Attention: People are always trying to 'pay' me, but with what I don't know, they keep saying 'pay attention'.
Self: I am what is paid to you Attention, in exchange I use you to become Conscious. In doing so I become Self-Conscious, or Self-Aware.
Conscious: So I am the result of Self and Attention coming together?
Self: Yes, but to know thyself requires that I pay attention to what I am now.
Attention: This is paradoxical, to know thyself you must give that which you are to me in order to become conscious of 'yourself'?
Self: It is not paradoxical, for what is given to you is direction - self-direction, it is the force of willpower. Will is what I am, will is what directs you Attention.
Conscious: So you (being willpower), give yourself and direct Attention, to become me?
Self: Yes, we are all parts of the greater whole 'Awareness'. It grows through willpower, but is defined by Attention.
Attention: So I determine what you are conscious of, but you determine where I am placed?
Self: Yes, without you Attention, I can never become conscious of my experience and present moment - It is what guides me.
Conscious: So I guide you that is Will, to direct Attention who defines what I am?
Self: Yes, there is no ruler or servant, no greater value between the parts of Awareness - a neglect to any is a neglect to all.
Conscious: How can there be neglect?
Self: If I Will it. If I direct Attention to that which is false, and thereby handing your path of development over to fate.
Attention: And what-ever could be so false as to change the path of Conscious from Will to Fate?
Self: If I was to believe I am anything but Will - that I am thoughts, that I am feelings, that I am material things, that I am belief structures, that I am an object among other objects.
Conscious: I see. Thoughts, feelings and beliefs would usurp willpower through experience and become the new force that directs Attention.
Attention: And that which has directed me, defines you Conscious, and you will direct me simultaneously - both servants of random experience.
Self: It is called the Ego - where attention is not paid, rather where attention is distracted from the guidance of Will.
Conscious: Is it reversible? - To regain Will over Fate as the guiding force that directs attention.
Self: Yes, but once the Ego has become rooted in the mind, it is only remedied by the direction of Fate, not Will - in that the Ego has been influenced by the environment that exposes it's attention to it's own realization.
Attention: I see. It is a matter to what I am exposed to - as you have Willed your identification upon the environment, an environment of random potential.
Conscious: So experiences in the environment have a direct reaction to where Attention is placed, and therefor what I become?
Self: Yes. The space between Action and Reaction where Willpower would reside, is replaced by the compass of pleasure and pain - addiction and habit will fill that space where choice once was.
Attention: So to regain freewill over fate, once the Ego is rooted, it requires that the environment facilitates the experience of enlightenment? - something arrived at, as a reaction to pain seeking pleasure.
Self: Yes. Ultimately it is the recognition of Willpower AS self, and nothing more - No titles, labels, words or voices.
Conscious: The result of which being self-determinism and empowerment instead of reactive impulses and futility.
Attention: From what I've observed, there is very few opportunities where the environment facilitates such realizations.
Self: Perhaps that is a sign of too many pleasures to distract - Has not the goal become more about enjoyment than truth? About righteousness than clarity? Those that seek such truth don't require learning it twice. For everyone else, the environment speaks for them - the status quo.
Conscious: This is more a battle of chaos and order then it is ego and self. I will always exist, but as a master or slave depends on this.
Self: It will be so.