Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

Am I "The Physical" or "the Non Physical" ?

Is there more to me than I see in the mirror? To see how there is more to me than an assembly of physical organs, we have first to define the Living and the Non-Living, not merely in the biological senses, but in a deeper, spiritual context.

Whatever action I perform, although I will use various instruments, I am totally separate from them. For instance if I use a knife with my hands to chop some tomatoes, throughout the operation the knife makes no decision.

If I lose concentration, and cut my fingers with the knife, neither my fingers nor the knife became emotionally disturbed - they were purely instruments.

It is easy for me to see the knife as an instrument. But I'm so attached to these hands, that It is very difficult to dissociate myself from them, and realize that they too are only instruments, and really nothing more than this.

I have had this pair of hands for as long as I have had this body, and I knowthey are the only one pair I will get. So not only personal attachment to my hands, but to the whole of my physical body, is something so deep, so intense, that I have totally forgotten my real identity.

Ever since the moment when I came into the physical body, I have been labeled and put into compartments according to my physical classifications.

It has been instilled into my conscious that 'you are a boy' or 'you are a girl', so that I grew up absolutely committed to this idea. And in fact if someone were to question this today, to question the identity of being a man or a woman, a person would probably consider it a great insult.

BUT IS THAT WHAT I AM?

An I be accurately labeled 'young' or 'old', 'man' or 'woman', 'fair' or 'dark'?

Is there a real indication of who I am simply through this?

BUT IS THAT WHAT I AM? BUT IS THAT WHAT I AM? BUT IS THAT WHAT I AM?

14 Answers

Relevance
  • 9 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    A devotee asked St Ramana how can he deem this bodily exeperience as dream. The sage simply smiled and asked him to wait. He was answering other people for sometime and the first devotee started dozing. He dreamt in the brief siesta that he was being chased by thief and suddenly woke up to find him in the assembly of devotees. He looked at the Saint in bewilderment wherefore the Sage asked, ''was what you saw a minute ago true, or is this (your presence before me) the true one?" The man raalized that the present could be a dream experience too if he passed on to another plane of experience! This was published by the elite devotee in Mountain Path (mothly journal) from the Ashram decades ago!

    It is not possible to realize the truth of existene intellectually. It is the experience gained by deep concentration into our inner being that we can have a glimpse of the mystery! Saints speak little about it because we would have endless doubts talking only at our (ignorant) levels! A frog in the well could not guess the expanse of the sea that another frog (who had travelled from seaside to the well) explains! We can not find wisdom in books and lectures!

  • Monk
    Lv 6
    9 years ago

    As you know, you are a spiritual Being having a human experience. Being is both, as other have said, I would only add the physical relative field of Being is made up of the three gunas of nature; Sat, Chit and Ananda. In balance these are the qualities of the spiritual as well. Spurred to activity; the gunas manifest the physical actions of Being.

    The Spiritual aspect of Being is absolute because it is none-changing; eternal. The light of Being gives rise to manifest the gunas through reflection within space/time maintaining its status as unchanging. Neither the absolute or relative fields of Being could be without the other; two aspects of the whole in existence. That which exists is the physical mirrored reflection of the absolute none-changing aspect of Being.

    Source(s): Zen
  • ?
    Lv 6
    9 years ago

    Your physical being is just one of your many manifested creations. But it has its own frequency, and that frequency limits its range of experience. Your true self is unlimited, and you’re free to imagine anything you desire. When you imagine something, it becomes real instantaneously. But initially you can only access it non-physically through your non-physical senses.

    Your non physical senses are intuition, telepathy and desire.

    The reason you chose to experience life as a physical being is so you can have the experience of growth. You wanted to experience reality as a progressive continuum, so you could explore the gaps between your thoughts. These gaps cannot be visited in non-physical reality, so you have to come into the physical frequency range to delve into them. You need the concept of linear time to help you explore these gaps.

    In strictly non-physical frequencies, there is no growth, no sense of change occurring over time. Every thought projects itself instantly. Reality doesn’t glide smoothly from one moment to the next; it frequently jumps around. Simply hold a thought and it becomes real. There is no sense of progression from one reality to the next. Since your thoughts can jump around randomly, your reality jumps as well.

  • ?
    Lv 4
    9 years ago

    The body is a machine, like a motor car is a machine .

    I am within this body as the driver is within the motor car. The motor car is simply a vehicle which is meant to transport the driver to his destination, we see this material body as a vehicle which can be used to transport the driver–the soul–to his ultimate destination.

    Thank u.

    My best wishes to you and all our friends here for a Happy New Year.

  • How do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.
  • Shoum
    Lv 6
    9 years ago

    The wood & leaves were called coconut tree. Till you separate the fiber the whole mass was also coconut. Till you separate the shell it was also called as coconut. Till the white substance was associated with these materials like fiber, shell, bunch & tree they all bear the name of the white inner substance coconut.

    Till the true you, the soul, part of the cosmic energy resides in are called with various names & which bears various forms.

    Without body engulfed with the vibes of its actions/karma yet it enjoys in illusions of that action/karma with happy or in sad.

    Source(s): shoum
  • 9 years ago

    I think,

    everyone amongst us is actually an awareness or consciousness

    that witnesses

    all the physical and the non physical changes,

    all the subjective and the objective changes

    that continuously take place around us.

    Source(s): self.
  • 9 years ago

    Lengthy question...

    Short response...

    What one is allowed to see or observe totally depends upon the mirror that one is gazing into.

    There are many, many mirrors.

    Is the mirror in question, crystal clear or is the mirror in question, foggy?

    One must first select the correct mirror in which to gaze.

    "Mirror~rorriM on the wall, who's the fairest of them all."

    Wisdom always reflects Wisdom.

    One must locate and gaze into a wise mirror.

    Peace be always with you.

    in sha'Allah

    al-hamdu lillah

    Salaams,

    Source(s): a small insignificant sufi student and brother....
  • Moni
    Lv 4
    9 years ago

    We in this world spiritually are 'the Non Physical'.

    The Ego considers it to be Sensibly physical.

    Ask questions "whose ?", then answer "It is Me ?" or "It is My" ? My will show Physical and Me will denote Non-physical. Most of the answer is mine, which belongs to the World. Only answer as Me is the Self. Our own Name is also part of the World. "Whose name?" ..... "It is My name" !

    This realization of Self leads us to Dhyan & Samadhi after 'Uparathi' & 'Dharna'. Here much of sensuous life is withdrawn from us and we are non-attached. This non-physical Self is subtle and can't be measured or proved with sensible Science, only reasoned with Logic.

  • 9 years ago

    I I get what you saying, All things are the Diamond-Sun reflecting back to itself.

    I am reflection of you, you are a reflection of me...and in the light of Sun, we will all

    learn to speak the same language again; by intention.

    Source(s): -
  • 9 years ago

    You are the physical as well as the non-physical. You are both...but you are also one. At various stages, we can find explanation to various thoughts of religion.

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.