You probably wouldn't consider the room you're in right now as part of 'you', but in some fundamental ways, it really is. The air you're breathing for instance, that turns into 'you'. The food you eat, likewise, evolves into 'you' and originates from the place you happen to be situated in. So in a physical sense, you literally are where you live. Psychologically too, it's hard to say where the environment ends and where you as an individual begin. We're all continually impacted all the time by where we are, and who we claim to be at any one moment varies from context to context, from one set of physical, social, and psychological surroundings to the next. Who I am at home is not who I am at work; who you would've been growing up in the deserts of Mongolia is different to who you would be as a teenager in New York. In fact the personality you have is most likely a unique combination of every single person's personality whom you've ever come into contact with throughout the entirety of your life. It didn't originate spontaneously from nowhere, it was driven by complex forces of social, cultural, and genetic conformity. My point in all this is that, if even a quick look at the self in the context of an environment such as this reveals an immediate link between an individual and their physical surroundings, then why do people in general see themselves as outside it? Is it because our environment is constantly changing? Is it because we ourselves can initiate that change, and thereby create the illusion that we're somehow not of it, that we have more control of how it affects us than is really the case? Would love to hear your thoughts- thanks for reading.
Philosophy - 3 Answers
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1 :
I totally agree, we are a part of our environment, however do not consider our environment part of us. I believe that if we began looking from that perspective, we will appreciate more and be a little more considerate about how we treat this earth that we are leaving for our offspring to inherit.
2 :
It partly has to do with suffering and the subjective experience of pleasure and pain which is attached to a particular body. The external world acts upon this body and the body/mind reacts. This set of set reactions we come to know as the ego, personalities are formed and thus the illusion of duality is established: me as opposed to them or that -- mostly as a protective mechanism against suffering, the instinctive quest to avoid subjective pain by seeking pleasure.
3 :
Because we have transcended it.
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