What Are We
I've often and about almost always wondered about what is 'me'. Every time I have to post something on this blog or have to face an important decision, the question sticks its head out.
Having been asking this question for a long time, I'd like to remind myself about a few observations which seem to stand the test of time: We cannot truly know ourselves via our brains or logical understanding in anyway and all attempts at doing so end up in trying to force a definition on ourselves which ironically does more damage because then there's a pressure to adhere to our own definition of ourselves. To realize this, that we can create our own stories for ourselves, that we can change our attitudes, might exactly be the freedom we were looking for with the initial seeking.
This I think has vast consequences across our social fabric, because while we're trying to logically understand ourselves, we also try to understand others. And this pressure seems to be the backdrop of a lot of confusion in our relationships. First there is the understanding that we exist as bodies primarily rather than our minds. Bodies have an expiry date and a local presence, but what we discover and express as our thoughts can be communicated well beyond our physical deaths. While we may look the same for majority of our life phases, it need not be so for our attitudes, perspectives and behaviors. We can change our ways of our metaphysical operation overnight. We cannot change our weight without waking up everyday and doing our exercise, but while watching a movie, we can switch between each character's perspective almost instantaneously.
Given that it seems to be a futile exercise to try and logically figure out who we actually might be, we can then choose what character we want to be. To be aware of this freedom and let everyone around you be free in choosing the same seems to be the norm of the future.