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What is being? I have two definitions:
1. Being is the essential self
I regard being as most inner and most authentic self. Our being is who we truly are beneath everything else. When I look inward into myself, I feel an individual who is conscious and awake to experience. Diplomat Dag Hammarskjold once said,
This second definition corresponds to ontology: the study of the way something is. For example, imagine a box of crayons. What is the being of a crayon box? I believe that the being of a crayon box is everything that constitutes its physical construction. Although the crayon box is not conscious, it still has a physical being.
What is being? I have two definitions:
1. Being is the essential self
2. Being is the way something isThe rest of this post is an explanation of each definition.
1. Being is the essential self
I regard being as most inner and most authentic self. Our being is who we truly are beneath everything else. When I look inward into myself, I feel an individual who is conscious and awake to experience. Diplomat Dag Hammarskjold once said,
"The longest journey, is the journey inwards. Of him who has chosen his destiny, who has started upon his quest for the source of his being." (Markings, 1964)2. Being is the way something is
This second definition corresponds to ontology: the study of the way something is. For example, imagine a box of crayons. What is the being of a crayon box? I believe that the being of a crayon box is everything that constitutes its physical construction. Although the crayon box is not conscious, it still has a physical being.
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
