What is a 'Being'?

[Willamena]

A being would have to be self-aware, a being would have to have the ability to think... Can a divine being question his own existance? Hmmm..

I think these are the essential presuppositions underlying our concept of "a being". Fewer, I think, would allow that it also underlies our concept of "being".

 

[TurkeyOnRye]

What is a 'Being'? What does it mean to "be a 'Being'"?

All my epiphanies and moments of great insight lead to the conclusion that there is only one being, so the question might rather be this: "What is being?"

Being is being. Being is. Concepts cannot define it; to define it would be to miss it, though it is accessible to everyone. We are it. It is the quiet, observing, infinitely-impartial conscious presence that is essentially us (or "I", rather). It is that which you are before being associated with any object.

Are questions like this ones that should be asked?

I wouldn't use the word "should" for such an ultimate question. Yet, the question has been asked, so in some way, the question itself is a kind of manifestation of that consciousness that I'm speaking of, but no more than asking a person what an apple tastes like. You can write and talk about what an apple tastes like, but until you actually taste it, experience it, you cannot really know what an apple tastes like. Anything else is just food for thought.

In the end though...."should" it be asked? It's probably not relevant on a question like that.

So if one can only truly know something by merging with it, how can one know being? You are it already, though it is largely obscured most of the time (thoughts, emotions, external people, objects and events).