What constructs the essence of one's being? — Lone Wolf
What constructs the essence of one's being? — Lone Wolf
For example, if one claims to be lazy and stupid, but is actual hard-working and highly intelligent by that culture's general standards, then does one lie to oneself or is it an internal conflict with what actually constructs the definition of lazy and stupid? — Lone Wolf
That being the case, we describe our own behaviour partly by ourselves describing our own behaviour in the terms given to us by society around us, partly also by accepting how others describe us using the same language (and in this latter case what we're accepting from others isn't the meanings of the terms - those we already imbibed from society when we learnt the language - but rather the knowledge of how our behaviour looks from their point of view, described using those terms). — gurugeorge
Whether they do so depends, e.g. on what they think of your teacher, on how you behave, or adhere to what they think of as the core teachings, etc. (That's actually how Buddhism developed - it changed somewhat in its passage East to China and Japan, for example, even though it retained some core elements that stayed the same, like acceptance of the Four Noble Truths.) — gurugeorge
If one changes so rapidly, does an individual even exist? Or are we all merely beings without individuality, flowing with whatever chemical changes that occur inside? Which, the existence of a moral code would be hard to ingrain into any human then, as one cannot change from believing that murder is wrong, to murder ought to be promoted overnight. — Lone Wolf
Suppose finds it contrary to oneself to steal. Does it then become impossible to steal? I think not, but rather it would not be true to one's identity, but rather breaking away from what one became.Is all then lost? Have you no choices? Not all is lost, you have choices, but you can't undo what has already happened in your life. — Bitter Crank
then maybe your essence would be closer to Tony Soprano and farther from Mother Theresa. — Bitter Crank
Does it then become impossible to steal? — Lone Wolf
This is where so many different versions and types of one religion must come from, but at some point, they have to have something in common. — Lone Wolf
When one proclaims to be Muslim, Buddhist, or Christian, must one embrace all the general doctrine of that idea in order to call oneself of that sort? — Lone Wolf
For this reason, Nirvāṇa is frequently, but erroneously, interpreted as non-existence, oblivion or non-being; this seems to have been how it was understood by the early European interpreters including Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. — Wayfarer
What constructs the essence of one's being? Such as, if one identifies as being lazy, then must one act lazy, within the sense of the word found in society? For example, if one claims to be lazy and stupid, but is actual hard-working and highly intelligent by that culture's general standards, then does one lie to oneself or is it an internal conflict with what actually constructs the definition of lazy and stupid?
Are you distinguishing between a desire for non existence (or a desire for some kind of existence) and a disclosure of the Buddhist truth that you don't exist? In other words the doctrine of non self. Or are you interpreting this Buddhist truth of non self in terms of a Nietzschean/Schopenhauerian desire/will? Sorry I'm tired I cannot think clearly... — bloodninja
I don't believe we have an essence beyond our organism, which includes our matter and form, what we call our self, the whole, the gestalt. We are never static, always changing, yet our organism normally retains much of the same which enables us to claim self identity over long periods of time. We learn as a child to identify with what others say about us, even when what is said does not mirror our own estimation of our-self. At the same time we learn to assume different roles, nuance existing roles, and we do this all the time, but some roles stick with us because of our history, where we grew up, how our care-givers helped us shape the roles we assume and what we have learnt and in which we feel most comfortable being. — Cavacava
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