Define your true essence.

Who are you? I am curious as to how one would define themselves.
However, the "catch" is this: you are to define your essence -- that is, your true self.

This is mine, and I hope to hear yours as well!

-----

To find one what is, one must find what one is not. I am not my body, nor am I my name. I am not my occupation, and my identity has nothing to do with my possessions, religion, or anything that is temporary.

My true essence is eternal. It is eternal love, awareness, and happiness.
I am the silent observer who grins amongst complete stillness.
I hold no judgment, and do not seek to "do" but rather to BE.
There is no differentiation between the sky above me, or the ground below... the notes played beautifully through an instrument, or the rivers flowing across the earth.

I am the all encompassing light that permeates through my physical body; through the stars, and the vastness of space...
I exist in perfect harmony and alignment with all that is, and ever will be.

And I am not my thoughts, nor my words... labels limit my limitless nature, yet I have tried to explain my essence.

Simply put, I AM --- and will always be.
A human-being.

-alex

-edit- thanks for the stars and flags, but I want to see your replies!

[edit on 24-6-2009 by bvproductions]

reply to post by bvproductions


That was deep and beautiful! My essence... I am the calm after the storm, the still freshness that is all encompassing.

I am a stream of consciousness, ever changing.

I am love and creativity - in essence..

Originally posted by bvproductions
I am not my body, nor am I my name. I am not my occupation, and my identity has nothing to do with my possessions, religion, or anything that is temporary.

But how do you separate the influence of all of these things?

If you were truly a constant then you wouldn’t have changed at all since birth, but I’d be willing to bet that every aspect of you is to some degree different to how it was X period of time ago. The question is what informs these changes, I would argue that it is these and many other factors that you disregard. For example you may have a daft name that meant you were picked on at school which has turned you into a meek and bitter individual or alternatively it has made you more confident and willing to stand up for yourself. Either way your body that has had an input into what you are now.

If you disregard all of these and claim to be just human then everyone else must be just human but that puts paid to the concept of individuality which is so evident.

So in answer to your question I’d contend that everyone is the culmination of many internal and external influences expressed via a collection of chemical reactions.




More specific to myself, as you may have guessed, I consider myself a rigidly logical person with little room for compromise and an obsessive need to keep poking people with a stick all the time asking “but why”, which tends to annoy people; even me sometimes.

How can we begin to yet define our existence if we do not yet know ourselves?

That is the real question... I believe!

I am....the world's collective middle finger. And you wouldn't understand that unless you knew me well and then you would pee yourself laughing in agreement. Nuff said.

It's like an eyeball that sees everything but can't see itself, because there's nothing there but emptiness. An aware emptiness that notices and allows everything.

Originally posted by Mike_A

Originally posted by bvproductions
I am not my body, nor am I my name. I am not my occupation, and my identity has nothing to do with my possessions, religion, or anything that is temporary.

But how do you separate the influence of all of these things?

If you were truly a constant then you wouldn’t have changed at all since birth, but I’d be willing to bet that every aspect of you is to some degree different to how it was X period of time ago. The question is what informs these changes, I would argue that it is these and many other factors that you disregard. For example you may have a daft name that meant you were picked on at school which has turned you into a meek and bitter individual or alternatively it has made you more confident and willing to stand up for yourself. Either way your body that has had an input into what you are now.

If you disregard all of these and claim to be just human then everyone else must be just human but that puts paid to the concept of individuality which is so evident.

Changes happen, yes... but the eternal life force does not change.
It creates, but the creative force is always the same... it just IS.
Our character is only different varieties of that energy... in my opinion, of course.

It is impossible to describe your true essence in any amount of words. Odds are you dont know your essence, you might think you do but you can suprise yourself I know I am suprised at what I learn about myself all the time.

Some things you just cant describe, you just have to experience. Words are an unfortunate necessity. We need them to coexist and to organize society, but we also try to use them to describe the indescribable. Some examples being God and the true essence of your consciousness. These things are of infinite proportions yet we try to use finite devices, like words, to give them a finite meaning. In a way its insulting.

Originally posted by caballero
It is impossible to describe your true essence in any amount of words. Odds are you dont know your essence, you might think you do but you can suprise yourself I know I am suprised at what I learn about myself all the time.

I agree. I know that words cannot fully describe it... hence why I made this topic.
It interests me what words one chooses to describe themselves.

I'm a nerd on the internet, looking for answers, because I haven't found them yet in any other place.

reply to post by bvproductions
Excellent OP; I am an eternal traveller that has no shape or form, a being of spirit, a single drop of light that shines forth from the love of the universal creator of all, a spiritual being sent on the journey of experience to gather together and experience all things and return with them to the creator'slove; I am everything and i am nothing, simply I AM, i have always been, and I shall always be;

not simply a mere human, but a spirit having a human experience; I love, I experience, there fore I AM.


Seeker

Who am I? This or the other?

Am I one person today and tomorrow another?

Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,

And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?

Or is something within me still like a beaten army,

Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?

Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.

Whoever I am, Thou knowest, 0 God, I am Thine!


Love&Light

Jacob

Originally posted by JacobNH
Who am I? This or the other?

Am I one person today and tomorrow another?

Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,

And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?

Or is something within me still like a beaten army,

Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?

Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.

Whoever I am, Thou knowest, 0 God, I am Thine!


Love&Light

Jacob

Quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer I see! Well done.
Seeker, I loved your description... I was hoping you would reply to this topic.
Couldn't have said it any better.

reply to post by bvproductions


Ah someone has taste

Love&Light

Jacob

I am whatever is behind this

am i hungry or tired? . ..can't eat yet...another hour. . .foot itches. . .ouch. . .cat over there. . .keyboard is noisy. . .hard to keep a stream of conciousness when trying to report your stream of conciousness. . .blink. . .how should I type that I just blinked. . .looking up and right. . .turn head. . .got my pen back. . .tired. ..what pick are we at. . .I should finish this so I can check. . .ok. . .reread. . .need to add a few more before I get up . ..emoticons. . .still can't eat yet . ..

I look within and I see I am nothing, that is wisdom.
I look out and see that I am everything, that is love.
Between the two, my life flows.


Nisargadatta

Originally posted by WEOPPOSEDECEPTION
I look within and I see I am nothing, that is wisdom.
I look out and see that I am everything, that is love.
Between the two, my life flows.


Nisargadatta

Beautiful. This practically sums it all up!
Thanks for this.

My essence so to speak is a learning thing it is constantly trying to get to a higher level. I will never be satisfied until I know everything there is to know, and then even then I wont be satisfied.

If reincarnation is the way of the world then I will hopefully keep coming back until I have experienced life from every aspect. Because even though the body that me, my soul, inhabits on this planet might force me to forget the memories from the old lives I have led, I welcome the amnesia so I can experience a new way of life, afresh with no bias or habits from the old life.

Summing up I want to see everything, experience everything, know everything the good and the bad...

You cant have the light without the dark.