The Indefinable You From any of the various lily pads on the Lake, all this stuff is incomprehensible. It's all paradox. Unity is the same as Separation? Absolute truth is equal to Relative truth? That's crazy! But from within the Lake—from the I AM frog's perspective—it's all Truth. It's all the same. It's all just this. You are the frog in the Lake. You are the Artist painting with the I AM Aspect. You are a finger pushing into an aquarium. You are a current in the Ocean. You are… "Wait a minute!" you shout in frustration. "Those are just characters in silly stories! Parables and metaphors and similes! They are stupid and imprecise and I want answers! You go on and on about how 'I may be a mystic but I'm a rational mystic.' Well lah-tee-dah. I want answers. Rational answers. I want something that makes sense. What am I? What am I really?" …show more content…
And right there is the gist of the problem—the primary barrier to the higher realms of consciousness: The desire to define ourselves.
If you say, "I am Awareness," then you are wrong. If you say, "I am God," then you are wrong. If you say, "I am [insert any noun]," then you are wrong. I didn't just make up the term "I AM" when I named this Aspect. I blatantly stole it. I stole it from a great Indian sage who, recognizing the difference between the perceived and the perceiver—between the defined and the indefinable—said, I am, but I can't be this or that. — Nisargadatta
Maharaj I AM. I can't be I am this or that or any noun because I can see this, I can perceive it, I can use it. Always two things: I (whatever that is), and the seen or the perceived or the used. I am not that tree. I see that tree. Two things: Me and the tree. I am not my body. I use my body. Two things. I am not my thoughts. I perceive my thoughts. Two things. I am not perception. I use perception. I am not awareness. Awareness is one of my properties. Two things: Me and my property. I am, but I can never say what I am. I, whatever that is, exist, but I can never perceive myself. As soon as you say, "I am something" (Awareness, Presence, …) you become it, you own it, you identify with it. You make it personal and it gets added to "you." It becomes attached to you. You become more and suddenly all the confusion begins. You, whatever that is, are ultimately indescribable and undefinable. You exist, but you can't be pinned down or boxed in or limited. To attempt to define yourself is futile. It's a superhighway to the cities of Confusion, Illusion and Suffering. Park that car. Get out and go for a swim. A swim in the Lake of the Lily Pads.
In the essay “Once More to the Lake,” E.B. White, uses diction and syntax to reveal the main character’s attitude towards the lake in Maine. He has an uncertain attitude towards the lake throughout the essay because he is unsure of who he is between him and his son. On the ride there White, pondering, remembering old memories, keeps wondering if the lake is going to be the same warm place as it was when he was a kid. The lake is not just an ordinary lake to White, it’s a holy spot, a spot where he grew up every summer. “I wondered how time would have marred this unique, this holy spot-the coves and streams, the hills that the sun set behind, the camps and the paths behind the camps” (29). White’s diction and syntax
The poem “ Who understands me but me” by Jimmy Santiago Baca. Is about being locked away in jail because in the poem it repeatedly saying how they take or more specifically “ They stop each hope so I have no passage out hell. Then the poem has a change in outlook it goes from feeling down to looking at the brighter side. It says “I can live
In “Useless Boys” the writer, Barry Dempster, creates a strong feeling of disappointment and shame in himself and society as he looks back on his youth to when him and a friend made a promise to each other to “not be like their fathers”. Dempster expresses a sort of disgust for the capitalist society his world seems to be built around, a life where even if you’re doing something you initially enjoyed you end up feeling trapped in it. The poem is a reflective piece, where he thinks back on how he truly believed he would end up happy if he chose a different path than that of his parents. The author uses simple diction and syntax, but it’s evident that each idea has a much deeper meaning, which assisted in setting a reflective/introspective mood.
The 1990 poem “I Am Offering This Poem” by Jimmy Santiago Baca is themed around the life of a prisoner who has nothing else to offer except poetry. As one learns, more about the author’s background, the context of the poem becomes clearer. Examine this piece of information taken from the biography of Baca, “A Chicano poet, Baca served a ten-year sentence in an Arizona prison and his poetry grows out of his experience as a convict” (Baca). Baca’s experience as a prisoner reflects in his writing in that prisoners are often deprived of their rights and many of their possessions while serving a sentence. In his poem, “I Am Offering This Poem”, Baca speaks from the point of view of a prisoner having nothing to offer his love interest except the
Here, White is describing the lake and the dock. White captures the timelessness of the lake as he describes it as being exactly where he left it and “the same number of inches from the dock, and there was only the merest suggestion of a breeze”. In the same paragraph, he describes the shallows as dark, with smooth and old sticks and twigs near the clean sand. He also describes a school of minnows as their shadows chase them across the water. His use of sensory language is especially effective in that it allows the readers to craft a visualization of their own solely based upon his vivid descriptions of the
With this analogy, Adam begins to realize that he must begin to recognize with the water and have confidence so he could be able to continue his journey.
