1 Apr 2010
Do You Know You? -- Exploring yourself
This is a sequel to following articles.
"Swine flu and money cult" (November 25, 2009)
"Do Nothing" (January 26, 2010)
Before finding out what we really want to do or what we can do to make difference, it would be fun to have one more step. That is to explore "What is myself?"
This is a free tour to find yourself! And it will be a long and exciting journey.
If you really know yourself, you can say you almost know everything in the universe. On the other hand, how we can discuss individualism or democracy without precisely knowing what is individual or "self"?
Global companies and their franchise network make every place looks like each other but still we may find something different when we travel somewhere and learn some different point of view.
However, as far as finding myself is concerned, I feel that we can't find it anywhere even abroad or even into the outer space. On the contrary, it happens to be discovered if we got imprisoned and deprived of physical freedom. But It's not good idea to commit a crime to get into prison to explore our "self." Some people find themselves when they almost die from diseases or accidents. To be honest, I don't know myself well.
I think, though most people usually don't pay attention much, we seem to think our bodies are ourselves. At least I do so. To be precise, I usually think something inside of my skin is myself. The head hair is myself, too, but it is not myself anymore once it cut off at barber. Foods are mysterious. They become part of mine as soon as I eat them, but it also become something undesirable as soon as they leave my body as feces or else. The Health Ranger Mike Adams states that actually it is not what we eat but what we absorb that becomes ourselves. The reason we feel our entire personality disgraced when we are told our feces smell so bad is that there are still lingering atmosphere of the time it was part of ourselves. But to tell the truth, it is not the problem of personality but the problem of diet.
By the way, why do we come to believe that our body is our "self"?
"self" is painful, life is painful
Because we feel "pain".
It is obvious if you observe the process a new born baby learns. When you get a cut with a knife, something pricked or whatever, the range of part you feel pain is yourself. I should say "discomfort" in general because It is not limited to pain but also includes thirst, hunger, or even mental pains. Also "comfort" is felt. Therefore we can say the sensor with which we feel comfort or discomfort is our "self". From the time we are born, we accumulate these experiences of comfort and discomfort to clarify the range of our "self." And as we grow older, we get more confident that the thing inside of our skin should be our "self."
The reason some people very cautious about their diet are not so cautious about things (detergent, shampoo, etc.) that contact their skin is that they don't think that from the surface of skin outward is not part of themselves. I have never felt those materials dangerous before I read the article by the health Ranger and learned those materials infiltrate into blood.
In fact, the part we are feeling comfort/discomfort is not skin but brain connected to skin. To prove this, we don't feel pain when we are anesthetized. In addition, human physical cells are completely replaced in about several months to a year. (This implies that theoretically any kind of disorder can be naturally cured within months or a year completely.) Are we being replaced in every year or even shorter period?
Let's cut our body to narrow down to discover what truly our "self" is. Of course, it would be safe just to imagine it. The person who lost limbs exists. That means, the hands and feet are not very essential parts. Organ transplant is performed. We do not lose "self" after organ transplant. Therefore the body parts including heart do not seem to be essential, too (but it is significant to know that the personality of the donor appears to some extent). Then, can we say the head is our "self" eventually? To make us confused, the technique of the transplanting brain is being developed. But we never see someone living without their head. So we can assume for the time being that the head is us. Even a ghost without feet has a head.
In our head, we have many important sensory organs such as eyes and ears. Can we say a blind or a deaf person loses their "self"? Surely not. Therefore these are not essential, too. After narrowing down in this way, we may arrive at a conclusion that the nerve cells and synapses to connect them are our "self." But, as I mentioned, brain cells can be transplanted. In addition, 40% of brain cells are replaced in a month and all of them in a year.
Then, is myself a year ago completely different from the one now? There has been some changes but not so completely. Why can we keep consistency of being (or at least believing to be) one person while all of the brain cells which should represent our "self" are replaced completely?
We have to surrender now.
Our "self" is not material!
