The unknown self

[Xan]

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Underneath the superficial self, which pays attention to this and that, there is another self more really us than I.

And the more you become aware of the unknown self - if you become aware of it - the more you realize that it is inseparably connected with everything else that is.

You are a function of this total galaxy, bounded by the Milky Way, and this galaxy is a function of all other galaxies.

You are that vast thing that you see far, far off with great telescopes.

You look and look, and one day you are going to wake up and say, "Why, that's me!"

And in knowing that, you know that you never die.

You are the eternal thing that comes and goes, that appears - now as John Jones, now as Mary Smith, now as Betty Brown -

and so it goes, forever and ever and ever.


- Alan Watts

Hare krishna!

It's simply wonderful ! Thank you dear Xan.

Love,

SM

[Baile]

Thank you. I was thinking the other day this is why people fear death -- they have yet to connect with their unknown self and the reality of reincarnation. Once one does, that fear disappears and is replaced with awe and wonder.

Unknown self?
So very true. I wonder how many of 'us' are around?
Deepsea

Awesome post!! Thanks Xan.

Yes, Xan....at times of great stress, I often see this separation between my ego and my true self. There's a voice in my head that says "it's O.K this is not really you...." and it gives me peace because I don't have to "buy"/get fully into the suffering. It's a saving grace, when I most need it.

[Xan]

I've done something similar, Amy. I say, "It's just the mind."

There's enough detachment in that to be open and aware in the unknown/real self no matter what the mind is doing.


Xan

[God-Like]

I wonder on some level what is there that what we are does not know that is of our creative universe .

On an Individual level I can perhaps understand that one does not remember what they are and therefore much seemingly remains unknown to them .


x dazzle x

[Xan]

That's a pretty complicated first sentence there, daz. I had to read the question a few times.

I think you answered yourself in the second one. It's just a matter of the individual human psyche, not a universal theme... except for free will.


Xan

Originally Posted by Xan

Underneath the superficial self, which pays attention to this and that, there is another self more really us than I...And in knowing that, you know that you never die.

Great quote.

Interestingly enough, I sometimes feel Alan Watts may be misunderstood as as being a proponent of the idea of an eternal "continuation of consciousness". I'm not sure he was of this opnion, at least not towards the latter part of his career, with the refining of his particular philosophy.

Indeed, there is another way of looking at this quote and, for that matter, the entire concept of being united to an eternal cosmos, that doesn't imply or necessitate eternal consciousness.

The "attention paying" aspect of yourself is consciousness. I could say, "your consciousness, but it is not something that you possess, simply because without it, you are nothing. Without it, you are the nothingness of primordial unconsciousness.

Yes, you are an outgrowth of the cosmos. But that "you" underneath is not your consciously aware self. Thus, your fundamental ("underneath") self is completely unconscious. The superficial self (conscious self) grows out of the cosmos (unconscious self). Most of us identify with the superficial self, since that is where our consciousness lies, and then create scenarios wherein that consciousness will persist.

Your superficial self (your conscious self) does and will die.

I guess I'm one of the few people that I know of interested in spirituality that doesn't believe in any type of life after death, reincarnation, or any other form of a continuation of consciousness.

My fudamental self is unconscious, and when I die...I will really die and my consciousness will dissolve into the nothingness of eternal unconsciousness. This frightens people and they think, "I'll be dead forever?", but remember, without consciousness there is no time. There is nothing and forever is meaningless.