This is going to be a quick one — the idea is that I don't want to forget this thought.
Alas, I woke up this morning with this thought in mind:
Who am I?
That is supposed to be what the hell is I? As in I, the pronoun. Who am I, to put everything after me? You know like?
I love you; I am (verb); I think; I, I, I; I this; I that;
What lies behind that I, what exactly is it? How exactly do you start defining it. I bet you nobody on the planet can truly and completely tell who they are. So, why this obsession with self?
The first thing you learn in Buddhism is letting go of the idea of self, the I, the conceited idea of self — ain't nothing more selfish than describing yourself.
But, then again, how does one survive this maze of existence without being and acknowledging that existence?
I (ironic huh?) think the minute one places that pronoun before everything else, that in itself implies whatever the meaning of 'I' is now, is in the past, it is no longer what you are after you say it.
The I, is almost a snap-shot of what you can say about yourself at that moment in time — an opinion is only an expression of a thought.
Wait, then, just, maybe thats exactly what the I is, a collection of thoughts of what you are, maybe.
Meditate on this, I will.