Our "self" from the perspective of cosmology
Let's turn around to search for the infinite space. There are big bang theory or various other theories to explain the cosmology. I am not expert in the field. But my simple question is if there is some kind of the end of the universe, there should be something beyond that end. When the earth was believed to be flat, the edge (end) of earth was believed to be waterfall. But we know now the earth is a globe. It is not a plane, but a cube. In the same way, the space cannot be three-dimensional. It is just for our daily life convenience that we assume it is three dimensional. We only use that illusion well. It should be a matter of fact in cosmology but I think laymen tend to associate the word Big Bang with the imagination that the universe is expanding in three-dimensional way. Do many people understand this is an illusion? If anyone insist that this is not an illusion, I want to hear how they can explain what is beyond the end of the universe. If they could explain it, I would ask endless question, then what is beyond something they explain.
It is relatively easy to imagine rounding a flat paper (two dimensions) to make a ball (three dimensions). But it is very hard to imagine further rounding the ball to make into something four-dimentional. It might be impossible for the current human race intelligence. It can be some spiral movement. Even when we could figure it out, the complexity seems to continue to higher levels to five dimensions, six dimensions and so on.
But I think it is possible for many people to reversely imagine (or feel) reducing the dimension to one or even zero.
When the electric fan is turning, the blades seems to be round. If you have never seen the fan being still, you can never imagine the blade is not round. We learned at school education that atoms are almost empty. Very tiny electrons are rotating arround nucleus. But still we believe, in the daily experience, that many things are dense and solid. It is painful if you hit iron lump with a fist. Even that solid iron should be empty if the electrons stop rotation.
The key lies in relativity. We know that automobile tires should be round. It doesn't roll over unless. But if you look into tires closely, the surface is jaggy. It means it need not to be completely round, as far as it is roughly round. In the case of the automobile's tires, it is enough if it looks round against the roughness of roads. If it can roll over on a road, it can be approved as "round". And if it is too round, it would be slippery. It is not good for convenience. "Relative balance" is important.
In other words, it is the perception of our skin sensor that "decides" iron is hard. The iron itself is not necessarily hard. It may be hard. But it may be soft. Who knows.
Everything is "myself"
What I want to say is that regardless of whether we perceive the reality as three-dimensional or spiritual, the world we perceive is nothing but our own senses. We can recognize only things which we can recognize with the ability of our physical sensory organs no matter how hard we struggle to perceive. Of course, we have technological development. We can look farther than the naked eye, for example, with an astronomical telescope. We can feel the fish in the sea with sonar search. However, it is only the extension of our physical ability and there is the limit.
When I say recognition, it is not confined to physical senses. Imagination or thought is also recognition, because that is how we perceive the world. Furthermore, the human being not only perceive passively but also create new reality by nursing illusions.
And physical ability or thinking ability varies among individuals. In other words, each person has his/her own world. Those who highly depdend on television (visual images) can only perceive the reality as they see it with eyes. So, I may be able to conclude that the world each person perceive is in fact the person itself.
This logical conclusion astonishes me. All things I recognize are "me"... The earth and even the vast space, everything. I feel like I am left alone in the midst of the Pacific ocean. Or I am drifting in the space alone. Do those people surrounding me are actually acting like they exist and disguises to be there? The truth is, no one has been there except me.
No, I don't want to believe that. And it is strange because if the whole world is my "self", I should be able to do anything as I wish. But it's not so. There surely exist wills other than mine. But it contradicts a logical conclusion. This is a domain of "the unknowableness" that I can never understand.
But I guess that this fundamental sense of solitude must be the secret origin of birth of universe. The people who want to control everything would finally recognize this solitude once they achive their complete control. To control and decide everything alone is quite boring.
Now many people say we are one, or everything is one. But that is only one aspect of truth. Just because it is boring to be one, infinite number of individuals have been created, I believe. It is a great irony of cosmos that we divided into individuals to become one (not individuals). It is nice and balanced if we can go between the state of "oneness" and the state of "individuals" repeatedly with some frequency. It is not good if we completly become condensed to be one. At the same time, It is not good idea to keep on just being individuals forgetting to coming back to one. It is just like a man and a woman in love say "We want to be one forever." They get bored if they really do so. Love is nice because we repeat getting together and parting each other with certain frequency (rhythm) or at an regular (sometimes unexpected) interval.
