The Question of questions or something similar

[GreenDragon82]

Who is the authentic "me"? And how is it possible to find it out?

[Donata]

Good question! I don't think it's easily answered, but just asking it puts us on the path. Isn't seeking the answer the reason, or a major reason, we're here?
We work to know ourselves and to be our best, or authentic, selves.

Meditation helps. The OBOD course is a particularly excellent aid in this. Awareness, discernment, objectively examining our thoughts and actions regularly - not to criticize or condemn, but to learn so we can change what we find unhelpful. I think it's an ongoing process that never ends. Questioning yourself, your motives, and examining the results of what you say and do helps.

Listening to your heart - asking yourself, Is this kind? is this compassionate? You'll know if you are being authentic if you tune into your heart/intuition.
Giving thanks daily in appreciation for all you already have - your life, etc.
Letting go of the past, so you don't hang onto resentment or anger which block us - and learning to forgive (not easy).

I find that simple non-competitive exercise such as walking, yoga, tai chi, helps build awareness of my energy flow and is a form of meditation.
Many people find keeping a journal very helpful.

Good luck! I'm still working on this after many years of consciously working on it!

Donata

[GreenDragon82]

Thank you very much for your answer Donata!

It was also my intuition to listen to my heart, but I didn't quite understand what it meant.

Giving thanks is very good, I also try to thank the four elements, which is very beautiful.

I did Tai Chi for quite a while and am now into aikido a japanese Martial Art which aim is love, peace and harmony whith creation. I think the Druids teached also some type of martial arts. Yoga kills me, if I stay in the (cold) City. Mediation and Tai Chi makes me very tired and unconcentrated, not beeing able to think properbly or I am very vulnerable (I feel others to intense). I have the feeling I get disconnected from my body. Maybe I'm doing something wrong here.
I am also doing the OBOD Bard Course.

I have realized that most of my (unnatural) anger is based on jelousy and in the end it is not appreciation of my own life and what is given to me.

Best Wishes

GreenDragon82

[Miiranda]

Hi GreenDragon,

Like you I find movement to be an important part of finding the authentic me. I do five rhythms dance as part of my Druidry - it reminds me that who I am is always in motion and it is when I try to hold on to something that I get stuck and lose myself (or reject something which creates the same stuckness).

Best Wishes
Miiranda.

[Frog]

Who is the authentic "me"? And how is it possible to find it out?

An interesting question to ponder.

I guess for me, the authentic me is the first response to any situation... the tempered me is the actual outcome. I like the fact that the OBOD course allowed me to set myself on the path of getting to know the "authentic me" - and yet to also decide how much of that I then decide to reveal to the world (a heck of a lot, it transpires!).

For me, I find meditation and tai chi is useful in stilling the "monkey mind" - once calmed I can then start to properly explore "me" and all that. But of course, "me" is also the monkey mind, leaping from branch to branch in my mind - which is why my desk is littered with half-filled notebooks as I try to compartmentalise the creative mind, the spiritual mind - and that other one that was supposed to go and get the dry cleaning today...

I guess the only way to really know yourself is to allow yourself to revisit everything that brought you to this place right now. That summation is the authentic you. And even if you get to this point right here, you still won't know all about you...

Blessings
Frog

P.S. I was interested that you found Tai Chi tiring - what forms did you practice? I say that as someone trying to learn two very similar forms at the same time (Yang style short form and Simplified 24-step) - I need a very clear mind to not get confused...!

[Twyrch]

Who is the authentic "me"? And how is it possible to find it out?

When you strip away all of pretenses, lay your soul bare and honestly examine your true self, that is how you will know who the authentic "you" is. The process is different for everyone, but it always starts with a mental choice to honestly (and that's the key word) examine yourself and your life up until that point. It may not be pretty and you may hate yourself afterward, but that is your rock bottom stage and the choice is up to you how you will choose to change the person you are into the person you want to become. Not everyone is ready for this level of self-examination, and some are never ready, so be sure to spend time in meditation to determine if you are truly ready to know who you really are.

[GreenDragon82]

Thank you very much for your answers.

I did Chen Tai Chi. When beeing corrected by one of the masters was very good. Once it earthed me and I felt very good. But doing it by myself was not very good for me.
Today I don't feel very well. I wish that my mind could shut up.

Greetings

GreenDragon82

[DaRC]

Hmmm I'm not sure about the question - the authentic me has been a malleable, multi-faceted beast. The me of now is not the me of 5, 10 or even 20 years ago (who was at war with himself). Just as we externally change so do we internally change. Donata's point about listening to your heart is a good one, if tempered with the philosophy about right action.

So I like the way Donata has equated the 'authentic me' with the 'best me'.

