Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." A dog says to itself, "I smell my own urine, so I exist, but you cannot define me by my urine traces because I am not my history, my body, my thoughts, my emotions, or my identity. I cannot be defined, so in a sense, I exist, but I do not know who I am.
I am like winding water, not knowing what shape I will flow into. I am like "the flame that burns all night, from dusk till dawn, neither the same flame nor a different flame" (from "The Revelation of Buddha"), just shining and changing in every moment. I am like an invisible black hole, only able to confirm my existence through the stars revolving around and being consumed by me.
I am neither in the past nor in the future, I only exist in the present, at the tip of the arrow of time.
Reflections on Chapter 3 "Who am I?" from Amas's "The Truth of Myself"