What is the Self?

[Sunstone]

What is the self? How would you define it? Why?

 

[SalixIncendium]

I use the term 'self' to identify the representation in the observed (by most) reality, that which contains the ego. I use the term 'Self' (upper case) to describe consciousness, what the Hindu refer to as Atman.

As to the why, I suppose it would be a result of sense experience, research, and study.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Now? Or later?

 

[jonathan180iq]

The self is a construct that consists of influences from your surrounding culture, society, and ego, formed over long periods of time.

It's a very fluid thing, yet we oddly take pride in who we are, saying things like "This is just who I am."
"Why would you expect me to be any other way?"

 

[proudpagan]

What is the self? How would you define it? Why?

The self is a permanent individual, an eternal conscious entity who interrelates with other selves. Self is an imperishable, nonmaterial particle, a spiritual soul (atma), who gives consciousness to the otherwise dead body.

 

[BSM1]

The self is a construct that consists of influences from your surrounding culture, society, and ego, formed over long periods of time.

It's a very fluid thing, yet we oddly take pride in who we are, saying things like "This is just who I am."
"Why would you expect me to be any other way?"

This is the self you perceive, not the true self.

 

[Jumi]

Self? That's what we're all searching for in one way of the other.

 

[Flame]

a person's essential being that distinguishes them from others, especially considered as the object of introspection or reflexive action.

/thread

 

[Twilight Hue]

This is the self you perceive, not the true self.

That's a good answer. A mental aggregate by which "identity" is discerned, but only lasts as long as that particular perception stays active. :0)

 

[A Vestigial Mote]

I believe "self" is an evolutionarily-driven, brain-based construct, intended to serve as the "Captain of the ship" as it were.

Rudimentary beings have a rudimentary "self", while more complex beings take advantage of a more complex "self." Humans currently appearing to be the paragon of Earth creatures in this respect, able to process and contemplate a whole host of abstract concepts.

More or less, I believe the "self" is there to ensure that the general colony of cells (individual lives) that make up a body have an advocate that can react to external stimuli - so that all members/passengers are kept out of harms way.

 

[Willamena]

What is the self? How would you define it? Why?

Here's me. There's you.

That there is an other, a not-me, creates a me.

Events happen. Some happen to me, and some happen with me. That some happen with me creates a sense of agency, of "I did that."

I would define it as the sense that there is agency behind an individual participating in the world.

 

[jonathan180iq]

This is the self you perceive, not the true self.

What's the difference, and how would you know?

 

[atanu]

What is the self? How would you define it? Why?

I understand that the self and the sense of "I" are synonymous and it manifests at three levels: Gross (I am this body); Mental (I am the doer); and the Imperishable-Unborn (the Seer of the gross and the mental selves). The Imerishable is non dual.

The first two levels are evident to most folks through mind-senses. Teachers say that the Seer cannot be seen through the mind-senses but can be realised as a non-dual existence through meditative enquiry "Who Am I?" or Neti-Neti (not this-not this) meditation practise.

 

[BSM1]

What's the difference, and how would you know?

The true self does not change, nor is it affected by change. The true self is not easy to find or even recognize because we are conditioned to accept only what we can name.

 

[Onyx]

I might define the Self as a person's unique identity which begins as a possibility, but is actualized and refined through the mind's ability to navigate experiences, perceptions, memories, etc.

 

[PureX]

What is the self? How would you define it? Why?

It's a collection of interconnected ideas we hold in our minds and use to define "who" we are. Just as "reality" is a collection of interrelated ideas we hold in our minds and use to define our experience of the world around us. They are "functional fictions" that we cannot exist without, even though they are significantly inaccurate, and often willfully so.