I would suggest that a Druidic life is a process of discovery and improvement by learning (book or oral knowledge), practice (ritual and activity) and review (meditation and contemplation). As I've learnt more about right action and allowed it to influence my choices so the authentic me has moved closer to the best me. Not that I'm there yet!

Personally I love the independence of the trail; I have found that it's only on the longer rides that I can properly hear the me, the trees and the natural world around me. As a cyclist and mountain-biker It's only after the first hour or so when the chains of modern living have dropped and the negative-mind has given up complaining (It's cold, exercise hurts, I want to...<insert distraction>, why do you do this, etc....) that you settle into the rhythm. Although sometimes it's also a good vent for anger - just me and the bike and the hills. Hills are very good listeners and don't seem to bear a grudge, although they can give short shrift to foolishness.

Just when you're not looking for the Awen and the rhythm of the journey settles in is usually when it arrives.
Perhaps a spear of sunlight spotlighting a special moment on a cloudy day,
a particular internal jukebox songs singing in the head
or a fox nosing from a wood.

[NovaStar]

Who is the authentic "me"? And how is it possible to find it out?

When you strip away all of pretenses, lay your soul bare and honestly examine your true self, that is how you will know who the authentic "you" is. The process is different for everyone, but it always starts with a mental choice to honestly (and that's the key word) examine yourself and your life up until that point. It may not be pretty and you may hate yourself afterward, but that is your rock bottom stage and the choice is up to you how you will choose to change the person you are into the person you want to become. Not everyone is ready for this level of self-examination, and some are never ready, so be sure to spend time in meditation to determine if you are truly ready to know who you really are.

This resonated very deeply for me for a number of reasons.

It was my birthday on Friday and I bought myself a copy of the Wildwood Tarot after having seen it a couple of weeks ago and thinking about it ever since. I was planning on keeping it until I was 'ready' for it, once I have had time to lay my soul bare, but this morning it was calling to me.
Bearing in mind I have never done tarot before so not sure if what I did was right or not, I unwrapped it, shuffled and spread the cards then while asking 'where do I go from here?', I closed my eyes and randomly picked a card.
It was the Journey.
The card's description has so many similarities with what you've written, that I find it hard to believe it's just coincidence. I'm going through a significant period of change at the moment and after a number of false starts I know that this time is THE time for me to find and face myself.

As I continued to get ready for work, I suddenly 'heard' a voice (heard sounds wrong, but I don't know how else to describe it... I 'knew' a voice? I 'felt' a voice?) saying 'don't be afraid' - it made me want to cry because it was true.
Despite the awful weather recently, the sky was clear and the moon was watching me as I made my way to the station. I thanked her.

I think I will be ready to dedicate myself to the course properly very soon - perhaps at Alban Arthan...


Greendragon - good luck with your quest.

[treegod]

Who is the authentic "me"? And how is it possible to find it out?

This is vipassana* as I understand it.

I point at "you" and what is your sensation? Do you have a definite sensation or is it diffuse? If it is definite do you trust this feeling?

That is an important first step to finding out the authentic "me". It is the principle in my consciousness that identifies with, not that with which it identifies.

Once you commit yourself to this sensation a very interesting path opens up before you, whoever you happen to be!

*Vipassana is a practice where one persons asks "who are you?" and the other person responds with whatever comes to mind. There is supposed to be one answer that "proves" you are enlightened, and once you answer with that you have completed the vipassana.

So, who are you?

[Twyrch]

The card's description has so many similarities with what you've written, that I find it hard to believe it's just coincidence. I'm going through a significant period of change at the moment and after a number of false starts I know that this time is THE time for me to find and face myself.

As I continued to get ready for work, I suddenly 'heard' a voice (heard sounds wrong, but I don't know how else to describe it... I 'knew' a voice? I 'felt' a voice?) saying 'don't be afraid' - it made me want to cry because it was true.
Despite the awful weather recently, the sky was clear and the moon was watching me as I made my way to the station. I thanked her.

I think I will be ready to dedicate myself to the course properly very soon - perhaps at Alban Arthan...

NovaStar, Happy belated birthday, first of all. Also, congratulations on taking that first step in discovering who you are.

I still remember when this happened to me. I thought that I had all the answers... that I was right and everyone else was wrong and going to Hell. Yes... I was a fundamentalist Christian, and as narrow-minded, legalist and judgemental as they come. I would take my bible to the computer lab and witness to people on chat forums by quoting Bible verses at them to make them repent, and I thought I was doing God's work. I hate that part of my past, but it is a part of me and I had to acknowledge it when I found myself, so that I could put it behind me and become a new person.

