Am I the sensation on my forearms? Am I the aching feeling in my toes as I move them? Am I the uncomfortable sensation in my stomach? Am I the tingling in my head? Am I these sensations? Am I these thoughts?
Without examination, there is an assumption that I am somehow inside this body, looking out through the eyes. But everything inside this body keeps changing in awareness. Outside the body, I see a chair. Am I that chair? It feels like that chair is part of me, but when I leave the room, the chair is no longer in my awareness. On the other hand, I’m not always aware of my leg, yet I believe that my leg is always a part of me.
What I see and hear outside of me seems to keep changing, which seems to be mostly because I keep moving to different places. But what happens inside of me keeps changing as well. The interior landscape is completely different from moment to moment. Even the body itself keeps changing, totally replacing almost every part of itself every seven years.
Perhaps I am what I can control. But I cannot control my thoughts, so I cannot be my thoughts. I also cannot control my feelings, so I can’t be those either. I also only seem to be able to control some of the functions of my body. But we know from neuroscience research that the parts of the brain associated with the concept of self only register action after the parts of the brain that…
