“Stop
Looking at Me!"
(outline)
Psalm
139
Readings: 2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Questions of King Melinda, Simile of the Chariot
1. Hume said we cannot
prove we have a perceiving self, if proof is by empirical induction, since
even if we have a self we cannot observe it in the nature of the case.
2. The Buddha taught that
the changing ego is not a self, but he may have meant simply that the ego
is not the eternal Self, the Atman. Later Buddhists did speak of a karmic
substratum, the pugdala. And Mahayana became nondualist: anatta = advaita.
3. The paranoid senses
somebody watching him at all times, inescapably. Religious believers, as
far as I can see, cultivate this presence and call it God. It is the
Imaginary Playmate.
But is it possible that
our own awareness of ourselves, the mentally talking to ourselves,
objectifying ourselves, is equally paranoid? Is that presence, the
self-conscious Self equally a paranoid delusion?
4. The Anti-Oedipus
(DeLeuze & Guattari) vs. Lacan's "Law of the Father."
According to this classic
of Post-Modernism, the individual self or “subject” is the product of the
subjugation stamped upon the child by the society. “Filling me up with
your rules.” Their antidote? The Schizoid Man! “We don’t need no
education!” The ensuing risk of the loss of the familiar self is the key
to freedom, admittedly a frightening prospect.
Julian Jaynes: I think
that self-awareness is one half of the brain monitoring the other, and
that half monitoring the monitoring! This arcing creates the
experience/illusion? of self-awareness.
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M Price
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