The Self Is Not A Thing, But A Process

Thomas Metzinger
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स्वयं एक चीज नहीं है, बल्कि एक प्रक्रिया है
-- थॉमस मेटज़िंगर के द्वारा

शरीर और मन लगातार बदल रहे हैं। वास्तव में हममें कुछ भी एक क्षण से दूसरे क्षण तक समान नहीं रहता है। फिर भी हमारा "स्वयं" समानता के एक बहुत मजबूत अभूतपूर्व अनुभव का प्रतिनिधित्व करता है, और यह स्पष्ट है कि यह एक जैविक जीव के लिए अनुकूली या सहायक होगा जिसे भविष्य के लिए योजना बनाने की आवश्यकता है। यदि आप सर्दियों के लिए कुछ खाना छिपाना चाहते हैं या आप अपने बैंक खातों में कुछ पैसे बचाना चाहते हैं या अपनी प्रतिष्ठा पर काम करना चाहते हैं, तो आप भविष्य की सफलता की योजना बना रहे हैं और आप ऐसा नहीं करेंगे यदि आपके पास बहुत मजबूत भावना नहीं है कि यह वही "स्वयं" होगा जिसे भविष्य में इनाम मिलेगा। [...]

तो स्पष्ट रूप से, एक जैविक या शारीरिक संदर्भ में यह अनुभव होना अच्छा हो सकता है कि यह सब इनाम एक ही व्यक्ति अर्थात स्वयं को ही मिलने जा रहे हैं। लेकिन यह वास्तव में एक ही व्यक्ति के साथ कभी नहीं हो रहा है, लेकिन यह भी सच नहीं है कि वहां कोई नहीं है। बेशक, समय के साथ हमारे पुराने और आज के स्वयं में पर्याप्त समानता है। हम मनमाने ढंग से नहीं बदलते हैं बल्कि यह एक तरह का प्रवाह है। मुझे दार्शनिक लुडविग विट्गेन्स्टाइन द्वारा एक बार इस्तेमाल की गई छवि बहुत पसंद है।

उन्होंने कहा कि आपके पास एक रस्सी हो सकती है - एक लंबी रस्सी जो अलग-अलग रंगों के बहुत अलग डोरों से बनी होती है। और कोई भी डोरी, न लाल डोरी, न नीला और न ही हरी, रस्सी की पूरी लंबाई से होकर गुजरेगी। फिर भी रस्सी बहुत मजबूत और स्थिर हो सकती है, भले ही एक भी डोरा स्वयं शुरू से अंत तक इसमें से नहीं जाता है। मुझे लगता है कि यह एक अच्छी छवि है कि हम शारीरिक स्तर पर कैसे हैं, साथ ही मनोवैज्ञानिक स्तर पर भी।

इसके बावजूद हमें स्वायत्तता और आत्मनिर्णय के मजबूत अनुभव हैं। हमारे पास अपने व्यवहार को नियंत्रित करने का अनुभव है, और हमारे पास मानसिक आत्मनिर्णय का अनुभव भी है, हमारे ध्यान, हमारी मानसिक स्थिति और इन सभी चीजों को नियंत्रित करने का। जैसा कि आधुनिक विज्ञान दिखाता है, ये अनुभव पूरी तरह से सत्यवादी नहीं हो सकते हैं, लेकिन सिर्फ अनुकूली हैं। आपके नियंत्रण में मजबूत अनुभव होना कार्यात्मक हो सकता है, लेकिन विज्ञान के तीसरे व्यक्ति के दृष्टिकोण से, ऐसा लगता है कि ऐसे अनुभव हमारे स्वभाव की सच्चाई को प्रतिबिंबित नहीं कर सकते हैं। स्वयं कोई चीज नहीं है, बल्कि एक प्रक्रिया है।

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विचार के लिए मूल प्रश्न: आप इस धारणा से कैसे सम्बद्ध हैं कि निर्णय लेने वाले 'आप' और परिणाम प्राप्त करने वाले 'आप' समान नहीं हो सकते हैं? क्या आप कोई व्यक्तिगत कहानी साझा कर सकते हैं जब आप अपने लगातार बदलते स्वयं के बारे में जागरूक हो गए थे, जबकि यह भी जानते थे कि इस बदलाव के नीचे कोई है? आपको इस तथ्य को समझने में क्या मदद करता है कि आपके अनुभव वास्तव में एक ही व्यक्ति के साथ नहीं हो रहे हैं और साथ ही यह भी सच नहीं है कि वहां कोई नहीं है?
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From: https://deconstructingyourself.com/what-is-the-self-metzinger.html

SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: How do you relate to the notion that the ‘you’ making the decision and the ‘you’ receiving the outcome may not be the same? Can you share a personal story of a time you became aware of your constantly changing makeup, while also knowing there’s somebody there beneath the change? What helps you reconcile the fact that your experiences are not really happening to the same person and at the same time it’s not true that there’s nobody there?

