Man or Machine

The content of thought consists of memories and of concepts made from pairing memories, all of which is derived externally. Who "I" am as an identified "self" is a product of thought. In fact, who "I" am as an identified "self" is a patchwork creation, a collection of borrowed parts, not an independent individual. "I" am an "it." When I am identified, who I am is not a genuine individual but a thing put together by external relationships, a product of environment and the past. "I" am not an individual in the true sense of the word. We presume we are self-determining individuals while in fact we are automatons. We are basically robots programmed by external events. Our "independence" is merely an idea that we cling to in order to cope with the underlying truth of our mechanical existence.

Consider the content of your mind at any given time. It’s a reheated version of the leftovers of data gathered from your environment. You haven’t got one original idea in you. What you consider "original" is only a slightly different combination of pre-existing parts derived from outside of "yourself." The recognition that we are machines is preliminary to the development of our conscious potential, our potential for genuine individuality. Our fleeting sense of being present is the seed of our conscious potential. The more we get a feel for our conscious potential, the closer we come to an understanding of consciousness as self-evident, a self-determining existence. We begin to recognize the difference within ourselves between what is determined by environment and what constitutes our conscious individuality. Initially our conscious individuality is minute, hardly self-evident, a mere glimpse of a potential for freedom. With the exercise of attention, however, that fleeting potential grows into an existence that is truly ours, a conscious existence tacitly experienced rather than merely contemplated theoretically. What I refer to as attention is a growing sense of being present.

Innate to our sense of being present is a potential to grow, to develop and unfold.