A realization that has been working its way to the surface for me is that the only way to have a consistent and stable "self" identity is to expand it to include all of the changing spectrum of your experience over time. Like the old metaphor of a boat being replaced plank by plank...is it still the same boat when all of its planks have been replaced? We are like that too, but with experience, and if we grasp for some single defining "who am i" we suffer deeply because there is no such thing. In redefining "self" identity to be a result OF our decisions, rather than a constraint ON our decisions then we are liberated in the moment...our identity is stabilized in the process of living, and it flexes with the context of our existence. Our identity becomes, basically, the way in which we handle change.
Two kinds of introspection
A realization that has been working its way to the surface for me is that the only way to have a consistent and stable "self" identity is to expand it to include all of the changing spectrum of your experience over time. Like the old metaphor of a boat being replaced plank by plank...is it still the same boat when all of its planks have been replaced? We are like that too, but with experience, and if we grasp for some single defining "who am i" we suffer deeply because there is no such thing. In redefining "self" identity to be a result OF our decisions, rather than a constraint ON our decisions then we are liberated in the moment...our identity is stabilized in the process of living, and it flexes with the context of our existence. Our identity becomes, basically, the way in which we handle change.