No Form Action Theory

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Consciousness

As the no form action theory was gradually established and unfolded in the previous sections, the mystery of consciousness was also gradually unveiled. This section provides a more detailed and specific discussion of consciousness.

1)The Detection and Emergence of Consciousness

Traditional thinking suggests that there is a function or region in the human brain responsible for the manifestation of consciousness. This is impossible because if such a thing A existed, we could then ask what causes A to manifest consciousness. The answer would be a more fundamental function B. We could still continue to ask what gives B this function. This line of questioning leads to infinite regression. Unless, in the continuous regression of questioning, we encounter a no form thing that has the action of manifestation, which manifests consciousness. As a no form manifestation, it would be the ultimate answer to the essence of consciousness, because manifestation has no form and can no longer be questioned. The manifestation action is to manifest form. In other words, it is impossible to attribute the ultimate essence of consciousness to a thing with form; consciousness can only be the result of no form action.

To be precise,consciousness is a world dominated by manifestation. Because consciousness manifests form, the thing that can manifest form itself cannot possibly be form. Therefore, consciousness is a "no form" action, which is the essence of consciousness. Traditional research methods on consciousness have fallen into a "form trap". People analyze brain states, neural activities, and cognitive functions (all "forms") in an attempt to explain consciousness(This is not to deny the value of such research). However, they miss the crucial point: consciousness itself is not a "form", but an action that makes "form" manifest. So only by understanding what "no form" is can we truly understand and explain consciousness.

Local or partial theories are unlikely to fully unlock the mysteries of consciousness because consciousness can understand and involve different aspects of the world. Consciousness itself is an extremely complex and multidimensional phenomenon that involves not only individual cognitive processes but also the structure of the world, human free choice, and the relationship between humans and the world, as well as complex concepts such as being and freedom. Therefore, only within a complete philosophical system can we better explain and clarify the nature of consciousness. Any attempt to understand it requires a comprehensive philosophical system that can explain various aspects of the world, contain these concepts, and clarify the relationships between them. Thus, only by placing consciousness within a complete philosophical system can we truly unlock its secrets, and the no form action theory accomplishes this. By connecting consciousness, being, freedom, transparency, isolation, motive force, and manifestation, the no form action theory achieves an understanding of the nature of consciousness within its comprehensive framework.

According to the no form action theory, consciousness is a state where things reach a certain degree of transparency, thus allowing their essence to manifest directly. This perspective is clear and well-grounded. This view differs significantly from popular emergence theories of consciousness. Emergence theories typically consider consciousness as a phenomenon that spontaneously emerges at certain levels of organization or complexity in complex systems (such as brain neural activity). Emergence theories tend toward mysteriousness of consciousness: while they emphasize complexity, they do not provide specific causes or mechanisms for the generation of consciousness, giving a sense of "mystery." They often avoid the fundamental question of how consciousness "jumps" from unconscious to conscious states. Emergence theories lack a clear transformation mechanism: they do not specifically explain when, how, and why consciousness emerges, making the process of consciousness formation appear vague and mysterious.

In contrast, the no form action theory clearly explains how consciousness manifests through the mutual transformation of no form actions, emphasizing the transparency process of isolation, motive force, and manifestation. In other words, the coherent transformation of the three no form actions is the cause of consciousness emergence. This places conscious and unconscious processes within different ranges of the same "transparency." The difference is gradual rather than sudden and mysterious. This explanation not only reveals the process of consciousness generation but also removes the mystical elements, making the formation of consciousness more logical and comprehensible. By linking consciousness with the measurable concept of transparency, the theory opens up the possibility for empirical testing of consciousness.

We cannot directly access consciousness, but based on no form united transformation, we can determine whether consciousness has emerged or how it emerges. According to no form united transformation, when we know that an isolation transforms into motive force, and if this transformed motive force does not manifest immediately but manifests in some way after a period of time, then this period of non-manifestation is the manifestation of consciousness. This period cannot be captured by the external world, as if it has disappeared for a time.