My roommate asked me one day, "Who are you?", so I told him of my family, my ancestry, my church, my college path... the things which I used to define myself... The problem was, it wasn't who I truly was. My roommate interrupted me and said, "No... Who are YOU!" I had to think about that for a minute because I had no idea who I really was. I began to really look deep inside myself to honestly exam who I was as a person and I didn't like what I found at all. The Greek word for this is "Kenosis" which means, "self emptying" or "to make yourself nothing".

Once I knew who I was, understood what made me tick and accepted myself and my past, the good and the bad, then I was able to begin reconstructing the person I wanted to be and to consciously discard those aspects of my old self that I didn't like. I make it sound more simplistic that it was, I guess, because it was a painful process, but I'm glad I did it.

No longer was I a slave to what people wanted me to be. I was myself. I was a person that I could love, even if no one else did. One of the side effects of that was that I no longer cared what people thought about me. Like me or hate me, I really didn't care. You can't please everyone in this world and you'll die trying if you do. As long as you are true to yourself, that's the only person who have to answer to, but you have to know yourself first.

Good luck with your journey!

[NovaStar]

No longer was I a slave to what people wanted me to be. I was myself. I was a person that I could love, even if no one else did. One of the side effects of that was that I no longer cared what people thought about me. Like me or hate me, I really didn't care. You can't please everyone in this world and you'll die trying if you do. As long as you are true to yourself, that's the only person who have to answer to, but you have to know yourself first.

For years, my partner (and the man I consider to be my soul mate) has been trying to get me to be 'the real me', and not the product of my upbringing, society, culture etc etc, and until now, I've never really understood what he meant. Now I know, and your paragraph here sums up what he has been saying all along. I just wished I'd listened to him sooner, although I suspect I probably wasn't ready for what I might find.

[Muddy Fox]

I think it is hard to discover your true self in this society of ours when there are so many factors which demand conformity to it. We are immersed in consumerism, and all the competition that goes with it, striving to do well, to accummulate more. We are numbered and identified and pushed through the sytems, be they edcuation or religious or work based. We are products of production.
I'm still recovering from my period of Catholicism and church community life.I go over this and that and the anger about the whole thing has nearly gone now. But my musings prompted me to look up the word, Dehumanization and I found this. Which sums up quite a few of my life experiences thus far:
Dehumanization is a psychological process whereby "opponents" view each other as less than human and thus not deserving of moral consideration. To dehumanize can lead to severe conflict, creating a psychological difference between groups or individuals. Eventually this can result in moral exclusion. Those excluded are typically viewed as inferior, evil, or criminal.
Those excluded from the scope of morality are typically perceived as psychologically distant, expendable, and deserving of treatment that would not be acceptable for those included in one's moral community. Common criteria for exclusion include ideology, skin colour, and cognitive capacity. We typically dehumanize those whom we percieve as a threat to our well-being or values.

[Karl]

I think this dehumanisation is quite prevalent - it's easy to sum up people in a phrase which degrades them. For example 'the people who live in Council Houses' or 'people who work for Tesco' are massive and potentially unfair generalisations.
We think more in terms of groups and companies rather than individuals. A person is labelled 'the guy at the supermarket till' they become nothing more than part of the supermarket, of no more importance than the tins of beans beside him. Or the bus driver who is just an extention of the bus, or the bus company. We forget so easily that they have families and houses and completely other interesting lives.
People just become things, and if we slide into believing this then we also apply it to ourselves. I am just a worker who comes home at night, watches telly, eats cheap processed food and goes to bed in order to function productively for the company tomorrow.
How miserable - I'm glad I'm a free willed individual (just like the rest of us here! )

[Ade Sundog]

"There is nothing to practice. To know yourself, be yourself.

To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that.

Just be. Let your true nature emerge.

Don't disturb your mind with seeking."

- Nisargadatta Maharaj.

This may help , or it may not.

Awl the best

[GreenDragon82]

I feel very happy meeting kind loving people

Thank you for the responses.

@treegod what flashed up in my mind was "I am you"

[treegod]

Interesting answer, but the wrong one (according to vipassana "rules" - the answer is soooo much simpler)

Who are you?

[treegod]

Love the quote Ade Sundog. Doesn't have to be more complicated than that

[GreenDragon82]

@treegod I'm "god" at least a part of "him".

[treegod]

Always an interesting answer, but...

"To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that."

It's that simple

EDIT: ever seen the film Anger Management? There's a good scene where Jack Nicholson asks Adam Sandler "Who are you?" Adam goes through all answers about what his work is (don't tell me what you do, tell me who you are), where he's from (not where you're from, who you are!), bit never actually says who he is. That was a bit of Vipassana right there, lol.

So, in the tradition of Jack Nicholson: Don't tell me who/what you are part of, tell me who you are.