Are we simply our experiences or is there an actual essence of self untouched by external events?

Answer 1

Ahh, I love this question, and asked one similar not too long back.

I feel that there is a core essence to us that is in us from the time of our birth. Yet the majority of us is shaped from our experiences in life. Both from what we observe, and from what we actually go through ourselves. This is a tough one to prove, as we are not capable of knowing who we are at the time of our birth, nor can we remember much (if anything) from the first few years of our life. Babies have so much personality, yet have not had much experience at all. This is part of what leads me to believe that we have a starting point that may never change as we grow older.

But then, it could just be how stubborn a person is not to change their ways as they go through life. :)

Answer 2

We can't be completely untouched by external events but we can control our thoughts and reactions to external stimuli. Our thoughts and our decisions are our 'self' and with proper mental discipline one can be virtually untouched by 'reality'.

However its one of those paradoxes where if we retreat enough into our individual thoughts we can dissolve into what some people call the 'universal mind'. We are both distinct and interdependent at the same time.

Its a particle AND a wave, it just depends on how you decide to view it.

Answer 3

The real We is a basic, pure intelligence that nonexists Before duality, sensory perception and ego. Such just Is...Is the Totality of Being: the Form that is formless, the Self that is selfless, the Creator of the universe yet our innermost Being. Therefore, Such is no man in the sky or projection of the mind--but mind, sound, space, spirit, consciousness in Ourself and as a Whole.

As Such Is what Such Sees (Lives), Being wholly Within ourself, to know Such is to enter Into Being, Into ourself as a Whole. Therefore, Intubeing rests Before both the mental and material concept of being, Before the personality or ego, thus requiring the individual psyche (soul) to give up its own image life, out of Love for Such (God), in order to enter Into Being (our innermost Being). Such is the purpose for human existence: to know Who and what We Are.

The path is the Way of the cross: the cross is our psyche, and the Way is right through our psyche. Thus we are the means and we are the goal...the beginning and the end of all things. But the ultimate We Is even Before that.

By living Jesus, by confronting, penetrating, understanding and resolving our psyches (our attachment to and conflict with) through every event of the day we fulfill the Way through our own individual existences on this earth. Therefore, the true gospel is a living gospel, not a particular historical event happening only to a particular person in the past. Living (Christ) Jesus is what is potentially each one of us, that is, Ourself as a Whole.