During this period, the things becomes so transparent that it cannot provide feedback to other things, thus directly and openly manifesting itself as consciousness. This period of non-manifestation marks the state of consciousness, during which consciousness exists as an internal manifestation, unaffected by external influences. After this period, this non-manifested motive force may transform into memory, emotion, or other things and become manifest. The same applies to motive force transforming into isolation. In other words, the manifestation of consciousness corresponds to the period of non-manifestation of "motive force" or "isolation" during the process of no form united transformation.

Thus, we have theoretically discovered the way consciousness emerges through no form united transformation. This can also resolve the inherent problems in various materialist theories that attempt to locate consciousness in material objects such as the brain and nerve cells. These theories all require an intermediary that needs further explanation. The solution for the emergence of consciousness provided by the no form action theory no longer requires any intermediary. Whenever there is an intermediary, it leads to the predicament of infinite regression. The solution to consciousness provided by the no form action theory is logically continuous, requiring no intermediary and avoiding infinite regression.

Thus, we can determine whether consciousness has emerged in the human brain by examining whether isolation or motive force has "disappeared" for a period of time. This approach can capture the existence of consciousness from a temporal perspective, as traditional external detection methods cannot capture this implicit manifestation that produces no feedback. Although we cannot obtain the direct manifestation of consciousness, this provides a theoretical method, basis, and feasibility for detecting the emergence of consciousness. The main advantage of this theoretical method is that it can detect consciousness even without external manifestations. This can be used to evaluate consciousness in animals or other entities that show signs of consciousness but cannot be directly observed. It can also investigate consciousness in states of sleep, coma, or other conditions where external manifestations are minimal or ambiguous.

According to no form united transformation, we can also "create" consciousness by making things (isolation or motive force) transparent to the point where they cannot provide feedback to other things. This means that theoretically, if we can control how things manifest, that is, reduce their form and make them sufficiently transparent, consciousness will naturally emerge. This provides a standard for the emergence of consciousness: sufficient transparency of "isolation" or "motive force." "Creating" consciousness does not necessarily mean obtaining direct manifestation of consciousness. In fact, nature has already evolved human consciousness through the path of making things transparent: first evolving living organisms through interactions of matter, then evolving animals with brains through interactions between organisms and nature, and finally evolving humans with consciousness. This process occurred through continuously simplifying and making transparent certain parts of biological bodies, gradually evolving animal brains, and then further simplifying and making transparent some forms of the brain (this does not mean simplification of the nervous system; on the contrary, the nervous system becomes more complex as it evolves. This is similar to computers - computer screens become clearer while computers become more complex), thereby making human consciousness increasingly transparent and clear. This can also be observed in human growth and development. When people are young, their visual and auditory consciousness is not very clear. As people gradually develop and grow, their visual and auditory consciousness becomes progressively clearer. This indicates that consciousness is not some mysterious phenomenon, but rather the state when things' forms are reduced to sufficient transparency.

When isolation or motive force "disappears" during the period when consciousness emerges, the disappeared isolation (or motive force) can autonomously transform with other isolations and motive forces within consciousness to generate feelings, emotions, imagination, thinking, and so on. Thus, a manifested world of consciousness is formed. This process demonstrates the manifestation characteristics of the conscious world, namely that the transformations within consciousness do not depend on external feedback. This is why consciousness can form an independent, subjective world of manifestation. Some isolations or motive forces within consciousness can transform into feedback-capable isolation or motive force, becoming memories or driving bodily actions, thereby interacting with the body. For example, when reaching a definite answer through thinking or strengthening a belief, the isolation action in consciousness increases. This isolation action then transforms into motive force action, which also strengthens. When the motive force action strengthens to a certain degree, this enhanced motive force action can generate feedback or effects on things outside consciousness, thus transmitting signals from within consciousness to things outside it. In other words, this enhanced motive force will feedback to the human body, thereby driving the body to react or take action (triggering actions, producing emotional changes, etc.).

