Your inner self

[Onkara]

Oh but the embarrassments of who "I am" can be at times...

you missed the adjective which embrasses you (I am so and so....) or you assume that you are that thing which embaresses you. In other words, we take what we think we are without question. Perhaps we can let go of all that we think we are, like heavy baggage, and with it be content with our lot?

 

[Just_me_Mike]

By simply being a log in an ocean, you are affecting the whole of the ocean.

Self is a complicated beast to define. There are so many dimensions to it. Herman Hesse in his Steppenwolf suggested that the self is like an onion: peel away the layers and what are you left with?

It is often interpreted as being left with nothing: the self is an illusion. That's just another way of saying that you are left with everything: the self is the Universe. If I hold out my empty hand, I am offering "no-thing," the undefined.

Aleister Crowley suggested that once we start following our True Will, we cannot fail, for we have the force of the Universe behind us.

Something I am battling with right now, for example, is as I type this post, I find myself asking would I really say that or type that, is that REALLY how I feel inside.

I find it is all to often easy to just say things, respond, and afterwords, not really agree with what was said from our own fingers or mouths.

Bruce Lee once said the free person will respond as quickly as a mirror responds to out glance upon it. In other words, there will be no doubt in our words, for they are genuine reflections of our total beliefs.

I doubt such a creature could exist, but it is good food for thought.

 

[Just_me_Mike]

you missed the adjective which embrasses you (I am so and so....) or you assume that you are that thing which embaresses you. In other words, we take what we think we are without question. Perhaps we can let go of all that we think we are, like heavy baggage, and with it be content with our lot?

I dunno, I am not sure I believe in such a state, to simply be "I am".
In my own experience, it seems it will be or could be a life long struggle to keep stripping away the onion, that is constantly added to on a daily basis. Then if we keep this up, maybe we will retain some inner self, that we recognize, whether it be from yesterday or 20 years from now, or our past.

I have talked to old friends from my childhood via facebook, only to find they purposefully forget who they were back in the day. It is quite strange to me.

 

[Onkara]

Hi Mike
I don't think "belief" is helpful . Regarding your facebook friends, I have done things I regret and avoided things which I now wish I did do. Who I am today is not who I was then. The only way I have come to understand this is to accept that I change. Perhaps they have done that and there is little in their past which they feel they can still identify with or feel is still really them. But yet they ARE still them, so what is it that is the foundation of all our change?

 

[Thief]

Something I am battling with right now, for example, is as I type this post, I find myself asking would I really say that or type that, is that REALLY how I feel inside.

I find it is all to often easy to just say things, respond, and afterwords, not really agree with what was said from our own fingers or mouths.

Bruce Lee once said the free person will respond as quickly as a mirror responds to out glance upon it. In other words, there will be no doubt in our words, for they are genuine reflections of our total beliefs.

I doubt such a creature could exist, but it is good food for thought.

To feed your thought.....

Picture yourself as God....yes you can.
Look in the 'mirror'.
Your reflection is perfect....but there is no conversation.
Each question you would ask, would have the perfect answer.

You are alone.

There is the universe...the creation...and though it responds to your touch...
it does not really respond.

Man is that part of creation that is unique.
Your linear existence insures it.
Your lack of knowing all things...creates 'the' question.

Would you like to question God?
Go ahead.
It's what He has been waiting for.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

Something I am battling with right now, for example, is as I type this post, I find myself asking would I really say that or type that, is that REALLY how I feel inside.

I find it is all to often easy to just say things, respond, and afterwords, not really agree with what was said from our own fingers or mouths.

Bruce Lee once said the free person will respond as quickly as a mirror responds to out glance upon it. In other words, there will be no doubt in our words, for they are genuine reflections of our total beliefs.

I doubt such a creature could exist, but it is good food for thought.

This reminds me of the Billy Joel song "The Stranger."

Well we all have a face
That we hide away forever
And we take them out and
Show ourselves
When everyone has gone.
Some are satin some are steel
Some are silk and some are leather
They're the faces of the stranger
But we love to try them on.

[youtube]jI2BnzF1860[/youtube]
YouTube - Billy Joel "The Stranger"

I personally find it annoying that we feel compelled to point out contradictions in other people while ignoring that they are as complex as ourselves. But then, that is a contradiction, since I get annoyed by contradictions and point them out. My favorite quote by Walt Whitman, posted for about the hundredth time by me is:

Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)

 

[Just_me_Mike]

I must think of it like this. My inception, my ability to be conscious as early as that was, whenever that was, I try to currently conceptualize that period as an anchor to my being.
So in all my efforts, I attempt to stay connected to that initial inception, I attempt to care about it, I attempt to keep it sacred and special to me.
Somehow this keeps me grounded. Admittedly this may be utter nonsense, and complete foolishness, but it is cheaper than therapy

 

[Just_me_Mike]

This reminds me of the Billy Joel song "The Stranger."



