The names we give to the grammatical structure of our language can be revealing. I am specifically referring to first person, second person, and third person (I am, you are, he/she/it is and we are, you are, they are).
One always refers to oneself in and as the First Person. All others come after the I that I am. I am not talking about ego here. I am pointing to one's felt sense of being. I speak from a First Person stance. I know no others as First Person. Even if I say I do, in some fawning, falling at the feet endeavor, it is a lie.
You, whoever you are, no matter how much I love you and no matter if I sacrifice my life for you, are always "you." I, First Person, am sacrificing my life for you, Second Person.
First Person and Second Person may run along together, and may even do well with Third Person, as long as Third Person is a he or she and not an it or they.
When Third Person is a he or she, Third Person can quickly become a you, Second Person. First Person can sit in a room with many Second Persons, but there is only one First Person.
When Third Person is an it or they, Third Person has no place in the room. (Except maybe as an indentured servant with strict bounds.) An it or they Third Person is kept out there somewhere, an object of fear, mistrust, and disdain, convenient for explaining all one's woes.
There is Fourth Person but I won't go into that here. Too far out.
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Upon becoming a Buddha, there is no more first person, no more I. There is "I am", but I am is communicating through the form that once referred to itself as "I" and identified itself by a label called a name (Third Person) used by others to address it. Since there really is only "I am", there is no real distinction between I, me, you, he, she, or it, once "I am" emerges and the egoic mind is leashed or destroyed. The Christians call multiple "I am"s the Holy Ghost, but it is one entity communicating through multiple bodies. We haven't a good word for such an entity. Gestalt comes close, or hive mind, or mob (mobile vulgus), though mob has a negative connotation (fickle commoners) and is a derogatory term dating from the Roman Republic.
ReplyDeleteThe ego revolves around the fear of the death of the I which is funny because the I doesn't really exist. Infants and very young children have no concept of an I as far as language. There is a concept of self, but I has not fully formed yet.
Who wrote these words and who is reading them?
We come to the comprehension (perhaps with apprehension) that our grammar creates our experienced world. The Fourth Person arises. And yet the Fourth Person cannot arise without going through the experiencing of First, Second, and Third Person. We do not revert to the undifferentiated state of childhood. We move on to other realms. Fourth Person is so-called Awakened or Buddha consciousness. This is a continuous journey. If we "become" a Buddha, we have moved into stasis and are sitting on our metaphysical butts, First Person once again. We are always Awakening.
ReplyDeleteWe are born Buddhas. We develop minds which say that we aren't Buddhas. We break through our delusions to our Buddhahood again. (We are always Buddhas, but we are too dumb to realize that fact for the most part.) We dream a new dream, but in a more awakened state.
ReplyDeleteEvolution is never static, it's dynamic. Buddha consciousness is dynamic, not static. The mind desires stasis. A static condition is perfection to the mind. A Buddha embraces change even if that Buddha is sitting on his or her butt in Bliss since just the presence of a Buddha can awaken others. This effect is called darsana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dar%C5%9Bana). Buddhas are beyond metaphysics. Normal humans are sitting on their metaphysical butts even when they are moving in their mental and real hamster wheels.
In general, I don't think enough thought is given to first person plural, the "we" that is implicit throughout our spiritual lives. Notice how often "we" appears in the interesting comments above, even when discussing "I."
ReplyDelete