The manifested world of consciousness and the external world interact bidirectionally. Within consciousness, isolation, manifestation, and motive force can autonomously transform and generate subjective experiences (such as emotions and imagination). These subjective experiences can transform into memories or drive bodily actions, forming interactions with the external world. Conversely, isolation or motive force from the external world can enter consciousness through perception and other forms, triggering new manifestation processes. Although the world of consciousness possesses independence and subjectivity, its interaction with the external world is achieved through no form united transformation. This transformation serves both as response of internal manifestation and as conscious participation in the external world. This resolves the mind-body problem, avoiding the traps of both dualism and reductionism. This solution to the mind-body problem is logically continuous. This approach not only reveals the autonomy and subjectivity of consciousness but also achieves unity between consciousness and body, internal and external, through the mechanism of no form transformation, providing a coherent and comprehensive theoretical framework for solving the mind-body problem. This essentially unifies the world of consciousness and the physical world through no form action theory, eliminating the gap between them.

The subconscious active in the human brain consists of numerous psychological activities involving the mutual transformations between the three no form actions (isolation, motive force, manifestation) where isolation and motive force have not "disappeared." These transformations exist in a state of non-conscious manifestation below the level of human cognition. Once isolation or motive force becomes transparent to the point where it cannot provide feedback to other external things, the subconscious transforms into manifested consciousness. Within the framework of no form action theory, these subconscious activities do not need to immediately manifest as conscious awareness. They can remain actively working in the background, influencing psychological phenomena such as cognition, emotions, and behavior, and driving their development. This provides a specific mechanism for how subconscious activities influence our conscious thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. In other words, the subconscious can be understood as continuous no form action transformations that have not yet reached manifestation, while consciousness is the state that directly manifests when certain no form actions achieve a sufficient degree of transparency through transformation and no longer provide feedback to the external world. This reveals that the formation of consciousness is not a simple linear process, but rather a complex mutual transformation between no form actions. The existence of the subconscious implies that most psychological activities actually occur in a non-manifested state, while the emergence of consciousness requires specific conditions - namely, isolation or motive force reaching a sufficiently transparent state. This effectively explains why most psychological activities occur at the subconscious level, yet we cannot directly perceive them. It also explains why the subconscious influences manifested consciousness, even though we may not understand or be aware of how or why.

The key to transforming subconscious into manifested consciousness lies in isolation or motive force reaching sufficient transparency. This can be achieved in multiple ways, for example:

(1) External Stimuli Triggering Associations

This method emphasizes the activating effect of the external environment on the subconscious. External stimuli, acting as motive force, cause certain isolations in the subconscious to manifest and emerge into consciousness. For instance, a sound, smell, or sight might trigger associations with past experiences, where this connection promotes the transformation of the subconscious through external stimulation.

(2) Mental Relaxation, Eliminating Current Consciousness

By relaxing mentally and reducing current conscious activity, more opportunities for manifestation are provided to the no form actions in the subconscious. This is equivalent to weakening current manifested consciousness, allowing subconscious activities' motive force and isolation to naturally manifest through no form united transformation. This explains why meditation, quiet sitting, and other relaxation practices can promote the manifestation of subconscious content.

(3) Strengthening Consciousness Through Training

Training psychological or behavioral patterns is a purposeful transformation method where, through continuous repetition and reinforcement, initially vague subconscious content gradually becomes clear. This method corresponds to the continuous strengthening of motive force action, ultimately leading to isolation or motive force in the subconscious reaching sufficient transparency and manifesting as clear consciousness and viewpoints.

(4) Specific Scenarios Triggering Emotions and Thoughts

Specific scenarios or events can serve as a special form of isolation, bringing subconscious content into manifested consciousness by triggering latent emotions or memories. For example, returning to a place where significant events once occurred might unconsciously evoke emotions or thoughts from that time, causing these feelings to emerge from the subconscious into manifested consciousness.

