I remember that song.
It was about 30 years ago.

I think the song, "Row Row Row your boat" is even better.

Life is but a dream.

My little brother, at the age of about 5, looked up from his play and asked:

"WHAT AM I?"

He did not ask, "who am I?" He knew who he was, and he knew he was a little boy. He knew he was called a "human." He was quite clear about that.

He wanted to know WHAT he was.

I didn't know how to answer that question on the larger scale of things considered.

So the paradox is, We don't exist.

Yet here we are.

Wow, that's interesting.


Once when I was about 19, I looked up at the stars and suddenly I felt like I was a long long way from home and became very homesick. While looking up there, I felt that I was looking at my home.

For three days I had this home sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I went to visit my parents because I was so homesick, and I sat there looking at them thinking... this is not home, these are not my real parents.

So strange. Eventually that feeling went away.

Nothingness is Form and Form is Nothingness.

Buddhist philosophy also mentions this sort of principle. Quantum Mechanics also has found this to be true on a subatomic level: virtual particles spontaneously come into existence then are annihilated. Well, that may sound fantastical, but this understanding has allowed us to explain many things. Anyway...

String Theory tells us that matter/energy can be thought as strings vibrating in a higher dimension. In that sense, we don't quite exist, do we? At least not in the way we think we do. Yet we perceive ourselves and we perceive our surroundings. In actuality, what we experience are just symbols that we can interpret that only represent reality.

...but for all points and purposes, what we experience *is* reality...at least somewhat.

In short, the answer to your question is a pretty big mindf*ck.

Another way of looking at things is to realize that the vast majority of space contained within the boundary of every atom is emptiness. Thus, quite literally, we are principally made of empty space.

O_o



Very strange indeed. Perhaps your mind and your humanity were playing tricks on your heart. ^_^

Another possibility is to take your experience literally. We were forged in the bellies of stars and we are the children of the heavens. Perhaps there is some residual mark of the birthplace of the atoms that compose you, and perhaps your mind has somehow interpreted this mark as an engram within your memories. O_O

Sounds pretty far fetched, if you ask me, but it's a very romantic idea, isn't it?

That bit about your little brother is sort of creepy, but way cool. What a strange question from a child.

The experience of feeling homesick was truly unexplained. I had no thoughts of being from the stars, or of aliens, or anything as wild as that. I had no explanation of the feeling that lasted for days.

I do understand the question, "What am I?"

If you look past the fact that we occupy an amazing physical body, and try to look inward to find yourself, it is a path that will lead back to ... nothingness.

Yet you cannot say: "I am nothing."
And you still cannot say: "I am something."

All you CAN SAY IS: "I AM."

I AM THAT I AM.

each thing is but the total sum of it's purpose???

is it most the ability to describe self, or to find what show self it's own most purpose???

if self were a hammer on a table, then to try to figure out self, is to try to list the total things that could be done with a hammer, and which things would be for most good, and which for most bad???

the list then of potentials of self go unto infinity???

if self is nothing and everything, what self shall do with the all and nothing it has been awarded, is the path into the understanding of the purprose of self???

but, the purpose of self is only found by finding the purpose of all things around self first???

this then show HOW TO USE THE HAMMER IN EACH SITUATION, EACH ONE CALLING FOR A DIFFERENT ACTION OF THE HAMMER???

peace unto infinity is only but to see the purpose of all things that happen and exist, and this no human thinking can ever surmise, as it only pass thru the mind by clearing out the mind of all thinking and surmizing, as since environment is ever changing with each second, as all things seen each second are different, then the definition of "self" is most what need to be passed away to allow free flowing of self as a river passing thru all things experienced???

the only peace that allow the hearing of the voices of the universe be when the human brain is silent and without thought, and this no mind can will or think itself to???

peace

Well, can't we say, "I am something?" We are, after all, something, even when you lay aside the physical shell that is the body. If we were nothing, then we wouldn't be, correct? And, come to mention it, to say that what is around us is perfectly nothing is not quite accurate either. Even if our surroundings are illusions created by our minds, then our surroundings are *still* our thoughts and interpretations, which *is* something.

Anyhow...

You say that each thing is the sum of its purposes. I think this is where things become a little sticky --

I claim that Purpose is a description or prejudice that Man assigns to an object. Purpose is not an inherent trait, where as Being is an inherent trait. For example, we call an object a hammer only to describe what we see as its Purpose. If we gave a hammer to a cat, however, the hammer would only be an object or a toy to the cat. We see that a the Purpose(s) of an object depend on our interpretation of the object. Another example: Imagine I didn't know what a hammer was. If I found a hammer somewhere, perhaps I would use it as a ruler to measure small distances, or perhaps I would call the object junk and throw it away.
In contrast, Being, what something *is*, is an inherent property. A hammer is actually an object with a thin cylinder of wood nearly one foot in length with an oblong, flat piece of metal fixed to one end. Thus, the object has certain intrinsic characteristics, which do not include a purpose.

When you talk about a person and what a person *is*, it becomes more clear that we are not the sum of our purposes. We have no specific purpose upon being born, unless our parents conceived us to fulfill a specific duty or our society assigns us a life purpose. However, these purposes do not encompass what we are. For example, my purpose is not to create art, but I doodle sometimes, and this defines me as well.

My head hurts now.