What Of Your Essence?

Most people are only learning about who they are during their lifetime and who they are does not change from birth to death whatsoever…only their perceptions and behaviors change, not their core self.

Perceptions and behaviour are actually determined by your essence
And you can not have one at birth for it has not yet been developed

There are aspects of who we are which are, as they say, hardwired. These tend to be persistent through our lives. But nothing is permanent. Change is a fundamental law of existence.

Sometimes it’s a matter how fast things change. Other times it’s a matter of how frequently things reacquire their prior states.

Not everything changes all the time. In my mind’s eye you are giborgia and as I finish this sentence you are still giborgia in my mind’s eye. Yep, still giborgia. Even as time passed and you and I both aged, you remain giborgia.

Your essence is already formed before birth. It transcends time and it never, ever, ever changes. True, your perceptions and behaviors change within the scope of your design as you discover or rediscover who you are, but you don’t. You cannot run from yourself. You cannot be another self. There is no changing who you are, just what you choose to do with who you are.

Change may be an illusion to keep us from boredom.

I thought I was gibmegib earlier. :wink:

What you’re talking about is recurrence of identity. In your mind’s eye, the same identity is attributed to me every time you think of me–but then your mind wonders off and thinks of something else. The identity in your mind simply comes back. As for the real me, I am always changing. My body sheds cells and regenerates others. My mind is never still for an instant. But like you, I will always identify myself as ‘gib’. But this is a recurrence, not a constant.

Your immortal soul doesn’t change. You are an absolute. <—Yes, I went there. :evilfun: How has your essence changed since you were a child?

I don’t believe essences are things we carry around with us, I believe they are things we project onto stuff. Since I was a child, I’ve grown physically and mentally. I’m not the same person I used to be. I still recognize a continuum between the child I once was and the adult I am now, and that’s what keeps bringing up the same self-identity in my mind (which I project as my essence), but like I said, that’s a recurrence, not a constant.

Essences are us. Each soul is individualized with essences. Some silly examples that you may be able to relate to since you cannot get beyond your physicality…kindness=green eyes, compassion=large feet, generosity=pointed ears, easily amused=webbed toes, optimistic=brown hair, etc.

You are the same being you have always been, that is how you identify you and operate in this conscious continuum. Your soul, your essence, is unchanged.

The meatbag you fill in a world of meatbags changes, but your filling is a constant that is how you remember yourself, recognize yourself, identify yourself. All this change you speak of is apart from your core self, its superfluous life, the passing of time so you can discover how to be the best you, you can be throughout eternity. Why can’t you differentiate the external you from the internal you?

What if we do not really have souls, Wendy?
What would be our essence then?
We are born into a world. What is it which would give us our essence, our own individual ethereal something?
Where did it come from?
We change, we flow like a river flows.
What is the essence of a river? Perhaps that it does flow? And it also changes because of that right?
It takes and it leaves things behind.
If it flows and if it does the above, doesn’t it stand to reason that essence may change?
I don’t know. I can’t really say for sure but I kind of intuit that that space within me has changed over time.
I don’t mean me. I just mean something. lol

The water is still the water, it is not chocolate milk, or hot fudge, melted butter or excrement.

HMMM . . .

Perhaps the essence of the river is water. “The water is still the water”.
Perhaps the flow is a more abstract concept.

My two cents.

:smiley:

You, of all people, most definitely have a soul. O:) You are getting hung up on extraneous, external change.

Aaron, I like your baby tiger…grrrr! :mrgreen:

Still, the flow does not change the water but the water does change the flow. The water is what’s important.

I think that essence is a really difficult thing to define.

encode_decide used the word abstract with regard to flow.
I think that essence is also abstract.
Perhaps as in abstract art, one needs to stand further away from it in order to see it more clearly or to experience it more clearly.

But that’s just it, Wendy. I’m not thinking in terms of how we ourselves change, with reference to this thing we call our self.

When we look at a diamond or any gem and it’s different facets most of them shine differently appear to be different. What is it how is it made in such a way that it is different?
Can that be its essence and I think that I have just refuted myself with this example.

But somehow I intuit that our essence does change. I may be perfectly wrong here.
Maybe the greater question is why do I see it this way.

What is essence? I’m not looking for the dictionary’s definition.

encode_decode

My logic may be completely off as i am not the most logical being going.

But from that perspective, encode_decode, couldn’t you say that the essence of the river is the same as the essence of a glass with water in it?
And that the essence of the ocean is the same essence as that of a river?
And that the essence of a waterfall or a torrential rain is the same essence as that of a river?

Is water itself actually the essence of these things or just a part of its true essence?

Doesn’t essence have much more to do with what goes deeper, with what makes something what it is individually? I include rivers as individuals here or maybe it’s better to say entities too.

I may not have expressed that well.
I still do not think that essence is so easily defined. But don’t we also define god so easily?

And can’t those deeper unseen things which define a thing change?

lol Maybe ~ maybe not. But we can actually see flow, both in a river and in a person, can we not?


What a real beauty that little tiger cub is.
I wonder what is going on within his consciousness - if only I could read what is behind his eyes - and don’t say that he has no consciousness. :stuck_out_tongue:

He’s smart enough to hang near the boulder. Do you see how his colors are almost the same as that in the boulder?

WendyDarling

Yeah . . . that is Stripy - my fluffy kitten.

:laughing:

Arcturus Descending

If I look into his eyes for long enough the question is answered.

:slight_smile:

Stripy seems at peace to me.

This is true.
:sad-teareye:

I’ve experienced this with Yoda.

Ps: At the risk of sounding foolish, you don’t really have a tiger cub, do you? :blush:
Would you happen to have a little wolf cub available for me? I love wolves - all animals actually.