The self

 

 

A self happens as differential1 quantum.2  

 

A self, as whole differential quantum, is3 via contact4 (with an alternate self). Contact is momentary.5 Hence a true self is momentary.6

 

A (whole7) series of true selves8,9 presents as a false10 self.

 

A false self becomes true/real if and when whole (thus quantised) contact (and which is digital) with an alternate self happens. At contact, and which happens in a relativity vacuum, a false self is stopped, halted and so reified.

 

 

 

 

The form11,12 of a self depends on the composition of its internal sub-selves.13

 

A self14 decays15 if it is not continuously uploaded with energy and data supplied during contact with an external differential self.16

 

The essence17 of a self18,19 is the effect20 of its differential impact transmitted during contact.21

 

 

 

 

To recap: The word self22 is a verbal metaphor for (the notion of) a/any momentary state (as decided, thus ended process), hence for a quantum, thing, bit and so on.

 

When I speak about myself (or my self) I am referring to (the ownership of 23) my current (in fact momentary) state.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        ©2018 by Victor Langheld

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.     For ‘differential’ read: a specific (hence identifiable) ‘other’, ‘not same’. Only an ‘other’ (a random event) carries instruction, hence can affect. The word ‘self’ is most often used as reflexive pronoun. (See note 21)

2.     For ‘quantum’ read: unit, whole, bit, thing, state, ens. digit, datum, decided therefore certain condition and so on.

3.     i.e. complete, decided, quantised, bit-formed. Also real true existent and so on.

4.     is meaning: true = real (Sanskrit sat)

5.     For ‘contact’ read: collision, strike, instruction.

6.     Contact between 2 selves as alternate states/bits and so on produces a 1c2 moment of absolute realness/trueness.

7.     That is to say, not permanent, lasting, abiding over time and space.

8.     i.e. complete, decided, quantised, bit-formed.

9.     Hence an analogue, meaning self relativized in form, time and space. A series (or analogue) of momentary digital selves/quanta presents as information, i.e. as icon. 1 to 1 contact provides realness. 1 to n contact provides real/true relative shape, form, time, space and so on, hence real-time information.

10.                        An (analogue) bite consisting of quantised, digital bits. In short, an ever changing, thus impermanent, process. Reification, thus the creation of a self, thing, quantum and so on, happens if and when a process is stopped (usually by contact).

11.                        Its analogue data output as user friendly iconised shape. The Buddha rejected the analogue self (or the aggregates of which it appeared as emergent effect) as ‘without abiding substance or essence’ because lacking in permanence, hence realness, trueness and which ‘supreme’ qualities had been proposed in the Upanishads for the atman (Pali: atta), atman originally understood to have meant ‘The Universal Breath’ (of life … as in Genesis 2).

12.                        Hence its message and whose meaning is determined by the response to contact. What I am, hence my true self, is decided by my response to contact with an alternate self, i.e. an itself.

13.                        In other words, my self as analogue (i.e. as iconised process, thus fundamentally untrue/unreal, because impermanent, thus false) form emerges (in Buddhist terms, arises, is born) subject to, hence dependent on internal and external conditions, meaning: conditional sub-states as sub-selves responding to collision with (to instruction by) an external alternate self (as ‘other’).

14.                        i.e. a data base. Actually a self-regulating data transformation and transduction operation.

15.                        Like a battery. Like an atom whose rate of decay is measured by its half-life.

16.                        In other words, recharged and further differentiated towards more efficient adaptation, hence survival.

17.                        Interpreted elsewhere as essential (possibly divine) substance or intrinsic nature. No compelling definitions for ‘essential substance’ or ‘intrinsic nature’ save that they are eternal and unchanging, have yet been produced either by Hindus or Buddhists, or indeed, anyone else.

18.                        That is to say of a (virtually or actually) true, because digitised or quantised (i.e. momentary) self.

19.                        Since all selves are (possibly) fractal elaborations of the same Basic (creation) Operating System (or algorithm, to wit, a Turing Machine), the essence (elsewhere named substance) of a self is not the Basic Operating System (or ground) common to all, that is to say, the means (or self) that generates a message, but the message (or datum) the self transmits. That meaning of that message is unpredictable since its meaning depends on the response of the state/self of the message receiver. In other words, the essence of the mature woman is not found in her self-as-woman but in the egg she presents for (essentially random) fertilization.

20.                        In actual fact, the affect (as imprint).

21.                        Hence its message transmitted during contact with an alternate self, therefore during copulation.

22.                        Derived from the medieval German word ‘selb’ or ‘selbe’, probably having meant ‘same’, So, possibly, if asked: “Are you Victor?” I would have answered: “Yes, the same!” Later ‘selb’ was transformed into the reflexive pronoun ‘selbst’ (English self). Still later it was upgraded into a proper noun, to wit, ‘the self’. It is interesting to note that the English word ‘myself’ translates as moi-meme into French, meaning ‘me-same’ and which gets close to the original word German word ‘selb’, meaning same. The early English translators of both the Sanskrit and Pali texts, such as Max Mueller and Rhys Davids, both Christians, wrongly, possibly intentionally, translated the word atman (Pali: atta) as (universal) ‘self’ to make those foreign terms more user friendly to western Christian readers, and then wrongly interpreted ‘self’ to mean soul. The ancient Indian word for soul was ‘jiva’. By so ‘gaining (Christian acceptance) in translation’ they seriously corrupted both the texts and their original meaning thereby caused wide-spread confusion and which lasts to this day, specifically amongst Buddhist, both Theravada and Mahayana.

23.                        Ownership of one’s self (or any other self) was denied by the Buddha (See: The 3 Characteristics Sutra) because the aggregates that make up a living unit and of which the self was an emergent phenomenon were impermanent and conditionally arisen. The attempt to own (i.e. attach to) what was in fact impermanent and conditional, hence fake, resulted in suffering or so the Buddha Shakyamuni falsely claimed.

 

See: The Buddha and the Self