Who am I? - Page 11

Originally posted by: Mister.K.

You are correct in that I am waiting for the right answer to fall in my lap. I am waiting for that "a-ha!" moment which might never come. answers ko 38-24-38 bana ker tumharey aagey sey nikal janey ko bolen toh jhataak sey samakh aa jayega - hai na😆 j/k.

But trust me I am EXTREMELY receptive to new ideas and reasoning. I am obsessed with finding answers and I am googling, searching every nook and corner, talking to every person who has an opinion on this topic and most importantly thinking.

So far the possibilities seem to be

a) Consciousness -

b) The Supreme Being

c) A deterministic universe

d) A non-deterministic universe

Which one is it and why?

They all together will form your answer, K, since they all are interwined with each other - talking of consciousness, the force and universe. We had a 100+ pages long thread on these topics about couple of years ago. It got trashed accidentally by the dev team. I dwell a lot over consciousness. I have simplified the concept of the Supreme Being to The Force behind everything and I am at peace with that simplification. Universe does not bug me much as I am happy being in the bubble I live in. But the concept of consciousness gives me many sleepless nights.

Is consciousness dependent on our brain? Does it die when we die?
• Does it stop working when our brain stops working?

• If yes, then how could we become unconscious (as in fainting) when our brain is not dead?
• If yes, then how could some recall out of body experiences when they are clearly out of their body that has a brain?

• If not, then how come I don't remember what happened to me before I was born? If consciousness is separate from brain then I should retain it with me from the time when I did not have this body having this brain?

I can go on and on discussing my questions on consciousness. Let's save this discussion for Thursday. I really should not be here right now or I'll be doomed! Too much happening at professional as well as personal front these days.

• P.S - edited to fix the formatting. Why is the formatting so messed up on this thread!!!

Originally posted by: Mister.K.

Karan: First off, my apologies if I came across a little Standoffish. A couple of other posts put me off and I picked the wrong time to reply to your post.

No need to apologies at all because I didnt find anything standoffish.

Also, I am off for some time to prepare for tomorrow's meeting day. Meanwhile, lets see what others have to say to some of the questions.

Originally posted by: Gauri_3

• Is consciousness dependent on our brain?
• Does it die when we die?
• Does it stop working when our brain stops working?

It could be something that exists without us (though saying 'us' is already contradictory in this context). It could be like a complex waveform and things just try to resonate or harmonize with it. This reminds me of the question on the nature of quality. May be we find anything of better quality when it resonates more with something like consciousness.
(EDIT: will add more points later)

Originally posted by: Gauri_3

answers ko 38-24-38 bana ker tumharey aagey sey nikal janey ko bolen toh jhataak sey samakh aa jayega - hai na j/k.

😆 I will tell you, the number of distractions that keep us away from finding the Truth is proportional to the size of this universe. 38-24-38 huh?! ... <slapping myself> Damn! Where was I again?! Let's focus now!

Originally posted by: Gauri_3

Is consciousness dependent on our brain? Does it die when we die? Does it stop working when our brain stops working? If yes, then how could we become unconscious (as in fainting) when our brain is not dead?If not, then how come I don't remember what happened to me before I was born? If consciousness is separate from brain then I should retain it with me from the time when I did not have this body having this brain?

It looks like these questions are all part of the core problem we are facing at the moment. My answers depend on whether I am (and you, if you are really there, and the "others", if they are really there) separate and distinct from consciousness or part of it or the whole of it.

Do I think consciousness or is consciousness thinking me? On very few occasions the answers come back as more questions and this is the mother of all such occasions. To me, it's all boiling down to a single thought without a container capable of thinking itself and spawning multiple thoughts which are all capable of thinking for themselves but which die down eventually at which point the single thought "rests" only to awaken itself up again and continue the cycle. That is me as of today. I have no guarantee I will hold on to that position till tomorrow.

Sir, please take some pity on this poor teenager and make some easier topics from now on.

Who am I? Pardon me, I have been busy to have been able to read through all the pages of this topic and see the direction of the discussion. Knowing Mister.K it is a philosophical discussion on 'thou' and 'that'; 'us' and 'the one'. I am going to dive in with my perspective.

There are multiple questions in the universe. So many things to learn, so much to understand and so little that we know. When it comes to our existence, or my existence, it is the elementary five questions of English that come to my mind. Who, What, Where, When, How, and Why.

Who am I?

The answer to this can be as simple as, I am me. A very succinct and finite answer, I am me, just me.

Or we can delve deeper into the psychological, social, intellectual, biological, cultural and the plethora of identities we assume. I am a person, I am a human, I am Sarina, I am a viewbie on IF, I am a student, I am Indian, I am Hindu, I am south Asian, I am RTH, I am funny, I am sarcastic, I am an employee, I am a dog owner, I am and American citizen, I am a hick, I am a minority, I am a liberal, and so on. My IQ is X, my EQ is Y, My SAT score is Z, my income is A, my expenditure is B, my net worth is C, I am in D tax bracket, belonging to E class. I could flesh out who am I with most elaborate details , delving deeper and deeper. Some of my attributes will be ever shifting and changing. Some of my attributes will be hard to define or gauge.

That makes who am I a very complex question. Do I really know who I am? What is my identity? Ultimately though, the combination of all these variable attributes, no matter through what evolution they have gone through, is simply me, uniquely me. Do I really need to know an answer beyond, I am me.

What am I?

This question is more definition related rather than identity related. I am a human being. I am a homo sapien. I am a carbon compound. I am made of muscles, bones, tissues, fat. I am made of cells. I am made of molecules.I am made of atoms. I am made of protons and neutrons and electrons. I am made of quarks.

