Let's get down to business.

As you look around, you recognize the world; it exists for you entirely in this "outside." That could be the tree over there, as well as your fellow human beings around you and your reflection, of course. Your body is also part of this outer world because, of course, one would never say that the body represents your inner world.

Therefore, the components of your body also belong to this external world, such as your stomach and the skin cell on the stomach, and also the skin cell just at the underside of your skin and the many nutrients that one consumes daily; you see, even what happens inside your body takes place in this external world, even if that sounds contradictory at first.

For example, let's say you could perceive - follow along - all the nutrients from your environment in the food on their way through your body with a magnifying glass or a microscope - so it would be as if you were following the nutrient intake of, well... let's say, a tree, or that of any other person. Or even yours. You would also assign such an event to an event that "in a way takes place outside," at least always from your own point of view. Now, replace the magnifying glass / microscope in this thought experiment with your visual apparatus (eye), and you get the following statement:

Perceiving means to take something as true that takes place outside.

Do you know what I mean? And that is a problem in the search for oneself because of all the things in the world that we perceive around us, point to, and name, the self is precisely not to be found out there and thus cannot be perceived. And at that moment, the "self" proves to be something immobile, indeed almost unlocatable. Something thoroughly abstract that we literally cannot "grasp." It is the bitter irony of everyone who has ever asked themselves "Who am I?" that precisely in the search for oneself and self-discovery, already just - the act of seeking itself - trips over its own feet here.

Everything you want to examine about yourself, your name, your gender, your social security number, what your fellow human beings see in you... all of that was, is, and will at best always be only a fraction of yourself; however, you are not a fraction of yourself and certainly not the sum of this ...illusion.

But...

Who - in the world - am I then?

https://youtu.be/dU4lYcN6zEY

(He is Mi and I am Yu)

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>> You see, we are now operating within the framework of depth psychology, transcendence, meditation, and the like. But before it gets out of hand (and it will), I want you to know that much wiser people than me, both before and after me, have devoted themselves to this question of the self, existence, and such. Nietzsche, Buddha, Rene Descartes, and the like.<<

All of this, whose only response to the question "Who am I?" has been withheld from the vast majority of people, does any of it still make sense anywhere, something that is impossible to reconcile with the senses? Because:

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If all these aforementioned components of yourself cannot be the "Self," then what remains as the "Self" to be examined when logically it cannot be anything else?

Nothing?

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What exactly do we call... the "Self"? - Most seekers give up on this question; they fully surrender to illusions. All their energies, their precious time; wasted. Often their answers to questions like these tend to be more like: "I am me, it's obvious, I mean who else could I be? I am this body here, I am standing right in front of you. I see you, I hear you... What else could I be?"

Or also quite often:

"I am this body and the mind. And I live in this body. The body will die; the mind and the brain will cease to function. And then this will be the end of (insert name here). That is what I am... and by the way, I was born this way and will die this way..." - a classic.

If a person now believes that he is now simply a ... coffee cup instead of a human being, it may seem ridiculous at first. There are indeed people who imagine this in (whatever form) delusionally and/or something similar. People like that would probably be found in selected psychiatric facilities. We would now go to him and say "Buddy, hey... You are not a coffee cup. You are a body made of flesh and blood!" And eventually, with enough encouragement, we could convince him that he is not a coffee cup; and with the principle of such a discussion, I would like to discuss your existence.