The Mahdi Times The Mahdi Times Issue #26 January 2015 | Page 149

But we have proceeded too
hastily. The "Me" of many men
may be said to consist largely
of their consciousness of the
body and their physical
appetites, etc. Their
consciousness being largely
bound up with their bodily
nature, they practically "live
there." Some men even go so
far as to regard their personal
apparel as a part of their "Me"
and actually seem to consider
it a part of themselves. A
writer has humorously said
that "men consist of three
parts - soul, body and
clothes." These "clothes
conscious" people would lose
their personality if divested of
their clothing by savages
upon the occasion of a
shipwreck. But even many
who are not so closely bound
up with the idea of personal
raiment stick closely to the
consciousness of their bodies
being their "Me". They cannot
conceive of a Self independent
of the body. Their mind seems
to them to be practically "a
something belonging to" their
body which in many cases it is
indeed.
But as man rises in the scale
of consciousness he is able to

disentangle his "Me" from his
idea of body and is able to
think of his body as
"belonging to" the mental part
of him. But even then he is
very apt to identify the "Me"
entirely with the mental
states, feelings etc which he
feels to exist within him.
He is very apt to consider
these internal states as
identical with himself instead
of their being simply "things"
produced by some part of his
mentality and existing within
him - of him and in him, but
still not "himself." He sees
that he may change these
internal states of feelings by
all effort of will and that he
may produce a feeling or state
of an exactly opposite nature,
in the same way and yet the
same "Me" exists. And so after
a while he is able to set aside
these various mental states,
emotions, feelings, habits,
qualities, characteristics and
other personal mental
belongings, he is able to set
them aside in the "not-me"
collection of curiosities and
encumbrances as well as
valuable possessions. This
requires much mental
concentration and power of