By reasoning with oneself and by trying to study oneself analytically it is possible to get nearer to the true knowledge of one's being. If we consider that every part that constitutes our being has its own name -- the hand, the foot, every part of our being has a different name, quality and purpose, and even a separate form -- what is it then in man which says 'I' and identifies itself with what it sees? It is not our head, hand or foot which says 'I' nor is it the brain. It is something that we cannot point out which identifies itself with all these different parts and says 'I' and mine and knows itself to be the person who sees. This in itself is ignorance, and it is this which the Hindus have called avidya.
How can you be that which you possess? You cannot be the horse and rider at the same time, nor can you be carpenter and tool at the same time. Herein lies the secret of mortality and immortality. - Hazrat Inayat Khan
It is the blessed soul whose heart is empty of self, who is filled with the light of God.
There are many ideas which intoxicate man, many feelings there are which act upon the soul as wine, but there is no stronger wine than the wine of selflessness. It is a might and it is a pride that no worldly rank can give. To become something is a limitation, whatever one may become. Even if a person were to be called the king of the world, he would still not be emperor of the universe. If he were the master of earth, he would still be the slave of Heaven. It is the person who is no one, who is no one and yet all.
The Sufi, therefore, takes the path of being nothing instead of being something. It is this feeling of nothingness which turns the human heart into an empty cup into which the wine of immortality is poured. It is this state of bliss which every truth-seeking soul yearns to attain. It is easy to be a learned person, and it is not very difficult to be wise. It is within one's reach to become good. And it is not an impossible achievement to be pious or spiritual. But if there is an attainment greater and higher than all these things, it is to be nothing.
The bubbles are to be found on the surface of the sea. The depth of the sea is free from bubbles. The commotion is to be seen on the surface, the depth of the sea is still. The mind is the commotion of that something that is within us, that something which we call heart. The happiness, knowledge, pleasure and love that is stored in our innermost being is in our profound depth. Changing emotions and passions, dreams, ever-rising thoughts and imaginations, all belong to the surface, as the bubbles belong to the surface of the sea.
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And it is, therefore, in the knowledge of self that there lies the fulfillment of life. The knowledge of self means the knowledge of one's body, the knowledge of one's mind, the knowledge of one's spirit; the knowledge of the spirit's relation to the body and the relation of the body to the spirit; the knowledge of one's wants and needs, the knowledge of one's virtues and faults; knowing what we desire and how to attain it, what to pursue and what to renounce. And when one dives deep into this, one finds before one a world of knowledge which never ends. And it is that knowledge which gives one insight into human nature and brings one to the knowledge of the whole of creation. And in the end one attains to the knowledge of the divine Being.
~~~ The knowledge of self is the essential knowledge; it gives knowledge of humanity. In the understanding of the human being lies that understanding of nature which reveals the law of creation.
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To attain peace, what one has to do is to seek that rhythm which is in the depth of our being. It is just like the sea: the surface of the sea is ever moving; the depth of the sea is still. And so it is with our life. If our life is thrown into the sea of activity, it is on the surface. We still live in the profound depths, in that peace. But the thing is to become conscious of that peace which can be found within ourselves. It is this which can bring us the answer to all our problems. If not, when we want to solve one problem, there is another difficult problem coming. There is no end to our problems. There is no end to the difficulties of the outer life. And if we get excited over them, we shall never be able to solve them. Some think, 'We might wait. Perhaps the conditions will become better. We shall see then what to do.' But when will the conditions become better? They will become still worse! Whether the conditions become better or worse, the first thing is to seek the kingdom of God within ourselves, in which there is our peace. As soon as we have found that, we have found our support, we have found our self. And in spite of all the activity and movement on the surface, we shall be able to keep that peace undisturbed if only we hold it fast by becoming conscious of it.
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Spiritual knowledge is nothing but this: that there is a constant longing in the heart of man to have something of its origin, to experience something of its original state, the state of peace and joy which has been disturbed, and yet is sought after throughout its whole life, and never can cease to be sought after until the real source has at length been realized. What was it in the wilderness that gave peace and joy? What was it that came to us in the forest, the solitude? In either case it was nothing else but the depth of our own life, which is silent like the depths of the great sea, so silent and still. It is the surface of the sea that makes waves and roaring breakers; the depth is silent. So the depth of our own being is silent also.
And this all-pervading, unbroken, inseparable, unlimited, ever-present, omnipotent silence unites with our silence like the meeting of flames. Something goes out from the depths of our being to receive something from there, which comes to meet us; our eyes cannot see and our ears cannot hear and our mind cannot perceive because it is beyond mind, thought, and comprehension. It is the meeting of the soul and the Spirit.