[youtube]jI2BnzF1860[/youtube]
YouTube - Billy Joel "The Stranger"

I personally find it annoying that we feel compelled to point out contradictions in other people while ignoring that they are as complex as ourselves. But then, that is a contradiction, since I get annoyed by contradictions and point them out. My favorite quote by Walt Whitman, posted for about the hundredth time by me is:

Yeah it felt crummy to type that about my friends on facebook, because I don't know how they really feel inside. I think I was trying to say, when I experience such huge shifts in personalities in people (myself included) to the point I don't recognize them, it seems negative to me in most cases, but I am sure it is not negative, but just a bad perception on my part.

 

[Onkara]

I must think of it like this. My inception, my ability to be conscious as early as that was, whenever that was, I try to currently conceptualize that period as an anchor to my being.
So in all my efforts, I attempt to stay connected to that initial inception, I attempt to care about it, I attempt to keep it sacred and special to me.
Somehow this keeps me grounded. Admittedly this may be utter nonsense, and complete foolishness, but it is cheaper than therapy

Hi Mike
Not sure if you are leading from my post or one of the other goods posts above (which I got use from too )

It is sacred and profound. It isn't nonsense or foolishness, it is just more obvious than the intellectual. We want answers which bust our brains and make us work for a solution, but my experience is that it is not necessary. The apple contains the seed; the answer is already in life, in you and me.

What may appear simple and obvious can grow and yield the most blissful fruit. However we convince ourselves that it cannot be that and that we need to pay a bigger price (perhaps in our suffering) before we will be told what we already are.

 

[Just_me_Mike]

I can say this about myself lately. I have actively tried to just breath and be still in myself when around others, like at the mall, or at a function. All the while reminding myself to stay relaxed and not anxious about anything.
As a result, interactions with others have been much smoother, kinder, more memorable.

This is new to me, which is the reason for the thread I suppose.

 

[Just_me_Mike]

To explain the still part of my previous post, I was referring to my mind. Trying to put it at a calm state like a calm water, as I interact with others, so it is free to really listen and respond without anxiety. If that makes sense.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

My inner-self is composed of bones, muscles, blood, and various organs like my pancreas. My outer-self is primarily composed of my epidermis and hair. I find that this configuration has worked out well so far.

 

[idea]

If your exterior or outward self projects your inner self, then;

can you tell me the difference between watching a sunset that is projected onto a movie screen... vs. watching a sunset while at the beach - sand in your toes, and wind in your hair? projections are nice... but they are not the real deal.

If you allow yourself outward or exterior self to control your inner self, you lose your inner self.
How does this sit with you?

imo the inner and outer should be in harmony with one another - not one trying to control the other, they should be standing side by side, with one another - neither above the other, both in harmony....

 

[idea]

To explain the still part of my previous post, I was referring to my mind. Trying to put it at a calm state like a calm water, as I interact with others, so it is free to really listen and respond without anxiety. If that makes sense.

if you do not try to control anyone / anything, just let go (put it in God's hands if you believe in God)... just go with the flow - there is nothing to be anxious about.

Anxiety comes from trying to control what you have no control over... so just stop trying to control it...

 

[idea]

I can say this about myself lately. I have actively tried to just breath and be still in myself when around others, like at the mall, or at a function. All the while reminding myself to stay relaxed and not anxious about anything..

noise does not destroy silence, it only covers it up. The silence is always there, underneith it all. Once you know that silence is there, you can always find it, no matter where you are.

 

[autonomous1one1]

I dunno, I am not sure I believe in such a state, to simply be "I am"......

Greetings Just Me.

There is such a 'state.' Some would say look within to know one's Self; you know Self-Realization. Once the true Self is known, the inner/outer differences you write about tend to fade away; one is very free and with no anxiety.

Some also would say that spirituality is all about realizing that state. One model used by teachers is meditation to find the self as the witness before mind, memory, thought, emotions, etc. down to pure consciousness-itself - the I Am.

EDIT: Idea posted while this was being written. Looks like Idea, Guitar and Onkarah may be giving different pointers to the same.

 

[joea]

My inner-self is composed of bones, muscles, blood, and various organs like my pancreas..

Like evrything else, they turn to dust...but you are still there.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Like evrything else, they turn to dust...but you are still there.

Yep, in the form of dust.

 

[zenzero]

Friend Mike,

I doubt such a creature could exist, but it is good food for thought.

Just to remind that *doubt* is a function of the MIND and is like a dust on a mirror.
A thought free or still mind itself is a mirror and when one reaches that then the whole universe itself is a mirror reflecting itself till infinity.

Love & rgds

 

[Ozzie]

If your exterior or outward self projects your inner self, then;
If you allow yourself outward or exterior self to control your inner self, you lose your inner self.
How does this sit with you?

Conceptual confusion.