Inner Journey

Defining The Sense of Self
Short Discourses

page 2

What is The Self?

"The self" is a term meant to describe the essential or true identity of a person. But what is further identified as the "True-Self" is generally not the self or identity that is revealed to the world in everyday life. Often, the person we see is hidden by the many masks we wear as we interact among people in our daily lives. Through this, we see an illusive or superficial image of people. Even if we think we know someone quite well, there are still aspects of one's true identity that is not known to us.

In fact, a person's "True Self" can even be hidden from themselves leaving the individual caught in an illusive view of themselves and the world. Unfortunately, this is more common than we'd like to believe. This is where the attainment of the permanent experience of the "True Self" is so valuable. The love that emanates from the enlivened true self is a love full of compassion and only wants to give so that all others can live the experience that it has.

What Influences and Shapes the Sense of Self?

Through the various stages of a persons human ? social ? spiritual development, the sense of WHO a person is (that is? the inner identification where self-fulfilment, and the recognition of self worth emanate from), should progress to new meanings as the individual experiences life more completely. I purposefully use the word "should" to indicate that many people do not necessarily progress to a more refined view of their existence beyond a basic sense of self identification aligned with the physical or mental levels.

Levels of Being=>	Physical	Mental	Emotional	Spiritual
The various relationships amid Body, Mind & Spirit which help define or qualify the Sense of Self	I know I Am Because of my body	I know I Am Because I think I Am	I know I Am Because of my feelings	I Am
	My body verifies my existence	My thoughts verify my existence	My feelings verify my existence	I exist without a need for validation
	I exist because of my physical presence	I exist because my thoughts tell me I exist	I exist because I can feel my presence	I alone exist
	My experience in physical life proves my existence	My experience in mental abilities and achievements proves my existence	My emotional experiences from interaction with people proves my existence.	I experience myself through myself alone
Sources of Fulfilment	Physical associations bring me fulfilment	Intellectual associations bring me fulfilment	Emotional associations bring me fulfilment	Self fulfilment is inherent

Table 1: Exploring the Sense of Self.

From the table above, we can examine each level of being and see how the human psyche matures in life. Each level of existence re-defines and matures the sense of self through relative experiences, associations, comparisons and other qualifications. This can all serve us by ultimately allowing a revelation, that one day we can cast aside the need for external qualifications and rest in the knowledge that we exist because we exist. Such an attitude is devoid of comparisons and analogies, since we can then see ourselves as forever being complete. Our true self is a spiritual being and to paraphrase: "We are spiritual beings on physical journey."

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