(5) Learning or Thinking Leading to Clear Cognition

Learning or deep thinking can transform vague concepts or thoughts into clear ones. This approach emphasizes the clarification of isolation action. Through deep thinking or acquiring new knowledge, vague concepts in the subconscious are transformed through the interaction of motive force, isolation, and manifestation, ultimately achieving clear manifestation.

(6) Extreme Emotional Events Triggering the Subconscious

Extreme emotional events, acting as intense motive force, can suddenly activate repressed emotions or thoughts from the subconscious. In these situations, the isolation and motive force in the subconscious, driven by extreme emotions, rapidly reach a state of transparency and transform into manifested consciousness, expressing themselves as sudden behavioral or verbal responses.

(7) Self-reflection and Introspection

Through conscious self-reflection, people can actively explore deep inner motivations, needs, and emotions. This approach emphasizes human agency in performing no form action transformations through introspection. Introspection is not only further understanding of manifested consciousness but also an exploration of subconscious content, bringing potential content into manifestation and helping individuals better understand themselves.

This theory provides a new perspective on how to influence the transformation from subconscious to consciousness. By studying how to affect the transparency of no form actions, we can discover ways to enhance consciousness. For example, through certain psychological training or techniques, we can reduce the external forms of isolation or motive force, making them more transparent, thereby accelerating the transformation of subconscious content into consciousness. This could open up new research directions in fields such as psychology and cognitive science.

This theory provides us with a more nuanced perspective on phenomena such as "intuition and insight," including methods for creative problem-solving:

(1) Intuition and insight can be viewed as "briefly touching" that "transparent" "threshold" in subconscious processes, providing us moments of understanding even when we are not fully aware of the underlying processes involved.

Intuition: Momentary "Transparency"

Intuition is a brief perception of subconscious activity because it touches the edge of manifestation - it is just a moment when isolation and motive force achieve partial transparency. Although we are not fully conscious of the entire logic or background in that moment, we receive a brief "flash" from the subconscious into manifested consciousness. This "flash" provides the feeling of intuition, as if we suddenly understand something, even though we may not be able to explain the underlying reasons in detail. This phenomenon explains why intuition is often vague - it doesn't always fully integrate into manifested consciousness but only provides a sense of direction.

Insight: Deeper "Transparency"

Compared to intuition, insight represents a deeper penetration. When the interactions between isolation and motive force become further transparent, reaching a state of complete manifestation, information from the subconscious is fully transformed into manifested consciousness. This transformation process usually accompanies sudden clarity and understanding, what we call enlightenment. Enlightenment is a form of subconscious breakthrough into manifested consciousness after a period of processing and incubation. This process reveals why insight often comes quickly and has a strong sense of "suddenness," as it marks the completion of a full transformation and transparency process.

Therefore, for innovative thinking, the subconscious is critically important as it is the source of inspiration, insight, and intuition. The subconscious integrates and processes information while consciousness remains "unaware," achieving certain results naturally without direct conscious control. Thus, for inspiration and innovation to occur, efforts beyond consciousness become very important. Maintaining correct thinking habits and behavioral habits in our daily lives helps establish a positive psychological environment, which in turn helps the subconscious operate healthily. Our honest and sincere attitudes towards people and things can also make the subconscious become "honest and sincere." "Honesty and sincerity" help promote the transparency of the subconscious, and transparency is crucial for acquiring the true essence of things because it embodies the authentic nature of things' existence without decoration or dilution. This means that such sincerity and honesty not only create a harmonious state of consciousness, promoting balanced interactions between motive force, isolation, and manifestation, but also transmit an "honest form" to the subconscious, allowing the essence of things to manifest naturally. Conversely, if we remain in states of negative emotions, bad habits, or self-deception for long periods, the subconscious may produce misleading results, which can interfere with our innovative capabilities. Our daily mindset and behavior directly affect the thinking materials of the subconscious and the quality of innovation.