Personal identity, in the context of philosophy, does not attempt to address clichéd, qualitative questions of what makes us us. Instead, personal identity refers to numerical identity or sameness over time. For example, identical twins appear to be exactly alike, but their qualitative likeness in appearance does not make them the same person; each twin, instead, has one and only one identity – a numerical identity. As such, philosophers studying personal identity focus on questions of what has to persist for an individual to keep his or her numerical identity over time and of what the pronoun “I” refers to when an individual uses it. Over the years, theories of personal identity have been established to answer these very questions, but the
The poem “Always Something More Beautiful” by Stephen Dunn is certainly about running a race, but the speaker is also arguing that pursuing something beautiful can help guide us through life. Through the title, we can see that we should constantly look for more beautiful things in life. The poem begins with the speaker describing his experience before a race. He uses words like “best” and “love.” The tone is extremely enthusiastic. In the first line, he talks about coming to the starting place. This can be a metaphor for beginning our lifelong journey. The speaker also implies that we need to approach it with a positive attitude. In the next few lines, the speaker indicates being tested in excellence
E.E Cummings’ poem “ i carry your heart with me(i carry it in)” show’s exactly what people truly feel, it’s as if he yanked someones feelings straight from their heart and put them on paper. This poem is the best explanation of true love, that there is. He says, that this woman is his love, he will love her forever, and no matter how far she may be from him, she will still be in his heart. Nothing could ever make his feelings for her fade away. When someone really truly loves someone, nothing could make them stop loving that person. They will always have a special place in each others hearts. Cummings starts out saying in the first stanza that she is in his heart, then in the second stanza it grows into her being his world, nothing means more to him. Now, in the third stanza he tells her that she is his biggest secret, a mystery to everyone else. Lastly, the most meaningful part of the poem, in my opinion is the last stanza, where he simply states. “I carry your heart(I carry it in my heart)”(line 14). It seems so simple, but after going deep in explanation about his love, that small statement has a much bigger meaning than it did in the first stanza. In this beautiful poem, "i carry your heart with me(i carry it in", E.E Cummings shows how permanent his undying love is for this woman, and how no one and nothing in the world will ever mean more to him, He uses themes of love, and possibly longing for this woman in this poem, to possibly teach the reader how to love, or to stay loyal no matter how tough of a fight that may be.
Identity-“Ones personal qualities.”Identiy is something only he or she can fully define. My uncle says I am affectionate,cheerful, and calm. My grandmother sees me as slim, pretty and sweet. My dad described me as perky, cheerful and happy, my mom says beautiful, gentle, and self-conscious. These adjectives describe me accurately, yet they are only abstract versions of me. Adjectives cannot begin to describe me and I aknowlege these descriptions for what they are, a condensed translation from my outward self to the world. It is impossible for anyone to understand me completely because nobody has experienced the things I have. My mother has never cherished a raggedy doll named Katie and my father never spent hours upon hours making collages and scrap books for his future children. My uncle never hid in the back of a pick-up-truck and traveled four hours to New York and my grandmother has never walked hours in the rain looking for the Queen of England. My identity is something only I can define.
Obviously a word that has such a deep meaning can?t have a shallow definition. The other component of identity is one?s personality. Your thoughts, emotions, and attitudes also have a huge impact on your identity. This part is not something the world can hold to be true, but something you know to be true. This portion of your identity is not something that you have passively acquired, it is something you have experienced and built upon through...
There are many types of self that people can fit into. There is who I am (actual self), who I might become (po...
I now accept that I may never reach the goal of getting to know “who I am.” I realized a mythological quest for self-discovery was inherently flawed. Instead, I began to focus more on developing myself.
Throughout my life, I have been plagued with the question “What are you?” many times. My response has always been the same: “A person.”
In the end, no matter what may be said about me, I know that I am some what of an abstract project. I continue to grow everyday and discover new factors that define me. I know what I stand for. I love myself, and the people around me. They don't create me, or make me who I am, but they do help be define myself