This is a statement that can seem either obvious or outrageous depending on where we are coming from.
WE ARE NOT PRIMARILY HUMAN
If we are somewhat familiar with finding what we are in our own first-person experience, it may seem obvious.
In a conventional sense, we are this human self in the world.
And when we look more closely, and set aside our assumptions just enough to not be blinded by them, we may find that our more fundamental nature is something else.
We may find ourselves as capacity for the world as it appears to us, and as what our world happens within and as.
If thoughts were to put (very imperfect) labels on what we are, it could be consciousness or awakeness. And this is the very ordinary consciousness and awakeness we are all familiar with.
It’s the consciousness or awakeness we are and which all content of experience – of the world, this human self, and anything else – happens within and as.
AND WHEN THIS IS NOT NOTICED
For most, the statement that’s the title of this article may seem silly or preposterus.
It may seem to come out of a weird philosophy or theology. Or something not meant literally but metaphorically or discovered through slightly forced logic. Or something said as click bait or for the (very moderate) shock value.
Of course we are this human self, and nothing else – unless you mean a vague idea of a soul or something like that nobody has seen or measured or have any clear idea what is.
I understand where this is coming from.
It’s not wrong that we are this human self in the world. We have inside information about this human self and outside information about all the other ones.
And yet, when we look in our own first-person experience, we may find that we more fundamentall are something else. To ourselves, we are something else.
HUMAN AND NOT
When we notice this, we find we are human for practical purposes in the world. And primarily something else in a more real first-person sense.
This only looks like a dilemma or paradox within a certain set of stories.
When it’s lived, is simple, given, and what we already are most familiar with even if we didn’t always notice.