Quora: Is the “self” real, or simply a name we give to a changing process?
The SELF is very real. It is cognitive habit. This is the cortex. The frontal lobe is your personal (SELF) programmer.
In the movie Groundhog Day, the SELF is depicted by the initial Bill Murray. He was deeply narcissistic (SELF-absorbed). The SELF nearly always is. He had not yet enabled his “programmer,” the frontal lobe. So, he suffered. He fought it until he surrendered to a free mind (with SELF-control, AKA free will). After which, he began the path of enlightenment (SELF-improvement).
This is precisely the same evolution Buddha took, which took ten years. Buddha tried to accelerate it with suffering he brought upon himself. But that kind of suffering does not work. At any moment, Buddha could choose to end it. The suffering, you see, comes from stubborn habits (false truths) you will not end. Bill Murray had many. That suffering will not go away until the mind shifts into the frontal lobe, enabling a change of perspective.
Interestingly, Jesus is the same, though Jesus did not have stubborn habits. He was simply showing the way.
Neurologically, the center of electrical activity of your brain shifts from the cortex to the frontal lobe. Suffering causes the shift. After that, SELF-control (free will) does the shift under your control.
