2007-09-27 15:32:49 · 13 answers · asked by driving_blindly 4 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
If "you" are "your" thoughts, then "you" are simply a set of past experiences, that are imprinted into a physical organ that has a genetically preconditioned structure, which itself is dependent upon "your" parents genetics.
What is "your" self concept? Are you simply what I just explained, are you "more" than that, "less" than that. Or, you just "are" or, do "you" think that "you" are just an "illusion." "I" can keep playing with words, but "I" think "I" have got "my" question across!
2007-09-27 15:43:27 · update #1
"some wanna know" that was an interesting idea. What is the "you" that can control the thoughts that "you" experience? Perhaps, "you" are just pure "free will" that lives in an "individual" which "you" have chosen to attatch "your" identity to. But "I" am not making any real judgements, just saying what "I" feel, living up to "my" namesake!
2007-09-27 15:48:41 · update #2
"ckrw" that was an interesting look at the biological basis of our identities. Indeed, "I" am all that "I" have. However, there is still one biological question that has yet to be figured out, and that is the basis of our "consciousness" - but as far as "I" can tell with certainty (very very little), "I" am the only person who is consciously aware on this whole planet. Could there be a way to expand the physical area of my "consciousness" so my "consciousness" can be aware of all the individual's around me? This sounds silly, but there are many historical accounts (see source below) of experiences where people have been "conscious" of not just "themselves" but of all the aother people around them, and even the plants and animals.
R.Forman, "What does mysticism have to teach us about consciousness" (JCS, 5, No. 2) 1998, pp 185-201.
2007-09-27 15:58:49 · update #3
We are the product of not just our thoughts, but also our emotions. And regardless of how we choose to treat them, their physical process generates electromagnetic energy, which does not dissipate completely, but surrounds us, forming our "aura." This energy field becomes dense, creating the illusion of our physical body.
So yes, in a sense we are our thoughts, but our thoughts are fueled by emotion. We cannot have one without the other. To have a thought without an emotion is to have an empty process that has no more value than a body void of spirit. It is the alchemy of our thoughts and feelings that is who we are; what we think and feel, we become and we are.
Can they be controlled? Sure, to a point. To a point. But we are still the end product of their alchemy.
2007-09-29 10:08:41 · answer #1 · answered by Shihan 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A number of interesting comments already. I'd like to offer a couple more, though not pretending to provide anything like a satisfactorily complete answer.
If we were our thoughts, we'd "die" whenever we were without thoughts, as occasionally happens in many meditation practices and repeatedly happens each night in dreamless sleep.
Split-brain and stroke patients can demonstrate that they know things that they do not know they know. Are those "not thought" knowings not "them"?
John of the Cross reminded his students not to become attached to their rapturous ideas ... because by the time it reached conscious thought, the experiential process that set it in motion was already "over." Our consciously occurring thinking, in other words, is sometimes "the last to know."
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2007-09-29 10:36:49 · answer #2 · answered by bodhidave 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I am whether n I am or am not conscious of who I am.
My ability to think comes from me. Yet the ideas themselves come from inside and outside of me. I can control the direction on the way I think about the ideas unless an original thought occurs from an outside source or new idea within me that changes it.
The more personal the ideas affect my life the more passionate I defend them.
2007-09-27 17:19:04 · answer #3 · answered by Uncle Remus 54 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Another great question.
At first I became aware of them as extensions of chemistry - body-level reactions to external stressful events which triggered embedded defensive thought patterns from the past. Then later I noticed their connection to ego attachments. Observing them helps one to gain detachment and trace them to their origin in belief, which allows them to be overcome as repetitive patterns.
Eventually you discover you have stopped the automatic reacting thoughts and you can contemplate what you choose.
2007-09-28 09:59:32 · answer #4 · answered by MysticMaze 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Sort of... I think "you" are a mixture of the construction of your brain (particularly your synapses), and EVERY THING you've ever experienced. So the synapses, and every single piece of information that's ever passed though them defines your "personality"...
I treat "my" thoughts somewhat personally because they are all "I" have, all I can have...but at the same time, I recognize that they are only the result of the way a bunch of atoms fell together (my brain and the universe alike)
2007-09-27 15:43:30 · answer #5 · answered by ckrw 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Who we are is nothing more than a series of label that we have judged ourselves with. Being too attached to those labels becomes a source of suffering for some many. End your misery, let go of the labels -- for yourself and others.
2007-09-27 15:56:15 · answer #6 · answered by guru 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Intriguing.
My thoughts are my own, but they are not WHO I am.
I can control my thoughts for the most part & the ones I cannot, I dismiss, if need be.
Ah, yes- but I can train my thoughts & have experienced this over the past 10 years... I have virtually changed my personality.
Or... am I just not getting it???!!! :)
I still like this question, hence I am coming back to edit... thanks!
2007-09-27 15:37:12 · answer #7 · answered by ? 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
'I' must have sensed you or 'I' am you, cause 'I' wanted to ask this very question since yesterday but didn't get around to it.....
Are we our thoughts? When we stop identifying with them, we realise we are much more VAST than we thought.....
The conclusion is that the center of the universe is the observer, and his point of view is the biological organism....
2007-09-29 09:52:37 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
yes, in a way it's true when they say you are what you think you are. i think our thoughts are the most powerful weapon we've got. and if we don't know how to use them, we'll be hurt or killed by them. i believe in the law of attraction. if you believe in your thoughts, they are acheived or happen.
our thoughts are not something from the past. they are living, changing as we grow and are even making our future.
Have a nice day.
2007-09-30 02:30:23 · answer #9 · answered by I'm nobody! 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Ah!... Sounds like a question for a meditation... :)
I think that you are who you wanted to be...if you think you are your thoughts... then you are your thoughts. If you think you are more than your thoughts, then you are more than your thoughts.
If you are really serious about this question of yours... try reading books on Buddhism and a book written by Krishnamurti "This light in One Self".
2007-09-27 16:05:50 · answer #10 · answered by mandy 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