Who are you? (I)

"Who are you?" and its reverse or corollary "Who am I?"  may each appear to be the simplest question one can ask. Yet, it is a question which has bothered philosophers and spiritual writers for thousands of years.

When asked that question by others, we would normally answer by giving our name, which usually consist of two parts, our first and middle name and then our family name. We got to do that every time we fill in a form whether it be for our admission to a kindergarten, a primary school, a secondary school, a college, or when we apply for a job. That is also what we fill in when we apply for a driver's licence, a practising certificate for a profession,  a credit card, a library card, a member's card, an identity card, a passport, a birth certificate, a marriage certificate and a death certificate and in the case of our birth and death certificates, our name is filled in for us by others. There is little doubt about what our name should be. In my case, I type in the words "Elzrro927" when I want to access my own blog. It is an assumed name. Others know me by that name.

But, am I my name or my assumed name? Are you your name or assumed name? In the modern world, it is simply impossible for us to live without a name and a document of identification of some sort to confirm we are who we say we are. When you think about it, it seems a bit ridiculous that in a very real sense, you cannot "be" what you actually are without producing some bit of identification paper or plastic to "show" or to "prove" that you are who you say or think or feel you are. Try insisting on refusing to produce your identity card or to give a name to others and you'll find you can't get access to a school, to hospital treatment, to your bank account or obtain a job, get married or be recognized as the parent of your own children, drive or go visit another country or even your own country. Why? The simple answer may be that we live as and within a social group, irrespective of its size: a social or economic unit, a kind of community, a city, a country etc.

With each name is attached a certain history, a personal biography. We are so accustomed to giving and using our names whenever we come into contact with others that imperceptibly we may come to think of ourselves as what others  "perceive" or "acknowledge" ourselves to be. To that extent, we are "alienated" from our true self. In a sense, we have "become" what we are in the "eyes" of others or as "verified" by some "administrative" or  "functional" systems or other. We have a "public" or "social" or "administrative" self, a so to speak "objective" self.

Are we our public or social or administrative self or objective self? In the eyes or within the system of the others, we certainly are. But is that all we are?  We know ourselves or at least we would like to think that we do: what we are, who we are, what we have done or intend to do, what we think, what we feel, what we like or dislike, who we know, whom we love or hate or fear or are angry with or envious of in a way others or other systems can never know or expect to know. In that sense, we know ourselves in a way more directly and more intimately than any other person or persons or organization in the world. We may thus consider that only "that" is our "real" self. And we constantly complain that others simply "don't understand" us!

In fact, part of the attractions and fascination of a love relationship is the gradual revelation and unfolding of that "real" or "true" self to the one we regard as our beloved. That is what most girls dream of doing. They would stop at nothing to "reveal" their "true" self to the one whom they think deserve to "know" them better: telling themselves with the greatest difficulty not to reach their hand out for that extra piece of chocolate or another scoop of that delicious looking ice- cream, bending up and down tens of times to reduce those extra inches from their waist or lifting dumb bells to firm up their arms or leg muscles, lifting their legs and feet and putting them down again thousands of times to the monotonous rhythm of the treading machine to lose those extra calories, jostling with each other in "crazy" spring, summer, autumn, winter, Easter, Christmas, "renovation" or "closing down" sales or "pre-sales" of their favourite boutiques or department stores or scrimping on their meals to buy what they regard as the latest fashion: that "must have" dress, handbag, necklace, bracelet and innumerable  shoes, scouring the internet or magazine or newspaper daily to the latest "beauty" treatment for their body or skin or taking "dancing" or even other more academic or professional courses to upgrade their "marketability" in the "love market", taking the greatest pains to be "seen" in the "right" or even not so right social occasions, fretting and losing sleep on what to wear and what kind of perfume to spray upon their neck, behind their ears and chest etc. before the "big" day when they are about to meet what they hope would be their dream mate. 

Are we what we present to the world? Are we our "image"? If we are what we are to the world, are we not also what we are to our "self"? If we are what we are to our "self", then what does that "self" consists of?  In what sense should we understand the concept of "self"? Is the concept of the "self" a meaningful concept? If it is a meaningful concept, in what way is it "meaningful"? What is the "meaning" of "meaning" in that context?

(to be cont'd)