According to the Buddha, "Who am I?" is an inappropriate question to ask

[Barry J]

10 hours ago, Flow With Life said:

Your tone comes across as rather antagonistic. I make no such assumptions as those you have stated. It matters not to me who was more enlightened than who, whatever that means. It matters to me whether following a path leads to desirable results. It also matters not to me whether the Buddha was real. No I don't find this stuff boring and predictable, thank you for asking.

@Flow With Life  I’m not trying to be antagonistic. What answer do you think will satisfy you in your search for the right path?

[Misagh]

@Flow With Life It's a good question because it has the power to return the mind back its unmanifest form. There is no logical answer to that question, so the mind comes up blank, opening the window for realization in that instant. So yeah, it's a very good question to ask. 

Edited September 19, 2018 by Misagh

[Flow With Life]

9 hours ago, Misagh said:

@Flow With Life It's a good question because it has the power to return the mind back its unmanifest form. There is no logical answer to that question, so the mind comes up blank, opening the window for realization in that instant. So yeah, it's a very good question to ask. 

Perhaps. But I see two issues here; putting aside the Buddha's prescription to ignore it as an inappropriate question.

First is that there are various states of consciousness which seem eternal, or unmanifest, or unconditioned. Buddhism has a rich lexicon covering these. Some examples include the formless attainments: the perception of the dimension of infinite space... the dimension of infinite consciousness... the dimension of nothingness... the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception. There is delusion-concentration (like dreamy, half-asleep), there is non-perception (in which absolutely nothing is perceived), there is the non-dual totality I quoted earlier, there is seeing everything is being luminously white. I could go on.

None of these are Nibbana, yet it is easy to mistake them for such. I'm sure Hinduism has its various samadhi states which it also discounts as being "not the final thing". But even putting aside these rarefied states of consciousness is the tendency for people to "think" their way into enlightenment, deluding themselves.

Secondly, is that most people, even if they see the "real" thing, will delight in it, take passion in it, and take it as an eternal self. If one does this with Nibbana, their awakening is said to be incomplete. This is precisely why Buddha hard-rejects all notions of eternalism, precisely for this reason. So when I hear people say "I know what the Self is... it's blah blah", I already know they haven't reached the end. They've made it into something to cling to. This is why "Who am I?" is a bad question, because there ARE answers to it, and they are all wrong.

[Flow With Life]

12 hours ago, Barry J said:

@Flow With Life  I’m not trying to be antagonistic. What answer do you think will satisfy you in your search for the right path?

I think I've more or less found my path. Remnants of my subconscious might still be clinging to ideas of non-dual perfection, but I watch them in the corner of my eye, and do not let them infect my mind. The way ahead seems quite clear to me, it is the path of non-craving, non-clinging, non-greed/hatred/delusion. All of these things require strong mental discernment, making distinctions sharper and clearer, not trying to erase lines or pretend they aren't there.

[Misagh]

@Flow With Life The mind is a manifestation out of the unmanifest. It's a restriction of awareness. For enlightenment to dawn on you, you have to "release" the mind's grip. Asking yourself "Who am I" is one way to do that. Philosophizing and naming doesn't serve any purpose. 

[Flow With Life]

Well, thank you everyone for your perspectives. I just want to let any readers of the thread to know that my personal interpretations of Buddhism are not the only nor correct interpretation. Take care.

/thread