The I (Great Self)

The transcendent ground of all existence, the eternal self within each person, to which we appeal when judging living structure and which is revealed when we truly please ourselves.

Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count

Claims (1)

claim

The I itself—this thing which seems so rarified, so philosophical and which somehow has a religious origin—is also entirely personal in nature.
associated_with
The claim that the transcendent ground of existence is accessed through the most direct, childish, personal making.

Concepts (5)

concept

The I (eternal self)
related_to
Central metaphysical concept of the chapter: the universal ground of selfhood that living centers reflect and connect to; what makers must yearn toward to produce living structure.
the self (or 'I')
related_to
An eternal, impersonal yet intensely personal core within each person, also called the Void, the ground, or the great Self; the core of every living center.
Pleasing Yourself
associated_with
The core prescription of the chapter: making what truly pleases you at the deepest level, which Alexander argues is the key to creating all living structure and the path to the I.
Best Self / Deep Self
associated_with
The reservoir of goodness within each person that serves as the internal reference for harmony, rightness, and the recognition of living structure.
Futuristic-Archaic Feeling
associated_with
The quality of something deeply true that seems both ancient and ahead of its time, troubling because it reveals the I which we are uncomfortable facing.

Quotes (1)

quote

I SAW MY LORD WITH THE EYE OF THE HEART. I SAID 'WHO ART THOU?' HE ANSWERED, 'THOU.'
associated_with
Epigraph from a 10th-century poem by the Sufi saint Hallaj, setting the theme of identity between self and the divine that runs through the chapter.

Related by similarity (8)

cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edge

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

The I / ultimate selfconcept0.836
The single blinding unity, the ground of being, which living centers connect us to.
the selfconcept0.832
The interior awareness, consciousness, and felt identity that each person experiences; absent from mechanistic cosmology.
The Self (Human Self)concept0.827
The personal experience of being a self, which is left out of the mechanistic world-picture but is central to the new wholeness-based view.
The I (ground)concept0.811
The fundamental self, ground, or substratum underlying all existence; a real thing, a blinding unity, accessible through inner light.
The I is at once the most personal, intimate thing and a single universal entity — it is personal-of-you and of-me but there is only one of it.claim0.799
The three qualities of the I: personal, one, suffused with relatedness.
The I, in some form, exists.claim0.796
Minimal conclusion that at least one of the two versions of the I-hypothesis must be true.
The I—that blazing one—is something which I reach only to the extent that I experience, and make manifest, my feeling.claim0.774
Access to the deepest self is dependent on the maker expressing their own feeling, not intellectual concepts.
The I (the blazing one)concept0.766
The inner source of all being, which shines out from every part of a unified work; reaching it is the ultimate aim of making.