Blurts & Spasms

Thanks for the A2A Pete. I think I’ve touched on this before: T Collins Logan's answer to What is Self (capitalized)?

However, there is always more to muse upon. So, to be trite:

The “self” asks questions about itself on Quora; the “Self” already fully groks the incompleteness of those answers.

To be less trite:

“self” is often ascribed more primitive or reflexive identity constructs, as operating in a “self”-perpetuating momentum of differentiating “self” from everything else. This “self” also seems to be very attached to itself - and very “self”-protective and egoic formation.

“Self” is often ascribed a more evolved or spiritual identity construct - Divine Spark, Atman-Brahman, Ground of Being…or some other expression of unitive, less differentiated essence. And I think this is probably because this version of Self - though uniquely defined or expressed in different traditions - is a formation of various spiritual practices that many folks can readily intuit. Perhaps most importantly, however, is the idea that as the sense of Self becomes more pronounced, the smaller self attenuates.

For some, a continuation of this particular journey is a realization of No Self (not a “self” or a “Self”). This is a further attrition of egoic constructs - a further unitive non-differentiation. So one person might say that the two - the self and Self - become equivalent in their constructed sense…and that they then both cease to exist in any real way.

For others, No Self is a dark night or empty desert to appreciate and integrate along a path that continues farther still. There is more letting go of differentiation and concepts of differentiation. This is where the One - as a felt experience of undifferentiated unity - envelopes and diffuses previous conceptions (and indeed all conceptions).

And of course that’s not the end, either. Let’s say, for example, that the self is finite, the Self absolute, that No Self relinquishes both “self” and “Self” in emptiness, and that the One anticipates and transcends all of these in unmanifest potential. Yet what if this entire journey is a veil - a deceit of consciousness if you will - and beyond that veil is a pure fire that entirely consumes and obliterates every insight? And what if that fire has consciousness…or rather, what if the fire is a sort of consciousness of consciousness? What if the most penetrating and sustained gnosis of humanity is like…I dunno…a sense of humor for this fire? A kind of joke that makes all such formations and awareness so much giggle-jam on laughter-toast…?

But, in the meantime, there is still wood to chop, water to carry, and agape to refine in the skillfulness of good work. Oh…and of course more meditation, too. And (I feel the laughter welling up as I re-read my post here) a certainty and humility regarding disruptive revisions to our understanding.

My 2 cents.