Expert: Stuart Resnick - 2/28/2008

Question
Hi Stuart,

I've reading and enjoying the answers you've given to others. One of the things you say most often is that we must ponder on the question of "What am I?". It's the importance that you give to that question that brings me to write you.

"What am I?" is one of those metaphysical questions that I've eventually dismissed as rather irrelevant. With what can I identify?

My place of birth? My mother just happened to be there when she gave birth.

My profession? It's a combination of some choices I did after high school and random luck, plus it's meant to change over time.

The things I like or dislike? My hobbies? Those change all the time as well.

Even my opinion on fundamental issues has changed over the time. There is no solid "I" that we can ask what it is. It is flowing in time.

What I know to be true and unchanging is that I am a sentient being among millions of other sentient beings. That is hardly a way to identify myself: we are all sentient; we all have the ability of thinking and it is not different from one another. Even my awareness won't be true for long, since each of us is meant to die.

What I'm trying to say is that I don't agree with the answer "I don't know" that you propose, unless it's a way to highlight our ever-changing nature and our very limited understanding of our surroundings.

What do you think?

Thank you very much for sharing your wisdom with us.  

Answer
Thanks for sharing your perspective. It's always great to meet someone who lives "an examined life"!

Re "What am I?", it's the questioning that's important, not finding an answer. "Don't Know" isn't exactly an answer, more like the lack of an answer.

Ideas about who we are (bodies, sensations, likes/dislikes, etc) seem to arise repeatedly. Sometimes, these ideas (identifications) are subtle or unconscious; we may not be aware of our own attachments. Questioning "What am I?" is a process of uncovering whatever ideas of self have arisen, and discarding them. Discarding I/my/me thinking is a way to remove suffering.

If you think of yourself as a sentient being among millions of other sentient beings... that may be a thought worth questioning and examining. What exactly is a "being"? Why hold any particular idea of what a "being" is?

It may seem so obvious that we're among millions of other beings... but who knows. In a dream, it may seem obvious that we're in a big crowd, but when we awake, it becomes clear that it was an illusion.

Any moment in which there's no I/my/me thinking, then "What am I?" isn't necessary... just as it's unnecessary to shower when you're already clean. But in the course of ordinary life, our bodies get dirty, so we clean them with soap and water. Likewise, if/when I/my/me thinking appears, we can "clean" it with "What am I? Don't know."