The subconscious part of innovative thinking is usually spontaneous, and to stimulate the innovative potential of the subconscious, we need to go beyond purely conscious efforts. Maintaining a positive attitude towards life, creating a good mental state, cultivating diverse interests and hobbies, and experiencing different cultures and environments can all enrich the subconscious repository of materials, allowing it to naturally generate inspiration at appropriate times. Maintaining an open mindset makes us willing to accept new things and perspectives, thereby stimulating the subconscious processing and association of different information. Meanwhile, intermittent relaxation and self-adjustment (such as meditation and rest) are also extremely important for the healthy operation of the subconscious.

The "good" in philosophy is typically associated with behaviors and ideas that align with moral principles and true intentions. Good behaviors are harmonious and transparent, thus they do not create internal conflicts or contradictions. Good behaviors and ideas help create a positive psychological environment at the subconscious level, facilitating the healthy operation of the subconscious. We can see that "goodness" can be connected with essence. Good behaviors and ideas can ensure that transparent inspiration emerges from the subconscious, enabling us to see the essence of things. Good behavior is not merely a moral requirement or a simple ethical concept; it is also key to accessing essence and gaining profound understanding. Goodness not only avoids internal conflict and maintains a clear and stable psychological environment but also helps people approach truth with an open mindset. When a person remains in a state of negative emotions, malevolent behavior, or inconsistency for an extended period, the subconscious often becomes "turbid," greatly diminishing their capacity for innovation, insight, and understanding of essence.

Conversely, as our understanding of the world and the essence of reality deepens, our understanding of goodness itself evolves, and the standards and content of goodness develop and elevate accordingly. This new understanding of goodness then guides us towards deeper levels of wisdom. Thus, a positive cycle forms that promotes consciousness awakening and the growth of wisdom.

For a group, when everyone follows transparent rules and treats others with honesty, sincerity, and kindness, this creates the fundamental environment and key conditions for the group's creativity. An honest, friendly, and transparent group environment helps each member maintain psychological openness and a sense of security. This state enables the subconscious to freely process information and generate new ideas. If the group is filled with suspicion and distrust, individuals' subconscious minds may be affected by negative emotions, thereby hindering the flow of creativity.

My conclusion is: The transparency of human environment and human behavior indeed influences the transparency of consciousness (that is, the generation of clear consciousness).

2)Understanding

Human understanding is a form of manifestation of consciousness that possesses clarity and certainty. Let's examine the characteristics of this type of consciousness.

We know that humans can use thinking to understand things, which is cognitive understanding. According to no form action theory, cognitive understanding can be seen as a process of gradually making things transparent through thinking activities. When something becomes clearly manifested, its form has been sufficiently simplified and made transparent to be directly grasped in consciousness. The clarity of human thinking embodies the result of form simplification. When faced with complex phenomena, people always use concepts to think about and understand problems. "Concepts" play an important "isolation action" in the process of understanding, breaking down complex phenomena into relatively simple, independent units. Concepts allow complex phenomena and processes to manifest in consciousness in a simpler and more abstract way, thereby achieving understanding of complex reality. This is key to how human thinking can process and master vast amounts of information. Using concepts as basic units to discover patterns in various phenomena is actually a way of simplifying and making transparent the forms of phenomena and processes. Furthermore, finding relationships between concepts helps understand them more clearly, which is gradually determining the essence of concepts. In other words, the ultimate result of gradually clarifying concepts is to manifest the essence of things (that is, clear form).

Human cognitive understanding can be divided into understanding of motive force concepts, understanding of isolation concepts, and understanding of manifestation concepts.

