Self-remembering

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The phenomenon of self-remembering has been of interest to me since I first heard of the concept and found a word to apply to my experience

http://www.hedweb.com/bgcharlton/self-remembering.html

It is that sense of Me! Here! Now! whereby quite suddenly we may become aware of our situation and condition: a simultaneous awareness of ourselves and our surroundings.

What is remarkable about self-remembering, in my experience, is its rarity; indeed it is so rare that I suppose that many people never experience it at all - but remain absorbed either in awareness of their inner selves or the outer environment - but not both simultaneously.

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The sense that self-remembering had some significance thus predates my conversion to Christianity by many years - and is something I recall certainly from mid-teenage; indeed much of what I do recall from my life is these moments of self-remembering.

It would seem that this state of self-remembering is of such special significance that (for some reason) it orientates our lives: it provides the thread of continuity on which our lives are strung.

And if we lack it, we should seek it - the state can usually be induced (or allowed to emerge) simply by remembering to self remember; yet how seldom we do remember to do it, how swiftly we choose to ignore it and move back onto introspection or out into absorption in externalities!

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