But why am I me? Why do I have my flesh and skin and not someone else's. Couldn't I have easily been someone else? Sometimes when I am in a room with many people I can be completely alone. I can look over at a single person a few feet away and think to myself, "Wow, they are right there inside their own head living. Here I am inside my head controlling me. They are so close...what's stopping me from getting my conscience inside their head. It cant be that hard to pass into another person's being. With proximity (sometimes not needed) and the power of the brain I am surprised people don't do this more often. It sounds far fetched to many and completely unfathomable, to even entertain the idea. The problem running in my head is I think if the person sitting there across from me had, for just one minute, any idea what it was like to be in my shoes they would have a simple understanding of me.
To everyone except me, my question is a silly question. There are things in this world. Things are things. That's it. You just happen to be you and your coffee cup is your coffee cup.
The staggeringly wonderful result I get from understanding this answer is:
The thing the soul in which "you" are aware of could have been anything. A holocaust victim, a calf in line at the abattoirs, or some dog who wouldn't care about it anyway. It could even have been a grain of sand or a hotel, but then it wouldn't have known it was. You really are you and you know it. (So do we?) Rejoice!
In reality, it is the only question worth asking. We take for granted our surroundings and attach ourselves to everything and anything. Our idea of our self is really just that, an idea. For example, If we see racism, we may decide "racism is bad". Then we will tell people "I am against racism" and we consider ourselves to be made from this standpoint, essentially becoming the totality of our experiences and personality traits. But is that who we really are? How can it be? Personality can change at any moment given the right circumstances. For example the same man who is against racism, may one day change his mind if he is robbed by a man from another race. So who are we? That is the question. Who better to ask than yourself? Ask yourself "Who Am I?".
In the process of finding yourself in your quest of "Who Am I?" remember to
1. Accept yourself and others for what they are.
2. Appreciate yourself in what you are right at this moment.
3. Spend time listening, with the intent to learn.
4. Treat each person you come across with respect for the person that they are.
5. Offer yourself and others encouragement after you or they fail.
6. Listen without trying to fix the other person.
