Finding the self

[astraluminated]

Hello everybody,

As everybody knows, in a lot of books and literature about philosophy they urge us to find the self within us. And my mother bought a book for me called Yoga teaching. And in that book they say that you have to ask yourself the question; Who am i?
Off course i had done that many times before but i thought; what the heck, lets give it another go. so i did.
So i asked myself 'who am i'a couple of times and began to eliminate what i am not, such as my body, my thoughts and my emotions because what one can perceive, one can not be, because if there is something of which you can separate, then that something can not define your self.
After that process i just remained with I I I I like me me me me. So many wise man say that the I is the ego and the self is also not the ego, so i was thinking where that self is, so i started looking in the spaces of my mind behind the concept of I, past the ego. And i felt myself digging deeper into that kind of void that lies past the I and ego.
And very oddly but true my attention got redirected to the area around my hart-chakra and that chakra started to get very active and a lot of pressure was building up there. And that experience explained allot.
According to the Hinduism the self or the spirit, our true essence recite in the hart-chakra where the goddess Shiva also recites.
The objectives in certain yoga teachings is to bring the spirit, the self in the sahasrara or the seventh-chakra by means of awakening the kundalini shakti.

So i was wandering if some of you could also try to find the location of our true self, to get past the ego and shared your findings. Ofcourse whe all know that the spirit or the self is in the hart but it would really be funny if whe could all physically confirm that.

well, hope to hear from anyone

[ChineseRoom]

Well, the self is a really elusive thing man. Perhaps it is all an illusion. Ever heard of the buddhist doctrine of no-self? I find it really interesting. They say that, there really is no "I" or "Self" If you go deep enough, you just cant find this "I" Its pretty cool.

[astraluminated]

Well perhaps ChineseRoom but perhaps not, perhaps at first it seems emptiness but after more searching and meditation and other stuff you might find the spark of God, The bible says that men are created of the image of God. It just might be worth considering, I mean what do whe know about our true nature, I mean i have to admit i don't know jack about myself. So i won't exclude any theory or possibility, lets just try to keep an open mind and see where evolution will take us.

[gdo]

You are the 'self' veiled in flesh, and all its layers.

[jalef]

you cant find YOURSELF because you are YOU. in order to find YOU, you have to be seperate from YOU and this is impossible because if you seperate YOURSELF you arent YOU anymore. this doesnt mean that there is no YOU. absence of evidence is no evidence for absence.

[darkheaven]

the only answer i found some time ago....well there was no answer (kind of), there is some sort of "i am." writen in silence.

what is a tree if it is not the sum of all that there is...

jalef: you are talking about a language limitation. I myself can discover myself (more then i may think i am)

just my 2 cents

[loppoppy]

i have also tried to find my self but as was previously stated it is impossible to find your self unless you seperate yourself from it. But through all the meditation i found no answer, but i did find a feeling. This feeling seemed to be some kind of answer though it made no sense. I think the self is incomprehensible while we remain physically alive or alive on the astral planes. Maybe the answer lies higher up aye?