosity of the unknown is just too powerfull to just blink out of existance. I'm not going to pretend to know what happens after our bodies die. realistically nobody knows.
Personally it doesn't bother me, not knowing. I just don't think that our beauty, compassion and capability to love is extinguishable.
There for my perception of this is we have an everlasting soul, spirit, whatever you like to call it.

[Hema]

The real self is the soul which was never born and will never die. This soul is part of God, we are Jeeva Atman or individual soul and God is the Param Atman or Super Soul. We are like drops of water taken from the ocean that is God. This is similar to how the Bible says that God created people in his image and likeness. The body is only temporary. When our time in this physical body is up, the elements which make up the body return to the earth where they came from.