The Case of identity

Crazy thoughts popup up like advertisement banners, a million times every day, and are as varied as the faces of one's life. I've been bombarded by a lot of such synapses in my brain, thinking about this and that, about yesteryears and tomorrow, about food and work, about school, about life, ityadi ityadi. Yet one has to wonder, at least once in his life, who is the one thinking all these thoughts???? I’m sure a sane person would say "it is "I", what a stupid question!", and yes he would be correct in his own perspective, (although I am not sure whether it really is a stupid question)., But in a deeper level, one may think, who truly is this being that we call "I”? what constitutes an "I"?, what makes a person a person? Is it the body? Is it consciousness?, Is it the emotions? the soul? or is it the combination of all??(--if you're bored you may stop reading from here--)If you think about this real hard, then you'll realise that theres' no rational explanation for the existence of "I", Yet it's the most real thing we know, because we are it. One may even go to lengths as to dissect the body (mentally of course) into several sections like the blood, bones, muscles, or bones, but one is unlikely to pinpoint the "thing" which we can claim to be truly "us”. He may even come to believe the body to be machine of flesh and bones, and human beings as natural robots.

The quest for the "I" has been the cornerstone of all philosophy and integral part of all religion. Hindus define it as an "energy" which can neither be destroyed nor created but only can be transformed from one form to another, Yet Buddha himself told me that there's no real "I", and the sense of separateness is just an illlusion.Christians have it as souls, as the children of gods.

No matter how the question has been dealt, the fundamental assumption remains the same, that THERE IS SOMEONE WHO THINKS ALL OUR THOUGHTS, WHO FEELS ALL OUR FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS, WHO LOOKS THROUGH OUR EYES AND LISTENS THROUGH OUR EARS.I would like to believe that we are more than mere flesh and bones and that we are the children of the same light source, emanating through eternity, unable to see it due to our narrow perceptions of our self centered ego.