(July 6, 2013 at 3:43 pm)whateverist Wrote: Basically I just think what we take ourselves to be is wrong headed. I think our conscious minds play a subsidiary role in who we really are. We -our conscious minds- are an evolutionary adaption which makes us capable of stepping back and really questioning the motives and intentions of others. Add language and this conscious mind convinces itself it owns the joint. In fact we are more, and the more that we are in some respects is "other" to our conscious minds. The other within is a psychological fact that is not up to my conscious opinion nor my conscious assessment of what it would be best for me to believe. That creates the possibility of such unfortunate outcomes as estrangement from self and, more trivially, Freudian slips. But such a schema also makes coherent such ideas as integration and fulfillment. I'm fine with calling this aspect of myself "soul" even though I don't think it is anything other than something my brain is doing and thus is every bit as mortal as my body. Weird, huh?
Hrm. I think I'm going to just dwell on that for a bit before I offer an opinion. Interesting concept. Not sure I completely understand it yet. So I'm just going to think about it for a few days.
Everything I needed to know about life I learned on Dagobah.
