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[b]The man was a Zen Buddhist teacher of Japanese origin, and yet the statement as it reads here in English seems contrary to the most basic Buddhist thought, i.e. that there is no on-going, permanent self.
Zen teachers can seem puzzling. They speak in indirect ways which are meant to get one to explore the subject from many different directions. Their meanings are never obvious.
It sounds like something one reads in a fortune cookie.
I'm not sure what he meant. I think he meant that the spirit that causes us to experience life as he know it, never goes away. Once we die, this spirit leaves our physical body and wanders aimlessly or not through some finite environment called a "universe", where it can assume another "form."
That once I'm dead, my component parts (elements such as carbon & calcium) will disperse across the planet,
matter remains even if not recognizable/identifiable as "the me that once was".
But that sort of unincorporated "existence" is of no comfort to my existential panic
at inevitable fact that one of these days I'm gonna' be forever dead.
Have no idea how someone else would take this statement,
nor can I guess original author's intent.
Oh beat me to it!
I guess I can go the whole there being no past, present or future thing where time is just one big thing jumbled up together. Or I could say something about the soul (or whatever energy you might be composed of) living on for all eternity.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtur88
Foolishness. No more true of me than of my computer mouse or the salt I just put in my potato water. "Me" is a highly specific configuration of the building blocks of the universe. Once that configuration is disrupted, I cease to exist as Me.
This might lead to the question are YOU the same YOU that existed five days ore even a week ago? Cells die, flake off or leave the body and are replaced by new ones every day. Your consciousness is in tact but much of that is nerve endings making chemical connections between cells.
Foolishness. No more true of me than of my computer mouse or the salt I just put in my potato water. "Me" is a highly specific configuration of the building blocks of the universe. Once that configuration is disrupted, I cease to exist as Me.
Well, yes and no. From an individual's frame of reference, 'you' are always 'you' -- your self-identity is intimately connected with your existence. Whatever 'specific configuration' your building blocks take, those building blocks will always consider themselves an 'I'.
'Cogito ergo sum' -- 'I think, therefore I am'. One of the most basic principles of sentience, and the core of self-awareness.
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