Consciousness

[Ming the Merciful]

Then I ask, after we were born, when was that first moment when we discovered our "Self-Awareness"?

That depends on who do you mean by "I" / "We".

Remember that all of this is a game of 'identification' for and by consciousness, identity is virtual (maya) in nature, and can be multi-layered. An identity with finite border splitting into multitude of identities with finite border splitting again into multitude of identities with finite border and so on.

People sometimes uses the word 'soul' to refer to this virtual identity with finite border.

jafar (or Ming the Merciful) is a bring4th universe avatar, when was the first moment that they become "Self-Aware" one can easily see on their profile.

Prior to that "Spark of Awareness" was everything a Dreamworld.

Ask Ming the Merciful, what is he/she/it before the "Registration Date" on the profile.

Do we exist in Dreamless Sleep? The moment we awake from Dreamless Sleep, is that not the same the moment we realized our Self-Awareness after our birth? There is a connection between the two. The world is full of mysteries that the God(s) have hidden from us.

Ask Ming the Merciful, does he/she/it exist in dreamless sleep? Or perhaps dreamful sleep?
And imagine his/she/it death, let's say bring4th went offline, for good, who or what Ming the Merciful will be?
That one is relatively easy to answer since there is no 'veil of memory' between the identity of Ming the Merciful and it's 'one layer up higher self identity'.

A metaphor of this will be: Frodo will realize that he actually IS JRR Tolkien.
Once Frodo identify himself as JRR Tolkien thus gaining the memory set of JRR Tolkien, Frodo will realize that he is also Saruman, Sauron, Gandalf, Legolas, Boromir, Shire, Moria, Anduin, Hobbiton basically everything in the Lord of The Rings universe.
And all the war and conflict that happened inside Lord of The Rings are all conflicts that's happening within himself, which he experienced through many 'virtual identities' that he himself created.

Then Ming the Merciful replied. Your "Lord of the Rings" argument is based on fictional characters, that only existed in the Mind of JRR Tolkien. They never existed outside of his Mind, until the books were printed and the movie made. They are all fictional characters created by the imagination of a great author. What has that got to do with Reality and Consciousness? There is a "Veil" that we all experience because Consciousness cannot discover itself. Or, Consciousness cannot define Consciousness. Can you tell me who you really are, apart from what you would describe from your senses. We all experience the "I am", but none of can explain the experience. That is the "Bug" in the firmware. Or, it was created that way on purpose? To quote the Bhagavad-Gita, when we have awoken from sleep, which is the real Reality, the dreams while we were sleeping, or the dream when we awake?