The process of logical reasoning and mathematical theorem proving are examples of understanding of motive force concepts. The process of proving mathematical theorems uses simplified abstract mathematical symbols to replace actual things to clearly express various causal relationships. Understanding of motive force concepts is the clear grasp of causal relationships and evolutionary processes of things. This is the understanding of the motive force relationships between concepts.

Understanding of isolation concepts is the understanding of structural relationships between concepts, such as "A is B" relationships. Through isolation action, we can extract different concepts from complex phenomena, distinguish them, and define their relationships. This process is essentially a gradual clarification and revelation of the essence of things. Understanding of isolation concepts helps us classify things, clarify their definitions and properties, and establish clear boundaries between concepts through explicit relationships. By clarifying the boundaries between concepts, isolation action enables us to determine the nature of things and form a structural understanding of reality.

Additionally, there should be understanding of manifestation concepts, which is the third type of cognitive understanding. Understanding of motive force concepts mainly focuses on the dynamic interactions and causal relationships between concepts, understanding of isolation concepts mainly focuses on distinguishing different concepts, while understanding of manifestation concepts unifies various concepts into one concept, forming an understanding of identity. These three types of understanding correspond to the three characteristics of no form actions: change (characteristic of motive force), distinction (characteristic of isolation), and identity (characteristic of manifestation).

Undoubtedly, these three types of understanding must form a no form integrated transformation:

(1) The transformation from understanding of motive force concepts to understanding of isolation concepts requires understanding of manifestation concepts

Understanding of motive force concepts emphasizes the evolution and change of concepts, but to clearly understand these changes and break them down into independent steps, we need understanding of manifestation concepts to unify these changes within a higher-level framework. Through manifestation action, these changes reveal their intrinsic logical relationships as a whole, enabling thought to clearly distinguish the independence of each evolutionary stage and to understand the various elements of motive force concepts in isolation.

Example: In mathematical theorem proving, only by clarifying the global structure of the proof through manifestation action can we distinguish the independent significance of each step within this framework.

(2) The transformation from understanding of motive force concepts to understanding of manifestation concepts requires understanding of isolation concepts

When we try to understand the overall unity of things from a process of change, we must first clearly identify different elements and relationships through understanding of isolation concepts. Only after distinguishing the various components of concepts can we reunify them in understanding of manifestation concepts to form a comprehensive understanding of the change process.

Example: In solving complex physics problems, we first isolate different elements like forces, energy, and variables, before unifying these elements in a complete physical model to form a global understanding.

(3) The transformation from understanding of isolation concepts to understanding of motive force concepts requires understanding of manifestation concepts

When we clearly distinguish different concepts through isolation action, we must unify these differentiated elements within the same framework through understanding of manifestation concepts before these elements can interact and drive conceptual change. At this point, understanding of manifestation concepts helps us see the integrity of the entire conceptual structure, while understanding of motive force concepts helps us understand the causal relationships and evolutionary processes between these elements.

Example: In philosophical logical reasoning, first clarify the logical framework through manifestation action, then distinguish different premises and conclusions within it, and finally drive the evolution of reasoning.

(4) The transformation from understanding of isolation concepts to understanding of manifestation concepts requires understanding of motive force concepts

After we distinguish different concepts, the relationships between these independent concepts are not always obvious. To form a unified understanding of these concepts, we first need to derive and clarify the interactions and evolution between these concepts through understanding of motive force concepts, ultimately integrating these different concepts into a larger whole in understanding of manifestation concepts.

Example: In a complex system, after distinguishing different modules or parts, understanding of motive force concepts helps us understand their interactions, finally forming a unified understanding of the entire system through manifestation action.

(5) The transformation from understanding of manifestation concepts to understanding of motive force concepts requires understanding of isolation concepts

When we start from understanding of manifestation concepts and see the overall unity of things, if we want to drive changes in the concepts within, we first need to clarify different elements or levels through understanding of isolation concepts. Through this distinction, we can promote interactions between these elements, ultimately generating changes or new chains of reasoning in motive force concepts.