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Thus the true self abides in its own nature. (तदा द्रष्टुः स्वरूपेऽवस्थानम्) - from the Yoga Sutras
The true self refers to the witness (us) that is conscious of all the happenings of the mind, emotions, and body. After the witness is able to see clearly into its own nature, profound knowledge dawns. This can’t really even be expressed in words or conceptualizations. . .
This line merely hints at what happens when the goal of yoga is reached — when experiential understanding arises of what our consciousness is, behind all its temporary thoughts, emotions, and behavior patterns. . .
We are not what we think. . .
Look within, and you’ll see that every layer of yourself is simply a shell with no real personality or self of its own. They simply fulfill their purpose to help or hinder you in a certain context. - Rami Dhanoa
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You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather. - Pema Chödrön
Self-denial is not renouncing things, it is denying the self; and the first lesson of self-denial is humility. - Hazrat Inayat Khan
Your ability to recall enables you to look back on your history and thus know that you have a history. This experience is the origin of ‘I.’ ‘I’ is the identification with “your” history: “That’s me. I experienced all this.” - Bernhard Kutzler
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There are three stages of morals. The first stage is the moral of reciprocity. This moral is natural to the one who sees the difference between himself and another, who recognizes every man as such and such.
The second stage is the law of beneficence, where man, recognizing himself as an entity separate from others and recognizing others as distinct entities themselves, yet sees a cord of connection running through himself and all, and finds himself as a dome in which rises an echo of good and evil; and in order to have a good echo he gives good for good and good for evil.
But the third stage is the moral of renunciation, where the difference of 'mine' and 'thine' and the distinction of 'I' and 'you' fade away in the realization of the one Life that is within and without, beneath and beyond; and that is the meaning of the verse in the Bible, 'In Him we live, and move, and have our being.' - Hazrat Inayat Khan
. . .
When we can touch God in everyone then God tells us about Himself, because He sees that we have no hate, no prejudice. We have seen our Beloved, and our Beloved tells us all. Still, realization is difficult, for it involves discerning the difference between you and me. What is this difference? It is a great question, a great problem. Our 'I' and 'you' are just like a compass with which we draw circles on paper. The one point of the compass is the 'I', the other point is the 'you', and where they join there is no 'I-you.' The 'I' and 'you' only remain as long as we see ourselves; but when we rise above them or beyond them, the thought brings us nearer and nearer to God in that consciousness in which we all unite. ... Perfection and annihilation is that stage where there is no longer 'I' and no longer 'you', where there is what there is. - Hazrat Inayat Khan
It’s not that there’s no self, because that’s ridiculous. You’re you, and I’m me. But the self doesn’t exist in the way we imagined it does. . . . Try to find it as it really exists, not as you think it should. - “The Zen of Therapy”, Mark Epstein
Sometimes as Buddhists, we can develop an orientation that somehow we need to go beyond our sense of self or get rid of it. But I’d say the process is more about discovering through inquiry how the sense of self arises. - Laura Bridgman, “Seeing the Emptiness of Self”
The ego has two sides: the first one is the one we know, and the next one we must discover. The side we know is the false ego which makes us say, 'I'. What is it in us that we call 'I'? We say, 'This is my body, my mind, these are my thoughts, my feelings, my impressions, this is my position in life.' We identify our self with all that concerns us and the sum total of all these we call 'I'. In the light of truth this conception is false, it is a false identity.- Hazrat Inayat Khan
By reasoning with oneself and by trying to study oneself analytically it is possible to get nearer to the true knowledge of one's being. If we consider that every part that constitutes our being has its own name -- the hand, the foot, every part of our being has a different name, quality and purpose, and even a separate form -- what is it then in man which says 'I' and identifies itself with what it sees? It is not our head, hand or foot which says 'I' nor is it the brain. It is something that we cannot point out which identifies itself with all these different parts and says 'I' and mine and knows itself to be the person who sees. This in itself is ignorance, and it is this which the Hindus have called avidya.- Hazrat Inayat Khan
How can you be that which you possess? You cannot be the horse and rider at the same time, nor can you be carpenter and tool at the same time. Herein lies the secret of mortality and immortality.- Hazrat Inayat Khan
What has taken possession of this accommodation? A deluded ego that says, 'I.' It is deluded by this body and mind and it has called itself an individual. When a man has a ragged coat he says, 'I am poor'. In reality his coat is poor, not he. What this capacity or accommodation contains is that which becomes his knowledge, his realization, and it is that which limits him. It forms that limitation which is the tragedy of every soul.