Baffling about this is broken down into our smallest particles, I am no different from a chair or table. We are all just structures put together by the same microscopic building blocks of this world. At what point did I become different? At what point did I become life? At what point did I gain consciousness? In what part does my life and consciousness reside? What truly separates the living from the non living.

Where am I?

I am at my desk, at work, on the east side of Madison, Wisconsin, USA, North America, Earth, Sun solar system, Milky Way Galaxy, the universe. I have a street address, I have a pin pointed latitude and longitude.

The question is where in the ever expanding universe am I. How do I fathom my location with the vastness that is existence? What are my co-ordinates within infinity? Is there just one existence, one plane of existence or many? How many worlds are there? Where am I in relation to those.

When am I?

We exist in three dimensions. Time, some metaphysicians say is the fourth dimension. It is 15:15 US CST as I type this. Month 2, Day 1, Year 2010. That is the extent of how much I am aware, when I am.

However, my entire existence is probably just a mere second in the entire time line. Although is time a line, a segment or a circle? Is there just one time line? Do multiple timelines intersect? How many timelines can I concurrently exist on? In the context of the whole scheme of things, I am unaware when am I.

How am I?

Typically, when someone asks how I am, I respond with how I am feeling. Right now. I am feeling fine. My mood is fine. I'm not feeling sick or weak. I am not exceptionally, happy or sad. Sometimes, I am unwell, happy, sad and in different states of emotional, physical being.

But does how am I mean how I came about? Is it about how I was born? How I have grown? Or how I have evolved as a species? How did I come to being?

Why am I?

Finally, why am I. I know I exist, but why. Even if my existence is an illusion, why? What purpose do I serve, being. Why am I, who I am, where I am, when I am and how I am. That is the hardest to answer. As the questions have progressed, my grasp of answers has diminished. I am not very sure about the reason existence, except perhaps in finite human terms. Responsibilities, obligations, wishes, desires, life goals.

So many questions, not enough answers. Although, I have to say – I am not bothered much by the lack of answers. I'm most of the time like a little child content with everything in life. Easily fascinated and happy. I love philosophy and theology and often spend time dwelling on these matters. However, these are just part of my childlike curiosities. One does not need to know why it rains, or why there are rainbows to enjoy them. You feel the rain on your face and it makes you happy, you see a rainbow and you enjoy the beauty. One can always wonder and ponder, sometimes you find the answers sometimes you don't. Similarly one need not know all the answers to enjoy life, you simply do. You can wonder and ponder about life and maybe you will find some answers. However, not a big deal if you don't either. It is not that important for me that I need to dwell seriously. Nothing too important that I lose track and quit enjoying what is there.

Live it up, illusion or not, question or answer, this is what you have, enjoy it to the fullest.

Originally posted by: return_to_hades

Live it up, illusion or not, question or answer, this is what you have, enjoy it to the fullest.

My problem, Sarina, is that I can't live it up. I can't enjoy.

I can't live it up knowing that there are children around this world going hungry as we speak. I can't live it up knowing billions of people are living under inhuman conditions. I can't enjoy my scotch when I come across news items like hurricane Katrina or the Haiti earthquake or the Asian Tsunami. I feel powerless, helpless, impotent and extremely angry when I think of the wrongdoings of the past, the present and the forseeable future. Heck, I get upset when an innocent animal is killed (sometimes barbarically) and eaten. I can't have a happy face knowing that right now, somewhere in this world, someone is either getting raped or maimed or murdered brutally. I don't care whose fault is it or why. I just can't be happy if ALL people are not happy. I can't be happy and cozy in my house sipping hot chocolate knowing that a homeless person is suffering outside freezing to death. The truth is that not all are happy in this world.

It's not about what I can do or not do. I can do everything I possibly can and still remain unhappy because I know haven't touched all the lives. I wouldn't be able to touch all the lives.

The despise I have for this ridiculous creation that people refer to as the Universe borders on rage the likes of which threaten to consume me up, chew me inside out and produce such fine dust which in turn gets blasted into finer dust and that violence repeats itself so many times till there is NOTHING left.

^^ K, jab life ho oit of control hotthon ko ker key gol hotthin ko ker key gol seeti baja key bol All Izzz Well😆 Why so much anger inside you, bud? Apney karmon ka phal sab ko yaheen bhogna hai - chahey iss life mein ya phir kisi aur life mein. If suffering is not there then how would public know what happiness or well-being means? As far as wanting to make everyone happy - some are sadists. How could you make them happy without making others unhappy? You can't hold yourself responsible for blatant greed of a few out there. You can only control your actions and those, to a certain degree, who are near and dear to you. Like I said before, I am all about simplifying things for my sanity. For me, charity starts at home and so does raising good honest and caring citizens. That's my contribution to the world. If we all keep doing what we can do within our capacity - you'll be amazed how many lives we can still touch!

Yes, sir, I agree with Gauri ji. Life is like a marathon with hurdles. You shouldn't be intimidated by the hurdles and slowly but steadily conquer your fears. You will see that you will conquer your fears and you will persevere(that rhymes😆). You should not be a pessimist who see's the glass as half-empty, but you should belong to the optimists who see the glass as half-full. Take life's challenges one at a time and live your life to the fullest.

And now that Gauri ji has used a line from 3 Idiots, I will say "Yaaron, jee bhar ke ji le pal, lagta hain aaj-kal, dour apna aayega".

I know that there can be infinite or pseudo-infinite questions, but some questions are more important than the others.

Moreover, if we look at history then our quest for answers has given us electricity, electronics, nuclear energy, medicines, etc that have really helped us. (ok somethings can be dangerous too)

This inherent hunger, of human mind, for knowledge and some past results are motivation enough to continue this quest.