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I was contemplating something yesterday. Biologically a human is a collection of gene expressions and there is a drive to pass on those genes. On a rational and social level a human is a collection of idea's and beliefs that form ideologies. Those ideologies are build up from something science calls memes. cfr. https://www.amazon.com/Virus-Mind-New-Science-Meme/dp/1401924697 for a good easy readable book about memetics theory. It is said in meditation that we are not our body (with it's genes) and we are not our thoughts (with it's memes) Yet we seem to identify with both most of the time. My biggest question is if there is on a spiritual level another packet of information for which we are a vessel but that is not us in essence? As a side note; it feels like the first stages of spirituality or growth seem to have a lot to do with realizing and identifying that we are not are genes or memes. We neither the body, nor the thoughts or ideologies. And we are not the states of consciousness we go through?

After reading a number of books over the last couple of years I came to a new point of view in which I ask what we actually are. Premises: We are the vehicle of reproducing DNA (like all living organism0 We also seem to be a vehicle of spreading memes (little bits of information that that bundle into bigger clusters to form ideologies, culture,...) We are also not our thoughts We have an ego that is not our true self After struggles with this and the concept of soul (in the sense of our eternal self) I become more and more convinced that the whole universe is an organic matrix and everything are just patterns (whether amino acids or thoughts and memes) that spread in the form of entropy. It seems that our true selves are buried beneath it all and it takes a lot of work and uncovering to find oneself under all this conditioning. I'm sorry if I'm not more clear but it is hard to but the insights I got into words. We do not seem to have the right language and some of the concepts border and go beyond what the rational mind can conjure. In the end we don't need to explain what we are, but more how to live with the insight of what we are instead of living based on the will of DNA and memes.