| Self control in common understanding would mean that the person is attempting to control their behavior with their thoughts, sometimes called will power.
So we are looking at Will Power which uses thoughts to overcome other urges or desires, etc. which might arise out of a natural reaction to our environment ( other people and so forth ).
First the mind gets input via the senses.
That data is translated by our mind, partly by past experience collected by memory, but also by our attutudes and more importantly, by our self image called the ego.
The status of the ego relative to how we will react in response to the data input ( the other person or whatever ).
Will the ego have a defensive attitude, or a non-defensive attitude. That can make the difference in what our reaction and action will be in responding to situations involving other people.
The idea of self control would be to have control over how we respond to other people at or relative to a given situation.
Self control of self could suggest two selfhoods. Which idea generates some confusion for a reader of this debate. And the Dictionary is not all that useful when speaking about this.
We have the physical and thinking self. And we have something that is more metaphysical which I will simply term "awareness". That awareness is the "Self" behind the rest of self.
Awareness that is not the product of memory or external in-put is the self that control the self, effortlessly and without need of will power.
The spirit called awareness which operates out of an environment of calmness and stillness is what I would be talking about. That spirit however is also one with the self at that point when self control of the self becomes possible. |