Now, this capacity may be filled with self, or it may be filled with God. There is only room for one. Either we live with our limitation, or we let God reign there in His unlimited Being.- Hazrat Inayat Khan
As life unfolds itself to man the first lesson it teaches is humility; the first thing that comes to man's vision is his own limitedness. The vaster God appears to him, the smaller he finds himself. This goes on and on until the moment comes when he loses himself in the vision of God. In terms of the Sufis this is called fana, and it is this process that was taught by Christ under the name of self-denial. Often man interprets this teaching wrongly and considers renunciation as self-denial. He thinks that the teaching is to renounce all that is in the world. But although that is a way and an important step which leads to true self-denial, the self-denial meant is the losing oneself in God. - Hazrat Inayat Khan
Nature, earth, the world—whatever you call it—is not simply something I am on but something I am. It is not outside of me: it is me, and I am it. - Paul Kingsnorth, “The Witness”
This is what is meant by union with God. It is in reality the dissolving of the false self in the knowledge of the true self, which is divine, eternal, and all pervading. - Hazrat Inayat Khan
The mystic's work is to forget the self, to lose himself like a bubble in the water. The wave realizes, 'I am the sea', and by falling into the sea prostrates itself before its God. - Hazrat Inayat Khan
We may ask ourselves, 'Who is another?' Then we realize that in the true sense of being there is but One. When the veil of ignorance is raised there is no longer any 'I' and 'you', but only the One exists. This is the teaching of the Bible and of all scriptures. - Hazrat Inayat Khan
This “I” is for most of us the first thing that pops into our minds when we think about who we are. The “I” represents the idea of our individual self, the one that sits between the ears and behind the eyes and is “piloting” the body… . . . This I/ego is what we think of as our true selves, and this individual self is the experiencer and the controller of things like thoughts, feelings, and actions. The pilot self feels like it is running the show. - Chris Niebauer, in No Self, No Problem
The worldly struggle is outward struggle. The struggle on the spiritual path is inward struggle. No sooner does one take the spiritual direction than the first enemy one meets is one's own self. What does the self do? It is most mischievous. When one says one wants to fight it, it says, 'I am yourself. Do you want to fight me?' And when it brings failure, it is clever enough to put the blame on someone else. Do all those who have failed in life accuse themselves? No, they always accuse another person. When they have gained something they say, 'I have done it.' When they have lost something they say, 'This person got in my way'. With little and big things, it is all the same. The self does not admit faults; it always puts the blame on others. Its vanity, its pride, its smallness, and its egotistical tendency which is continually active, keep one blind. - Hazrat Inayat Khan
By a study of life the Sufi learns and practices the nature of its harmony. He establishes harmony with the self, with others, with the universe and with the infinite. He identifies himself with another, he sees himself, so to speak, in every other being. He cares for neither blame nor praise, considering both as coming from himself. If a person were to drop a heavy weight and in so doing hurt his own foot, he would not blame his hand for having dropped it, realizing himself in both the hand and the foot. In like manner the Sufi is tolerant when harmed by another, thinking that the harm has come from himself alone. ... He overlooks the faults of others, considering that they know no better. He hides the faults of others, and suppresses any facts that would cause disharmony. His constant fight is with the Nafs (the self-centered ego), the root of all disharmony and the only enemy of man. - Hazrat Inayat Khan
Every being and object which is distinctly separate may be called an entity, but what one calls an individual is a conception of our imagination; and the true meaning of that conception will be realized on the day when the ultimate truth throws its light upon life. On that day no one will speak about individuality; one will say 'God' and no more.
There are many beings, but at the same time there is one, the only Being. Therefore objects such as streams and mountains are also living, but they only exist separately to our outer vision. When our inner vision opens then the separation is shown as a veil; then there is one vision alone, and that is the immanence of God.- Hazrat Inayat Khan
As soon as the soul begins to say 'I' he is exiled from heaven, for all blessings belong to the state which the soul experienced before he claimed to be 'I', a separate entity, separate from others. It is because of this that man, whatever his position, whatever his situation in life, is not fully happy. The trouble of one may perhaps be greater than that of another, but both he who resides in heavenly palaces and the inhabitant of a grass hut have their troubles; both have their pain. But man finds the reason for all afflictions in the life outside him. The Sufi finds it in that one sin: that of having claimed to be 'I'. With this claim came all the trouble, it continued, and it will always continue. This sin has such a hold upon the soul that it is just like the eclipse of the sun, when its light is covered and cannot shine. - Hazrat Inayat Khan
True self-denial is losing one's self in God. - Hazrat Inayat Khan
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Human beings are therefore seen ‘as collective assemblages that zigzag across time’ (Hickey et al, 2013,p183).