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7 Past Reflections

On Jul 10, 2022 Utkarsh P Parikh wrote :

One making the decision is of him/her own. The outcome received may be the result of influence of others, situations, change in the perspective of one's. As by the time, one become more & more strong in terms of self-determination.
throughout last 7 to 8 years, I came to know that anything you want, you will get it, if you worth deserve it. Here, the deserver means capability in terms of being human who is always ready to do anything good to others, he/she can. To me, this process is going on & on.

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On Jun 29, 2022 Ted wrote :

The thing that struck me most in this reading is something it left out, and the picture with the caterpillar, pupa, and butterfly reminded me of: which is the role that conditioning plays in who we are. The caterpillar is somehow born with the conditioned destiny to evolve and the detailed instincts to accomplish it. We are born into this body with the genetic heredity of all past generations, our nervous system and brain, and then we grow up surrounded by family, culture, society, and others who tell us who we are, and how to be in this life. But somehow being just a predestined repetition of the past throughout this life is not satifactory for most of us, and that very dissatisfaction itself and longing for freedom may also be an inherited inclination as well as something we have been told. I firmly believe that the purpose of this life is for each of us to discover what the purpose of our life is, and discovering who it is that undertakes that exploration is a beginning,... [View Full Comment] The thing that struck me most in this reading is something it left out, and the picture with the caterpillar, pupa, and butterfly reminded me of: which is the role that conditioning plays in who we are. The caterpillar is somehow born with the conditioned destiny to evolve and the detailed instincts to accomplish it. We are born into this body with the genetic heredity of all past generations, our nervous system and brain, and then we grow up surrounded by family, culture, society, and others who tell us who we are, and how to be in this life. But somehow being just a predestined repetition of the past throughout this life is not satifactory for most of us, and that very dissatisfaction itself and longing for freedom may also be an inherited inclination as well as something we have been told. I firmly believe that the purpose of this life is for each of us to discover what the purpose of our life is, and discovering who it is that undertakes that exploration is a beginning, so I choose to to explore that whole-heartedly, and with the best diligence I can manage. I also look forward each week to see how Mark chooses to label himself in this circle. Insight meditation as some of us may have been doing for the last hour provides a powerful opportunity to undertake the process of self discovery consciously by starting with the mind- what thoughts are there and why? Where do they come from? How do the sequences of thoughts shift and change over time? How do I spend my time? Can I choose and direct my thoughts? Who is it that is observing and aware of all this? At first it may seem like all the factors of my life are the effects of some external cause or condition, but looking deeper I can recognize a hereditary pattern preferring comfort and familiar predictability, and another equally hereditary pattern of being bored with the past, needing the stimulation of adrenaline and seeking any distraction from the past- and I DO have a choice of which of those conditioned patterns to prioritize in any given situation. In this reading, the image he uses of the threads weaving together to make this life is reasonable- we all have roles and relationships in this life with beginnings and endings, the role of being a child and relating to our parents, the role of student in school, the role of being friends with another, perhaps the role of a job or as a married partner or parent of a child- yet who we are goes beyond just that accumulation of threads- there always is someone or something that is playing the roles, and more importantly determines how they are played- whether the role is endured with resentment or perhaps embraced whole-heartedly with joy. The experience of life depends much more on those, rather than just on which specific roles were played or for how long. In the final paragraph he mentions the experience of autonomy and self-determination, of controlling our attention and behavior perhaps just being adaptive reactions to the circumstances of this life- but that just begs the question of who or what it is that has (or wants to have) that experience of independence and choice. So do we perhaps have a soul that temporarily has this body, and can become enlightened, or reincarnate, or perhaps visits heaven, nirvana, or hell as well as this earthly life at some point? Or are those perhaps just mortal thoughts that attempt to capture something too vast to fit into words or concepts? [Hide Full Comment]

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On Jun 29, 2022 David Doane wrote :

All that is is always changing, including me, so me that makes a decision and me that receives the outcome are not the same. But as I see life, me that makes a decision and receives the outcome is not real me. It was a long time ago that I began becoming aware that my body-mind combine and real me are not one and the same. My body-mind combine is my make-up or appearance, while real me is the core or essence of me that expresses as my body-mind and all the rest of what I call me. My body-mind, like all make-up, is surface and very temporary and constantly changing, and beneath that so to speak is real me. What helps me reconcile all this is my experience and faith that there is a consistent essence or core that is really and consistently there, and it manifests a make-up surface, a body-mind, that goes through a lifetime of changes.

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On Jun 28, 2022 anand damani wrote :

The self and the physical body are two distinct entities which are unified into a human being. Understanding each one of the entity has given me absolute clarity about the existential reality of the human being. The self is the one that understands and experiences. The body is just a tool that helps the self interact with the external world to understand by learning as well as express the learnt understanding.