Who Am I?

{ An Article from the Philosophy & Psychology blog of Stephen Gislason – and not that of Ramana
Maharishi }

Each human discovers who she or he is in an ongoing series of revelations. Humans often have the
illusion of inventing themselves from nothing. They often claim to be the authors of their own destiny,
but they spend most of their time as passengers in an ancient vehicle on a journey that they have
difficulty comprehending.

As humans journey through life, they continue to discover who they are and what it means. If they
have choices in the direction of their journey, reasonable decisions are achieved by diligent effort,
learning and practice.

The process of individuation depends on the opportunities provided by the local environment and by
practicing innate abilities and following innate tendencies. The journey through life is expressed and
understood by telling stories. Human stories have inner and outer forms. The inner story teller is an
almost continuous narrative process in the mind. This private monologue can be referred to as selftalk.
Manifest stories are the daily conversations that dominate human social life. If you had to choose one
feature of humans that separate them from all other animals it would be story-telling.

Humans sometimes feel that they are alien creatures, not from earth and not connected to their fellow
primates. Many have confided in me, as if it were a closely guarded secret, that they do not belong
here. This deep feeling of alienation probably haunts the lives of most humans, even when they are
busy living successful lives.

The aspiration to live a happy, productive life is common. Happiness is not a discrete state, nor a
sustainable state, but humans have a general idea about happiness as they do about beauty, justice
and goodness. To enjoy life humans need to feel appreciated, safe and secure. Basic happiness is
achieved by winning the approval of the local group and gaining entitlement to whatever safety and
security the local group can achieve. The most enduring happiness is achieved by becoming a good
person who enjoys the world as it is and by doing no harm.

Each human has a strong sense of voluntary control over his or her actions. There is prevailing sense
that I am the center the center of the universe and what I believe to be true is true always and
forever.

Humans live in the paradox of being isolated creatures with selfish interests, linked inextricably
together by needs, thoughts, feelings, gestures and language. Because of a deep assumption of the
independent self, humans tend to exaggerate the importance and the autonomy of individual
experience and individual action.
The idea of personal freedom is misleading. A self-determining individual is seldom if ever an
independent agent acting only on his or her ideas and intentions. The more closely you look at any
individual, the more you find group activity and the more you recognize that individuals seldom act
alone. Even when humans do act alone, each person is an agent of a common understanding both
innate and learned. Each person has the sense of others watching. A human tendency is to suffer
loneliness and to become despondent or suspicious and hostile when alone for extended periods.

Humans are social animals and generally depend on each other to provide rules of conduct,
information, context and meaning. Mostly, humans are free to conform to the norms and expectations
of the local group. Human’s copy what other humans do and are limited to repeating the speech and
behaviors of others. Innovations are usually small modifications to an existing method, idea or belief.

While there are a great variety of social organizations and diverse expressions of social interactions,
there are a limited number of root tendencies that give rise to the many variations. Paradoxically, the
path to enlightenment involves going beyond the need for others, to pass though states of declining
dependency toward a healthy and sane independence. Enlightenment is an improbable path and is,
arguably, a rare accomplishment.