How can I know what I am?

[Shodburrito]

I have been contemplating for the last several months about identity and what I am.

As most humans do, before this year, I had a concrete identity about things that I thought I could know about myself. I believed I was a human, a physical being, separate from others, something, not everything, and not nothing, etc. After watching some of Leo's videos and personally thinking about this stuff for myself I question and doubt the whole notion of being able to know what I am entirely. 

I hear a lot of new age spiritual "gurus" talk about how there is no boundary between self and other and in fact, everything is "one". I realize now how my mind has been fooling me into thinking the notion of "separateness" is a concrete fact. I realize now how the concept of a boundary between any objects that I conceptualize in my mind is not necessarily a real thing that exists other than the fact that I am imagining it. So I tried shifting my identity into believing that maybe I am everything that exists and not some finite being.

 

However, then I started questioning the notion of "nothing". How could I ever conceptualize nothing, because whatever I imagine to be nothing, is something. If I imagine nothing to be darkness, then the black that I accompany with that darkness is something. I realized that I could never conceive of a true nothing because then that is a something. But consider what I just said about the notion of "everything". If there are no boundaries between things then what I conceive to be "nothing" must be included in my definition of everything. So then I shifted my identity to be nothing and everything.

 

But hold on. How can I even know what I am in the first place? I mean what does it even mean to be me? How would I ever know that I am everything rather than just a body? Or vice versa. How would I know I am a body rather than everything? What would prove to me that I am anything at all? Some of you may argue that I must be everything because my notion of a boundary between self and other is illusory. But how would I know that? See, recently, I was just assuming this whole time that the boundary between self and other was something totally imaginary. But what if there exists a real boundary that separates me and something else? Or what if it is merely imaginary? How would I prove to myself either scenario? How can I know anything about what I am at all? Because the moment I try to define myself as something, anything, or nothing, I could just be fooling myself into assuming that I am any of those things. Additionally, how would I know when I have proved to myself that I have experienced evidence of what I am? I could define anything as evidence of what I am but I don't seem to have a way to verify if that evidence has any bearing on who I am or if it is imaginary. 

 

I would love to have a friendly discussion to anyone who would like to respond. I am very open-minded and would love for new perspectives on this subject.

 

 

[Leo Gura]

Let's just cut all the shit. You are CONSCIOUSNESS. How do you "prove it"? By being conscious. There can be no other way since consciousness is all there is.

You ARE conscious right now. That's WHAT you are.

Namaste.

Edited July 12, 2023 by Leo Gura

[Yali]

@Leo Gura speaking of shit, have you cleaned up your carpet? just curious

Let's just cut all the shit. 

Edited July 12, 2023 by Yali

[VeganAwake]

Yep, maybe what you see is what you get.... or maybe not ?

♥ 

[SeaMonster]

5 hours ago, Shodburrito said:

I would love to have a friendly discussion to anyone who would like to respond. I am very open-minded and would love for new perspectives on this subject.

When you get into spirituality and enlightenment, you're fundamentally dealing with paradox.  Linear logic goes out the window.

Your logic is sound, but imagine e.g. if one completely sees through any form of identity...and yet, one's rational mind doesn't stop working, in other words is able to make all kinds of distinctions and categorizations.

This is what you encounter upon extinguishing the I-thought.  Your mind hasn't stopped.  You know that many others e.g. see you as a discrete being, and it is easy enough for you to use your rational faculties to see yourself the same way.

Yet, you also know that this isn't "reality" (in a metaphysical sense) but a product of rationality with certain premises and logic.  The "real" reality is that everything is nondual consciousness.  

So the two can coexist without conflicting, and you can integrate both into a harmonious whole in your life.

[Yimpa]

7 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Namaste.

3 hours ago, VeganAwake said:

Yep, maybe what you see is what you get.... or maybe not ?

♥ 

GOD is

The end…

…of bullshit!

[ryandesreu]

During observation, there is only experience, occurrence. During observation, there is no I, you, we, observer, witness, entity seeing. There is just one timeless experience occuring. The answer can't be known from words, for that would be a belief. The answer must be experienced.

Edited July 12, 2023 by ryandesreu