Self or ‘identity’ in postmodern ontologies is a fluid and fragmented process,
continually shaped and reshaped in interaction with the social world (see Giddens,
1991).
I explore self, experience and reality in the context of Childhood Studies, suggesting
that narrative is not synonymous with ‘self’, nor does it represent the experiencer. I
argue that a core subjectivity is the primary ‘dative’ of all experience (Kastrup, 2018),
located ‘within’ and ‘without’ human and non-human beings.
Subjectivity and agency is an entangled affair. Delueze & Guitarri (1987) and Barad (2007) make significant contributions in destabilising a core, subjective and separate self.
Kastrup(201 7a, 2017b, 2018, 2019) suggests that the ‘I’ of experience is situated out of
mind, body and time, offering an ontological view that ‘makes more sense of reality
in a more parsimonious and empirically rigorous manner than mainstream
physicalism’ (2018p125). Kastrup (2017a, 2017b ,2018, 2019) proposes an Idealism
ontology, differing from traditional Idealism in its analytical and logical arguments
about the nature of reality, self and experience.
Kastrup (2018) posits how experience cannot be reduced to material ‘ultimates’, that are only constituted by relational qualities (mass, charge and spin). The ‘Hard problem of Consciousness’ (see Chalmers, 1995) asks how subjective experience can emerge from ultimates. As Kastrup points out, there ‘is no fact about ultimates that imply, a priori, facts about experience’ Kastrup, 2018, p129
Relative ‘I’s are manifest and sustained through inner and outer stories, woven by forces which move between private qualitative fields and the whole. The primordial ‘I’ of relative subjects (that is prior to narrative) is the ‘pure dative of experience’ (Kastrup, 2018). It is the experiencer. Experiences, therefore, are not ‘ontologically distinct from cosmic consciousness, just as the dance is not distinct from the dancer’ (Kastrup, 2018. P140).
The ‘I’ to ‘whom things are given or disclosed’ (Kastrup, 2018) is the primordial sense of awareness that is prior to inner stories.
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Self-denial is not renouncing things, it is denying the self; and the first lesson of self-denial is humility. - Hazrat Inayat Khan
Though you are an individual with your own mind and thoughts and feelings, you are defined more than anything else by your relations with others and the society around you. Your life history of friends, family, community, and learning and your reactions to them define who you are.
There is a [Hadith] which says: Mutu kubla anta mutu, which means, 'Die before death.' A poet says, 'Only he attains to the peace of the Lord who loses himself.' God said to Moses, 'No man shall see me and live.' To see God we must be non-existent. - Hazrat Inayat Khan
What does all this mean? It means that when we see our being with open eyes, we see that there are two aspects to our being: the false and the true. The false life is that of the body and mind, which only exists as long as the life is within. In the absence of that life the body cannot go on. We mistake the true life for the false, and the false for the true. - Hazrat Inayat Khan
As life unfolds itself to man the first lesson it teaches is humility; the first thing that comes to man's vision is his own limitedness. The vaster God appears to him, the smaller he finds himself. This goes on and on until the moment comes when he loses himself in the vision of God. In terms of the Sufis this is called fana, and it is this process that was taught by Christ under the name of self-denial. Often man interprets this teaching wrongly and considers renunciation as self-denial. He thinks that the teaching is to renounce all that is in the world. But although that is a way and an important step which leads to true self-denial, the self-denial meant is the losing oneself in God. - Hazrat Inayat Khan
With each session of silence the fog lifts a bit more, until one day the ego “I,” with its insistent look-at-me voice, drops away, revealing the true self afloat in a vast blue sky.- Joan Duncan Oliver, “The Sound of Silence”
Our greatest enemy is ourself. All weakness, all ignorance keeps us from the truth of our being, from all the virtues hidden in us and all perfection hidden in our souls. The first self we realize is the false self. Unless the soul is born again it will not see the kingdom of heaven. The soul is born into the false self; it is blind. In the true self the soul opens its eyes. Unless the false self is fought with, the true self cannot be realized. - Hazrat Inayat Khan
A self that goes on changing is a self that goes on living. - Virginia Woolf
This is what is meant by union with God. It is in reality the dissolving of the false self in the knowledge of the true self, which is divine, eternal, and all pervading. 'He who attaineth union with God, his very self must lose,' said Amir.
There never was a self—only our identification makes us think so. So while purification, kindness, and attention can certainly improve our habits, no amount of self-denial or self-torture can rid us of a self, for it was never there. - Jack Kornfield, “Identity and Selflessness in Buddhism: No Self or True Self?”
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