Human beings, and all creatures, are selfish. I am not talking about ethics but merely a fact. If any living creature is not selfish, it must die.
But, at a glance, there are some people who look selfish and others look altruistic. What makes the difference? Here, an altruistic person doesn't mean a hypocrite, but someone who really sacrifices oneself for society.
The difference is exactly made of difference in "self" which I have described in length.
The person who seems to do anti-selfish act has a big "self". So called selfish persons have only small "self" which is always contained inside of their skin. For those who contain oneself to its own small shell, people with big "self" look altruistic.
It is not genuine if the altruistic act is based on inprinted ethics to serve others and society. If they do the ethical education too much at school, they will mass produce hypocrites in a large scale. If the "self" expands out, there is a feeling that no one can stop. Because it is for "self", selfish motivation.
For example, the reason why ordinary mothers give top priority to their children is that they believe a child born from them is a part of her "self". Any act forced by others, or any act derived from feelings of obligation or other people's eyes are all quack. Once we deny the fundamental of existence to "be selfish", we become dependent on something other than "self". The something other can be almighty God, ETs, or anything external. That kind of illusion accumulated to form some reality. That is called religion, science, money, political power etc. The common theme here is that the more people believe in, the more power they gather.
Taking example of changing (correcting) dietary habit, it is genuine if you can do it spontaneously or naturally without lots of efforts or mental burden. While you want to eat a beef steak, you should eat. It is not good to be patient. But, if you come to know that now the usage of antibiotic for the stock-raising industry is more than for human medical care and the industry is good customers for pharmaceutical companies, do you still want to eat it? I mean do you still have to be patient not to eat meat? I think If we get right knowledge, we can choose right foods and stop eating wrong foods without any mental burden or "efforts." We simply come to feel we don't want to eat that. It is only that. It is never associated with "mental toughness" or "power of will" of "justice" or "love." Chinese old thoughts tell us that "knowledge decides actions."
So far it is logically proved that the sensor to sense comfort/discomfort is our "self" and then, the world we perceive is no other than our "self" which is not physical or three-dimentional entity. Then what is death?
It seems apparent that we lose five senses because the body sensor stops operation. But as I mentioned above, our body is already being replaced every year or so even while we are alive. It keeps on perishing and forming till we die. Or it must be "to live" itself to do that repetition of creation and destruction of the body. And we call it death when we can no longer maintain that process.
"self" is information?
There should be some blueprint (program) to keep reproducing our bodies. I don't know if the program can be called DNA, soul or anything else. Some says that when we die, tiny amount of the body weight (several grams) is lost. To lose weight means to be cut off from the earth gravitation. Just imagine a microSD card for cell-phones. With the technical standard of present human civilization, that size can contains such huge amount of information. And the structure of living creature is far more precise and advanced than modern human technology. With that advanced technology of natural creature, how huge amount of information do you imagine can be carried on the several grams entity called soul?
It is a matter of personal belief and might not be able to get proved whether there is still a soul remains after death or there is nothing after death. I believe that this blueprint or database is inherited forever. Any buildings or objects with form is destined to be broken someday but the construction design or the blurprint can be copied and maintained forever. It can be copied with either degradation or improvement. Ise Jingu Shrine in Japan has been rebuilt every 20 years since 7th century. In Western civilization including modern Japan, we tend to construct buildings as durable as possible. But no matter how strong the building is, someday, it will ruin. However, if you intentionally destroy it in certain period and build it again, you can keep the shape forever as exactly what it was initially. Well, to think about "forever", maybe "time" is illusion, too, though there must be some sequence of events. Because everything is our "self", it can't become extinct regardless of time.
I can blow up imagination as follows. Suppose there are two worlds; the physical world of this and the spiritual world of there. I guess the reality is far more complicated but let's assume it in a simple way.
