If we detach ourselves from our ideas, what are we left with?

[tomn8er]

I'm not sure which category to post this question under, but here seems as good a place as any. I remember reading in one of Steves articles that we shouldn't see our ideas as being part of our identity. (I can't remember which article it was, sry.) As I recall, his basic reasoning for this is because your ideas don't really define the real you, and the danger of believing that they do is what causes us to feel offended when others disagree with our point of view. So ideas are ego-based.

To my understanding, beliefs are also ideas right? And therefore ideas form the basis of everything we say and do, so where can we draw the line between ideas and self-identity? By not being accountable for one's ideas, isn't that just like denying responsibility for your own actions? Anybody have any thoughts on this that could help clear things up for me?

[starlet]

I think its because we are every changing and expanding beings. People do not chnage even though they want to need to because they are so attached. That is my problem now, I believed so hard that I had to work and toil and nearly kill myself to barely survive, as the world is competition, dog-eat-dog, etc. Trying to override that has been a challange.

You still lay claim to your ideas, but they are not you, they come FROM you.

[judge45]

It's understanding you're more than thought/mind/body. It's not about not having thoughts or identifying with them, it's about wanting to know why and who's truly behind them.

Thoughts are very non physical and yet everything about you is very physical. You're more than just physical and so are your thoughts and ideas.

Something, somewhere is creating your thoughts and ideas and it's not your physical mind or body. The problem is the attachment to those thoughts and ideas without ever considering or understanding where and who they come from.

Where they come from is true self, the true you.

I think that's right

HTH

Jeff

[yossarian]

You might say that consciousnessis is not just snapshot and never is. It exists in all time and is therefore neccessarily malleable.

So you can get rid of your ideas but you still have the consciousness that created/acquired/decided on the ideas in the first place. The consciousness comes before the ideas, so it's really not a big deal to lose the ideas.

I guess the straight answer is that you're left with a mind/spirit/body without any ideas A baby human is probably pretty close to this.

[Liara Covert]

Conscious, subconscious and supraconscious awareness of having ideas or discarding them are very different. You qualify what is good for you or not on different levels and also justify why in different ways. Your ego isn't necessarily involved. I agree with judge45. Learn to understand where and from whom they come from. Your influences, that is, who or what you choose to believe and why will tell you a lot about yourself.