Place Your Definition Of Self-consciousness

[faith]

Leo had a great definition of evil. He said it was a lack of self-reflection. And in my own understanding, it is the unwillingness of stepping out of your beliefs, intentions, actions, etc...

That was a great definition because it was simple, it held a lot of meaning, it was powerful.

I would like you to place your definition of self-consiousness.

Here is mine: ego's awareness. 

[Prabhaker]

1 hour ago, faith said:

self-consiousness.

SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS IS A DISEASE. Consciousness is health, self-consciousness is disease -- something has gone wrong. Some tie has arisen, some complex. The river of consciousness is not flowing naturally -- something foreign has entered into the river of consciousness, something alien; something that cannot be absorbed by the river; something that cannot become part of the river; something that resists becoming part of the river.

Self-consciousness is morbidity. Self-consciousness is a frozen state, blocked. It is like a dirty pool -- going nowhere; just drying, evaporating and dying. Of course, it stinks. So the first thing to be understood is the difference between self-consciousness and consciousness.

Consciousness has no idea of 'I', of ego. It has no idea of one's separation from existence. It does not know any barrier, it knows no boundaries. It is one with existence; it is in a deep at-onement. There is no conflict between the individual and the Whole. One is simply flowing into the Whole, and the Whole is flowing into one. It is like breathing: you breathe in, you breathe out -- when you breathe in the Whole enters you, when you breathe out you enter the Whole. It is a constant flow, a constant sharing. The Whole goes on giving to you, and you go on giving to the Whole. The balance is never lost. But in a self-conscious man something has gone wrong. He takes in but he never gives out. He goes on accumulating and he has become incapable of sharing. He goes on making boundaries around himself so nobody can trespass. He goes on putting boards around his being: No Trespassing Allowed. By and by, he becomes a grave, a dead being -- because life is in sharing.

A self is a dead thing, alive only for the name's sake. Consciousness is infinite life, life abundant. It knows no boundaries. But ordinarily everybody is self-conscious. To be self-conscious is to be unconscious. This paradox has to be understood: to be selfconscious is to be unconscious; and to be unself-conscious, or to be self-unconscious, is to become conscious. And when there is no self, when this small, tiny self disappears, you attain to the real Self with a capital 'S' -- call it the supreme Self, the Self of all. So it is both: no-self in the sense that it is not only yours, and the ultimate Self also because it is the self of all. You lose your tiny center and you attain to the center of existence itself. Suddenly you become infinite; suddenly you are no longer bound, you have no cage around your being. And infinite power starts flowing through you. You become a vehicle -- clear, with no obstructions. You become a flute and Krishna can sing through you. You become just a passage -- empty, nothing of your own. This is what I call surrender.

Self-consciousness is a non-surrendering attitude -- it is the attitude of conflict, fight, struggle. If you are fighting with existence you will be self-conscious and, of course, you will be defeated again and again and again. Each step is going to be a step in more and more defeat -- your frustration is certain. You are doomed from the very beginning because you cannot hold this self against the universe. It is impossible. You cannot exist separately.

A Sudden Clash of Thunder ~ Osho

[SOUL]

The self conscious is a natural expression in consciousness of the manifest that has effects in the body which urges to sustain itself and we as sentient beings happen to be aware of our self conscious. Some people at the behest of their religion or belief will call it evil or sin or a disease or any other number of negative characterizations in an attempt to justify their ideas of it and/or manipulate people into following them and their beliefs.

Edited June 26, 2017 by SOUL

[Christian]

@faith 

Self consciousness is a sort of meta-awareness over what you identify as you. In other words, self consciousness is basically self observation.  Imagine you are just simply whatever you identify yourself with and there is this hawk always looking over you, watching your every move and is aware of it. You are like that hawk when you are aware of yourself in a sense. It is like the observer, you, is percieving the percieved you. It feels to me like I'm sometimes looking at myself through a camera lense when I'm self conscious. 

Self consciousness rests on the assumption that you exist. That you are a perciever and an object percieved at the same time. This assumption is utterly groundless and there is value to gain from questioning your own existence. This is where enlightenment work comes in. 

[Truth]

Knowing the full truth about ourselves, I don't just mean existentially, but literally, capacities, strengths, limits, weaknesses, true essence and personality. Being able to distinguish between the imaginary and the real in one's Self. 

Edited June 26, 2017 by Truth

[Visitor]

21 hours ago, faith said:

...I would like you to place your definition of self-consiousness. Here is mine: ego's awareness. 

The other is heart-consciousness, for lack of a better description. Conscious of Being.