The Ultimate Question - Who Am I?

[Kuanyin]

If the Buddha was alive today I would ask him this question: who am I? The Buddha would retort, ‘exactly, who is me?’ By identifying with someone called ‘me’ we then differentiate with ‘you’. Me and you. Now this dualism, unfortunately, is basically and psychologically at the heart of most of mankind’s suffering. Why? Because we tend to identify with others who act and think like we do. ‘I’m different from him/her because of - and then comes the myriad of reasons. We then get the tribal aspects. We can trace all of this tribalism going back to, say, the Roman Empire which controlled most of Europe as we know it today, throughout the Middle East and coastal countries of North Africa. From those times right up until the present, we have had in recent times our British Empire, Hitler’s ‘Third Reich’, the Soviet Union and, in a more bland way, the European Union. Much of the time these dominions were made up of the ‘sheep mentality’ of people in general. Today, we have the Covid-19 and what do people do? They follow each other into the supermarkets and clear the shelves of toilet paper. It’s a bit like the old adage, ‘do as I do, not as I say!’ So there you have it. And me? Haven't a clue!!

If you have a cup in your hand and the guy next to you doesn't have a cup at all and then a person walks up to you and slaps the cup out of your hand and it breaks on the floor and you get upset because not only was it your favorite cup but you were drinking your favorite drink too and so you become emotional (mad/sad/tech)

Tell me does the guy without a cup feel just as you feel ? Of course not because he doesn't have a cup to break so he remains centered


Does this mean we shouldn't own cups inorder to avoid breaking them and becoming emotional?

Of course not

Likewise same goes for "I" and "you"

You're the sum total of your experiences so far through life here, different from others for many reasons - from the time you became aware of self as an infant you recorded your perceptions of the mundane and spiritual worlds which will be different from anyone else.

We were given names because on the mundane they facilitate interaction and transaction with others. Personal names are just one of a set of names we get. Sometimes names attach to roles, sometimes need to be unique, and there are names recognised by your spirit guardians when you get to know them.
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Originally Posted by Kuanyin

If the Buddha was alive today I would ask him this question: who am I?

There is no 'I'.

By the way, the Ultimate Question is "What is the answer to Life, the Universe, Everything?"