What am I?

I am a human being.
I am a process.
I am the content of my consciousness.
I am nothing.
I am everything.

One question, five answers. Are any answers absolutely true or false? Are any relatively truer or falser?

To me, every one of these is a part of the puzzle of what I am. And of course there are gobs of other puzzle parts, perhaps an infinite number. Some seem to be closer to the truth of things, others further away. But all have a kernel of truth, all are valuable. Perhaps it comes down to a choice, conscious or unconscious: Which (take on the nature of) self do you feed?

For me,

I am my imagination.
I am my desire.
I am my understanding.
I am my questioning.
I am my humor.

Finally,
I am my own Ignorance.

I think, there is no choice. It is what it is.

Yes, we often identify with that whose full nature we misunderstand, right?

For me it definitely feels that choice is involved. Both consciously and unconsciously. Though I am not able to see my unconscious thoughts and feelings, I infer their existence from my moods, states of mind, actions.

Even I felt like that, previously. Now I am feeling that nature of the self is same for everyone and there is no choice in it.

Good then. :slightly_smiling_face:

What is the nature of the self?

Who or what is putting the question? Does a cat ask this kind of a question? Or a flower? So the question really is: where is the centre of consciousness that poses such a question?

It is one, which always defends its own existence either internally or externally.

“I” am putting the question.

So the sivaram self is the nobody self?

Yes the self is same

If we are the same self, why don’t I think what you think and feel what you feel?

Our lives, consciousness, and experience are completely different to behave in a similar way. :slight_smile:

That was a good question.

Then you are bound to receive a skewed reply. If the question is coming from the centre of consciousness, which is you, then the question will be invalidated by the search for an answer. However, when there is only the question without the desire for an answer, the centre itself no longer exists.

Hii Paul,
Can you elaborate on this in another way? I do not know, how questioning is related to center.

Say I asked you: What time is it? You would search for an answer by looking at your watch, and this would not invalidate the question.

Now say I asked you: Are you conscioius? Again, you would search for an answer, this time by looking within at the feel and content of your consciousness. And again, this would not invalidate the question.

I’m asking: What am I? Why would searching in this case invalidate it?

You can only search through memory. That’s all you have. So either you answer with something already prepared or you use pieces of other information to create a synthesis from what you already know. The centre is composed of memory. You ask me the time and I answer based on the memory of how we tell the time, which is via an agreed formulation which we both understand. But what is consciousness? The only possible answer to this kind of question comes from the centre which either wants something mystical or scientific. Or, the centre refuses to settle on any answer at all. Therefore something else happens to the question, which is not just a ridiculous, time-based or culturally influenced response.

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You can look at your thoughts and actions as they occur, rather than retrieving them from memory.

Paul, initially you have asserted that if there is a question without a desire for the answer then the center no longer exists.

As I asked you to elaborate on your assertion, you considered an example question “What is consciousness?” for explanation and you reasoned, such question will arise from the mind, wanting an answer something mystical or scientific. (Out of experience)

I want to ask that:

Without questioning how the person will get free from misconception, bias, and beliefs?

I think this dialogue went meaningful. :slightly_smiling_face:

Can you? Or do those thoughts and reactions soon take on a life of their own away from the looking? That’s generally what happens, isn’t it? As one thought gives rise to another thought, the mind follows that track.