Example: In a philosophical system, after first seeing the overall conceptual unity, through isolating specific concepts, we can drive changes in certain parts to form new inferences or theoretical developments.

(6) The transformation from understanding of manifestation concepts to understanding of isolation concepts requires understanding of motive force concepts

When we understand the overall unity of things through manifestation action, if we want to distinguish specific parts within it, we first need to use understanding of motive force concepts to drive our deeper understanding of causal chains or logical relationships between different parts. Only after understanding the dynamic nature of these relationships can we use isolation action to separate different parts and make clear distinctions.

Example: In complex social theory, after understanding the overall social structure through manifestation, we need to understand interactions between different social groups through motive force relationships before we can clearly distinguish these groups.

By clarifying that these three types of understanding can constitute a no form integrated transformation, the mutual relationships between these three "understandings" are clearly presented. Their relationships are interdependent and indivisible. Their transformations also emphasize the irreducibility of each type of understanding to the others. Although interdependent, they are not merely different aspects of the same thing, but different modes of interacting with reality. They cannot fully explain or understand each other because each provides a unique perspective. This reflects the irreducibility of the three no form actions themselves. The ability to clearly understand specific "things" requires consciousness to simultaneously use all three types of understanding to achieve transparency. This actually provides concrete pathways for our comprehensive understanding of something. Other cognitive theories usually struggle to capture this degree of interconnectedness. They may describe different cognitive processes, but they often fail to explain the fundamental principles that connect them and make them function as a unified whole.

The ultimate purpose of these three different types of understanding is to manifest the essence of things. However, even when things are simplified into understandable concepts, some relationships between things can be quite complex, and correspondingly, the causal relationships and evolutionary processes between these concepts can become quite complicated. For increasingly complex situations, their forms also become more complex, becoming less transparent, with clarity diminishing accordingly, making them increasingly difficult to understand. This is because more complex relationships require handling more forms and their interactions, requiring greater motive force for transformation and isolation. As complexity increases, understanding this complexity requires more transformations between no form actions, consuming more energy, thus weakening our consciousness's ability to "keep up" or make everything transparent enough to produce understanding. For overly complex causal relationships and evolutionary processes, we humans also struggle to grasp clarity. For example, in mathematical theorem proofs, we must consume more energy to clearly understand the proof process. Complex concepts similarly require more energy to achieve clear understanding. For instance, philosophical concepts like being, freedom, self, and so on.

In the previous sections, I have already discussed that self-identity is the manifestation of the intrinsic identity of no form. For example, "A is A" is the manifestation of self-identity. In fact, the human self is also a manifestation of self-identity. This kind of identity of the self is a true identity (truly possessing the three no form actions), while "A is A" is an identity in the world of language, lacking real motive force action and manifestation action - it is a kind of "simulated" identity. This is because the world of language is a "pure" world of isolation. However, understanding the identity of "A is A" can help us understand the identity of the self.

Let's examine the "self." For the self, all things in consciousness belong to the "self" and consciousness is the self's consciousness. While all things in consciousness belong to consciousness, therefore, the self also belongs to consciousness. The self is not only the content within consciousness but also the bearer of consciousness, and vice versa, reflecting the interdependent relationship between consciousness and self. Thus, consciousness and self are entities of the same level, two aspects of the same thing. We know that the essence of consciousness is manifestation, which means both consciousness and self are no form (since self (or consciousness) is no form, how can the self have content? Isn't this contradictory?). Consciousness is the manifestation aspect of no form, while the self can be explored from multiple angles. Given this, we can use the method of no form to explain them and their relationship (just as we analyzed no form in the section "viewing no form from the perspective of form").

Viewing from the perspective of manifestation to form, we see the essential nature of the self (self-identity); from the perspective of motive force to form, the self possesses subjectivity; from the perspective of isolation to form, the self possesses substantiality. That is: the manifesting self, the motive force self, and the isolating self. From the perspective of form to transparency, the self is openness, revealing its essential identity and becoming transparent. From the perspective of form to freedom, the self is cause, possessing freedom with motive force. From the perspective of form to being, the self is basis, also its own basis, possessing independent existence.

