(Some of you may have already seen this…it came out the other day on my Psychology Today blog .)
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MOURNING THE LOSS OF AN ONLINE IDENTITY
George Gurdjieff, the inscrutable Armenian mystic of early last century, insisted that we humans are constantly bearing false witness against ourselves, by glibly using the pronoun “I” to refer to who we are. Rather, he pointed out that careful scrutiny would reveal that this presumably singular person we call “I” is in fact a constantly changing persona simply sharing the same name. Read More
That was a fun read
. There is however, one real you, that is who I call the watcher, the one who watches your life with a smile on it’s face, the spirit inside.
I agree, and I think Gurdjieff would agree, but most of us spend a lot of time at the mercy of the ever-changing series of I’s who are often running our lives and making our decisions….plus, to add another twist, in some of the Buddhist traditions, the Real Self, or Buddha Nature, or “”Emptiness,” is considered at least one more step back, behind even the Watcher…and that part is neither smiling nor not smiling, it is simply aware of everything, and has no opinions for or against, so whether your life is fabulous or miserable, it is simply observing. Meanwhile out local “I”s are still around fighting the good fight for sanity!
Elieszer, you are right, I never thought about it, but the watcher is not smiling, just neutral. I also never thought of who was watching the watcher
. Always something to learn.
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I don’t listen much to those other silly voices, I am learning more and more to tell them to shut up