Isn’t the Self which you, I, we, and they carry a riddle and a witty spoof that laugh at our own comic selves?
We pretty much do not know what the self is. Because we think our self is not something which we can talk about in an extraneous manner.
It is a private matter, and not even known to the owner.
It is so much of me! How can I talk about it? In fact I don’t know what it is? I have been just myself, and how can I extricate my self from myself?
But then if it is so much of me, why are we not at all sure that it will stay, if we dont talk about our self with others – Talking in terms of self-centeredness, projecting oneself at times with the grossest violation of grace, tirelessly asking the other self – “See isn’t I am great?”…
Why the constant insecurity experience of one self slipping away, and hence always the unanalysed desire to please it, praise it, and project it?
Well, one of the most exciting questions for science in this century and perhaps for the next too – is why we have a subjective and self-side of consciousness? Where did this self come from? – asks science. Where will the self go to? – asks philosophy. How securely is it placed? – asks psychology and psychiatry.
The vast number of challenges – at times only socially recognised as a “self-centered person”, or “full of oneself”, “insensitive to others”, “unable to think for another”, “herd mentality and psycho-fancy”, “hide and manipulate”, etc. – takes clinical dimensions when the self disowns its agency, sees and hears what others have no clue about, gets immersed in reasonless grief, or does things with ruthless mania. In all through these dimensions of misery to one self and other’s self – sadly, meaning and purpose in life is lost, an ability to connect yesterday and today to tomorrow is lost…
What is most revealing in understanding the self in our daily life is that however much we deny, our self is very much connected with another self in a deeper way, since the fact is that we live in an interconnected world not only materially, but also psychologically, socially, and metaphysically.
Today is the day for selfie and self-centeredness digitally celebrated by the Social media!
But how do we overcome the need to balloonise our little fragile self, and transform that to a stronger and deeper Self to include more, empathise more, and have larger life goals, and for deeper contentment that wont depend on flimsy means and causes.
That is a question for each one of us to respond to in our our own unique and creative ways!
About Consciousness 