Self and Being
Consider the possibility that there are two distinct aspects
of your-self. One is what you are originally and naturally. It is your “being,”
who you really are without pretense, affection, programming, or any
supplementary process. The other aspect is what you have come to know as
yourself – a self identity that is created and maintained through all the
beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge you’ve acquired in life. Since it’s all you
know, it’s not easy to see that this identification of your self is strictly a
secondary process. Your self-identity is conceptual; your real being exists
prior to concept.
Our ability to transcend the conceptual aspect of self is
simply the ability to locate and become deeply conscious of a genuine
experience of “being.”
Making a distinction between our real selves - what we might call "being" - and our conceptual selves can sound simple enough on paper, and essentially it is. But in practice we find that we continually bump into obstacles that arise from our habitual thinking and familiar emotions, and from assumptions we unknowingly share as a culture.
In our culture, we spend most of our time looking outward in search of some satisfying experience. We focus on the circumstances of life - attaining our desires and avoiding our fears - yet, when all is said and done, we still find little satisfaction.
It seems that an honest and clear perception of oneself is "incompatible" with any familiar and habitual self-identity. Rather then dwell in the uncertain realm of the real, it's much easier for us to revert to an already established and acceptable sense of self. Wary of uncharted territory, our awareness falls quickly and easily back into habits and routines that serve our many self-concerns. What we don't realize is that anything we do, think, or feel from here simply adds more layers to the self-identity, further burying what is real. We substitute information for wisdom...So immersed are we in our cultural setting that we unable to recognize how the very methods we use to try to fill the void actually make an authentic experience nearly impossible.
This way of perceiving ourselves and the world around us greatly hampers our ability to discover new possibilities outside of our familiar experience. Since our experience is dominated by assumptions and beliefs, we`re limited to pursuing a self that is more conceptual than real.
The Book of Not Knowing
Peter Ralston
Making a distinction between our real selves - what we might call "being" - and our conceptual selves can sound simple enough on paper, and essentially it is. But in practice we find that we continually bump into obstacles that arise from our habitual thinking and familiar emotions, and from assumptions we unknowingly share as a culture.
In our culture, we spend most of our time looking outward in search of some satisfying experience. We focus on the circumstances of life - attaining our desires and avoiding our fears - yet, when all is said and done, we still find little satisfaction.
It seems that an honest and clear perception of oneself is "incompatible" with any familiar and habitual self-identity. Rather then dwell in the uncertain realm of the real, it's much easier for us to revert to an already established and acceptable sense of self. Wary of uncharted territory, our awareness falls quickly and easily back into habits and routines that serve our many self-concerns. What we don't realize is that anything we do, think, or feel from here simply adds more layers to the self-identity, further burying what is real. We substitute information for wisdom...So immersed are we in our cultural setting that we unable to recognize how the very methods we use to try to fill the void actually make an authentic experience nearly impossible.
This way of perceiving ourselves and the world around us greatly hampers our ability to discover new possibilities outside of our familiar experience. Since our experience is dominated by assumptions and beliefs, we`re limited to pursuing a self that is more conceptual than real.
The Book of Not Knowing
Peter Ralston
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