Detachment From Reality

Self and Identity

Is it possible ever to be free of self-centred activity? Is there a real self apart from the self-created image? Is it possible ever to be free of self-centred activity? Is there a real self apart from the self-created image? All right. I wonder what we mean by the self. If each one of us was asked to describe in words what is the self, the ego, the personality, the centre, the basis from which we act, from which we think, from which we feel, if each one of us could be clear, not only verbally as an idea, but actually, what is the self?

If you ask somebody what is the self, they would say, 'It is all my senses, my feelings, my imagination, my romantic demands, my sense of having a house, a possession, a husband, a wife, my qualities, my struggles, my achievements, my ambitions, and so on, so on. Also my aspirations, my unhappiness, my joys, and so on' - all that would be the self. Would we agree to that? You can add more words to it, but the essence of it is this centre, the 'me': my house, my family, my wife, my children, my bank account, what my impulse is, 'I want to do this, I am impelled to go to India to find truth,' and so on, so on, so on. Would we agree to that, verbal description of what we call the self?

Not only the verbal description, but the feeling, the 'me' and the 'you' - right? - 'we' and 'they,' in which all is included: nationalities, the family tradition, the name, the form, psychosomatic approach, and the intellectual capacity, the desire to have more clarity, and so on. The 'me' and the 'you,' 'we' and 'they' - right? And from this centre all action takes place. Right? All our aspirations, all our ambitions, our quarrels, our disagreements, our opinions, judgements, experiences, is centred in this. Right? Shall I go on? We are together so far, aren't we?