Leon Miguel S.

Pablo V January 27, 2020

S11-A Ms. Maida C. Aguirre

Personal Development

PSY 110

AY 2019-2020, 2ND SEMESTER

ASSIGNMENT #1

What does the following say about the self?

Ancient Hindu

- “atma” means that which breathes, and it is said that those who breathe have life, therefore in Hinduism the breathing
is the lord of the body, because breathing is essential for other organs to function and it is the on that makes the body
continue living. In Hinduism there are two selfs that a person possesses a self, which is atma, and a not self which is anatma.

Socrates

- Socrates said that in life we do what we do that will make us happy and we label that as “good” and everything that
will either cause pain or suffering is “evil”, Socrates said this is the misconception of most if not all people, therefore people
will do everything to achieve the thing they think is good and ultimately will not bring us happiness even if we attain those
things.

Plato

- Plato said that our true self lies in our soul, and the soul has a drive to understand the Forms. He also said that
the soul is eternal and after death our true self will go on to the world of forms.

Rumi

- Rumi said that our true self is not anything anyone labels us to be but it is our connection to God. Realizing this
he said that to know our true self and our true identity we must find ourselves in love and loving God will ultimately be loving
our one true self. How should we find find this love? We find it by looking deep in our selves and seeing God’s commands
for us.

Walt Whitman

- “Our normal sensation of self is a hoax, or, at best, a temporary role that we are playing, or have been conned
into playing,” in this passage that I have quoted walt whitman on, I believe that our true self is not yet awake or our true self
is simply not there at the time. The ones that we are “conned into playing” right now are influenced by external sources that
may be from our childhood or from how we came to be as we grew up.