Koldo
Outstanding Member
The self consists of many things. Memories, thoughts, desires. The self is constantly changing because these things that make up the self constantly change. The self of tomorrow is not the same self of today. What remains consistent through all of this is the observer. The observer, observes the self so it is not the self.
I would say the observer is the self as much as these many things the self is consisted of.
Brahman is not illusion, the illusion is that there is anything other then Brahman.
But once you say that, there is no choice. You have already accepted brahman. The very way that you frame the choice you made means you had no choice at all.
The "self" is illusion too. You asked what is stopping you from changing yourself. The answer is you don't want to let go of (your) self. However you can't make choices you are not aware of. You would have to become aware of Brahman to understand the choice you have and understand why you choose to remain yourself.
I was asking that from a non-dualist perspective. Therefore, my question would be: Why doesn't god/brahman ( me/us/everything ) want to let go of ( my ) self ?
Non-dualist means there is nothing separate from you. Non-dualism can't really have Gods. Maybe they speak of Gods because it is a common concept within our dualist existence people can relate to. There are no non-dualist Gods, its a contradiction.
This would mean pantheism is a contradiction. I don't agree with that position.
If you become aware of the indirect control you have you can control it right?
To a certain extent, yes. Indirect control is easily disrupted though.
Knowledge gives you direct control. The more we learn, the more we can control. So I guess the question is, what are the limits of knowledge?
What are the limits of knowledge which relates to your ability to control?
Knowledge doesn't give me direct control. Not even unrestricted control over something.
Consider for instance a man on an island. He knows how to swim, and he knows there are no other means to reach the closest civilization other than swimming through the ocean. But it just so happens that even if he trained for his whole life, he would never be enough able to perform such a feat.
This is why the traditional problem of evil only works with a god that has the power to destroy all evil. If such a god has merely the knowledge on how to destroy it, but not the means, there is no logical contradiction.