Those two worlds are two sides of the same coin and interlocking each other. The other world is, so to speak, a world of conception or information. The information, when expressed through human body in this physical world, becomes "words." It is translated into each national language when it is processed in our brain. The original information should be basic elements like "shape" or "color" to tell us something intuitively just as we see those in traffic signs. It can be further generalized into frequency and amplitude of vibration, and further into binary information (negative and positive). The conceptual formula of the creation of the universe can be expressed as 0 = +1-1.
As mentioned above, there are things because we sense things are there. So the physical materials are something our ideas create.
The other world is the ocean of information. Just as our body is comprised of infinite number of cells, the other world of information ocean is comprised of infinite number of molecules (souls). We call it a birth when one of the molecules get incarnated and call it a death when it leaves body for going back to the information only world. Those souls who lost their body but still want to remain this world are called ghosts. The stronger the wish to remain this world, the clearer the ghost appears even with full color. When it is weakened, it loses color and becomes transparent (monochrome).
Everlasting relief and fear
The sea of conception is a huge database. It is sectioned by innumerable partitions, but it is one altogether. From the huge database, we come to this world bringing a cluster of information on the storage medium called "soul." And we add to (write) it new information of experiences in this world. We bring the information back to the other world when we die. Or we are linked in real time even in our lifetime. The form of human bone structure or DNA spiral look like a communication antenna. I feel that, at night while we are sleeping (i.e. daily death), we are processing those information we collect in daytime and sending it to the other world. And after processing and extracting some information at night, we are born again with somewhat modified personality in the next morning.
By the way, some people would feel relieved to hear that our souls exist forever. It would rather frighten me. If I become nothing when I die, I understand it as I can do anything (even bad things) as long as I am not caught by police. But if my soul is forever, it means I will be bound forever by what I have done. Those who easily engage in criminal or bad things are the people who doesn't understand this mechanism. They believe they can do anything if they are not caught in other's eyes.
I used the word "bad" carelessly, I mean, without defining the meanings. For this, I have thought over a long time and come to conclusion that there is not absolute standard to measure good and bad. If I dare to define it, something brings you "comfort" is "good", and something brings you "discomfort" is "bad." For example, we experience pain when we get sick. Therefore, things bring us diseases are "bad". It seems too simple but I think it is meaningless to think it much deeper. "Relative balance" is important in this case too.
Because human beings are selfish, we behave to give "comfort" to our "self". To be precise, we behave according to the choice that we "believe" to bring us comfort. I mean there are much misunderstandings. For example, we tend to overestimate short-sighted "comfort" sacrificing even heavier "discomfort" in the long-term. Sweet cakes might be pleasant for now but it will bring you long-term unpleasant chronical diseases.
At all events, those comfort and discomfort we experience in this physical world will be registered in the soul database in the other world. And ultimately everything is one, which means it will automatically move to keep balance of comfort and discomfort (because the basic formula of universe is 0=+1-1). In other words, one's action bounces back on oneself sometime soon or later. In other words, the judgment of good and bad is wholy entrusted to our "self". So, it is easy. You can do what you think is good. It will bounce back to you some day. If you feel pain when it bounces back, you can learn what you did was bad thing.
Standard of good and bad, right and wrong
Is It right to go to the right or go to the left when you drive a car? There is no absolute answer. It cleary depends on how the road goes. When the road bends to the right, and you turn to the left, you will get clash and feel pain. Therefore it seems right to turn to the right in this case. It is less painful. But some people prefer having pains. No one can stop those people.
The act of "self" returns to "self". Action and reaction. The reaction may come very late (can be in next life) when we have completely forget what kind of action we did caused the reaction. And if the reaction brings us pain, we want to think that the pain is caused by someone else. That is how we get involved in the depth of the vicious circle. Some people are making money by deceiving others. It might be to care their family members. If they think it cannot be helped, it is their judgment. But they had better not attribute it to someone else when the reaction of their deed come later. For example, I am too coward to sell vaccines as pharmaceutical people do. They are really brave. Ignorance gives people courage.
To be continued...
references
Mike Adams, Health Ranger, How to Halt Diabetes in 25 Days, Truth Publishing
Heal yourself in 15 days - You are what you absorb (part three)
And other articles by Mike Adams at NaturalNews.com