Viewing no form from the perspective of form:

(1) The self is the basis of all conscious content, meaning all conscious content belongs to the self.

(2) The self is also the cause of all consciousness, all conscious content is produced by the self.

(3) The self possesses openness.

Viewing form from the perspective of no form:

(1) The self is substance, enabling us to say "what I am";

(2) The self is also subject, enabling us to say "what I do";

(3) The essence of self is "self-identity," which is private.

We can see that from these two opposite perspectives, we obtain opposite expressions of the "self." Using the core viewpoints of no form action theory, I have obtained six basic characteristics of the self, demonstrating that the no form action theory is quite effective.

At the same time, we can see that while "A is A" expresses no form, this expression itself has form, being expressed through symbols that have form. Similarly, we can consider that while the human self is no form, the expression of self has form, and this form is transparent to consciousness. It is precisely because the form of self-expression is transparent to consciousness that consciousness can see the manifestation of self-identity without being concealed by the form of expression itself. This transparency enables consciousness to reflect upon itself, ensuring the manifestation of self as subject and confirming the existence of self-identity. This explains why the self as no form can be manifested. In other words, the "self" is consciousness becoming aware of the manifestation of its own self-identity. Simply put: consciousness possessing self-identity is the self. Through the expression of identity in "A is A," the self is able to manifest concretely in consciousness, thereby ensuring consciousness's grasp of its own self-identity. This process makes consciousness not merely a flowing phenomenon but also an existence that can be fixed and known. The self is not only the content of consciousness but also the form of expression of consciousness itself. This process enables consciousness to achieve the transition from no form to having form, making the self a recognizable and concrete existence within consciousness.

For the self as subject, it can be expressed as: what I do. For the self as substance, it can be expressed as: what I am. For the essential self, it can be expressed as: I am I, which is also the type of identity like "A is A," meaning that essentially, the self is also linguistic. However, due to the existence of the three real no form actions, our consciousness can directly manifest "I am I" (that is, the self), but cannot manifest other "A is A" relationships - it can only manifest the understanding of "A is A" as linguistic symbols. Essentially, the self is not merely a no form concept; it also achieves real manifestation through linguisticality. Only the self as "self-identity" can truly manifest because it is real no form. Other linguistic "A is A" expressions are merely simulations of linguistic symbols. This is the relationship and distinction between the self and "A is A." This highlights the uniqueness of the self: the self is the only instance where "A is A" can truly manifest. In other words, the self is essentially both linguistic and a real substance and subject. This dual attribute gives the self a unique position in human experience, being both linguistically structured and directly, truly manifested. This makes the self a unique manifestation in consciousness that is both conceptual and real. This relationship between the self and symbolic structure both explains the limits of language and shows the self as a unique bridge between language and real manifestation.

Thus, for a person, any concept is a concept of the self, formed through the self, understood and grasped by the self, and usable by the self. The self, as the center of the conceptual system, is not only the source of all concepts but also their ultimate convergence point. Every concept is understood, grasped, and operated through the self, making the self a true subject in cognitive activities. In fact, to be precise, "the content of the self" should be the content produced by the self, grasped by the self, and operated by the self. Therefore, only when the self combines with these actions does it truly acquire formality, thereby possessing subjectivity, substantiality, and essentiality, enabling expressions like: "what I do," "what I am," "what is the content of the self," "I am I," and so on. This is the action that occurs only when no form self combines with form (the combination of no form and form produces the three no form actions), which aligns with the basic viewpoint of no form action theory. This resolves the contradiction: how can the self as no form possess content as form? The same applies to consciousness as no form. This operational model demonstrates how no form can generate and manifest content through combination with form while maintaining its own independent identity and continuity.