The deep me

[rachMiel]

I wonder whether this resonates with anyone here, sounds similar to your experience? 

I am mildly identified with and attached to my personal story, the Movie of Me, my personal history, the who-what-where-when-why of myself. It matters, but is not essential. What IS essential is the feeling of first-personhood, of being a kind of center around which things orbit, events take place, stuff happens. And my gut feeling (I have no proof) is this sense of first-personhood spans innumerable lifetimes, evolves, is a continuous process with one foot in life, one in death.  

[Grant6]

I can definitely relate. When you say it is essential, are you saying that is essential to who you really are (and therefore the personal history who-what-etc. is not you or just a piece of you)?

And can you say more about the "first-personhood spans innumerable lifetimes? Are you talking about past lives or immortality or something different?

[Rafael Thundercat]

I feel there is space to explore the inpersonal aspect of reality where even the ego self is just a construct and a figment of consciousness, hut at same time you as a individual have a particular essence and gifts to bring fort in this particular lifetime. So I am in favor of using the term Soul. From my experience sometimes in my life I had moments of Soul Expansion and Soul Contraction. Part of the Individuation Journey is discover what make your Soul Expands and many other aspects of your present form. For me part of the fun of life is to desing your own Soul, almost like you are building a RPG character.

[Keryo Koffa]

That's a deep one for sure! Many easily claim to have thrown the ego away, but in truth, the whole reality is one big ego, all senses, all imagination, all ideas, all pursuits, all desires, all interactions, all modes of thinking, reasoning, evaluating, meaning searching, yearning, creating, synergizing, exploration, it's all personality/self/experience bound. From the evolving body and karmic structure, the self-reflective level of realization and alignment, to the ever-morphing fingerprint that oneself is, not only through one's decisions but the very structure and nature of the very reality one inhabits and interacts with, all of it in synthesis creating the unique partition of the Soul which grows and morphs and contains other souls and other aspects in infinite self-evolution.

[rachMiel]

2 hours ago, Grant6 said:

I can definitely relate. When you say it is essential, are you saying that is essential to who you really are (and therefore the personal history who-what-etc. is not you or just a piece of you)?

And can you say more about the "first-personhood spans innumerable lifetimes? Are you talking about past lives or immortality or something different?

I'd say it's essential to what/who I *feel* I am. What remains when the story of me (inner narration) takes a rest. 

I guess by first-personhood spanning lifetimes I mean the feeling that who-I-really-am is a presence that persists across many lifetimes/incarnations. I hadn't thought about immortality, above my pay grade? 

Glad you relate!   

[rachMiel]

@Rafael Thundercat I guess what I'm describing is similar in ways to a soul. But being a recovering Catholic, 'soul' is too loaded for me. What do you mean by soul expansion and contraction?