Requesting your interpretation.. (soul, life, self)
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Here is a quote from Suzuki Roshi. How do you interpret this? What do you think he meant?
"You will always exist in the universe in one form or another."
How I interpret it:
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.
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.
Your body will break down into carbon, oxygen, minerals, water, and other "stuff" Atoms of these things will exist (and that's you!) until they become something else.
Before it became possible to split the atoms, it was though that your atoms would always exist as the atomic structure of something else. The atom could never be completely destroyed, merely changed.
I don't know if that theory is still in effect or not. When an atom is split, it is converted into energy and another atom of some sort.
Then, does the "you" still exist, as a "soul" ?
So it that very basic sense that your atoms will still last throughout eternity, then, yes, you will always exist is some form.
Here is a quote from Suzuki Roshi. How do you interpret this? What do you think he meant?
"You will always exist in the universe in one form or another."
I don't know what he meant, but what this statement COULD mean is this:
Your afterlife will take place in the universe, just like this life was. And even if you reach spiritual states of existence (whatever that may mean), it's still will be taking place in the universe. And if you die and your pattern or your soul is stored somewhere, it is still within the universe.
My interpretation.... which you should not make too much out of.
I see it as a sort of metaphor meaning that we are a part of this universe which, along with everything in it, is in continuous change. Nothing is permanent.
Here is a quote from Suzuki Roshi. How do you interpret this? What do you think he meant?
"You will always exist in the universe in one form or another."
Frankly, I find it puzzling.
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. For example:
"Everything arises because of causes and conditions, they arise and pass away."
"Everything which arises from causes and conditions cannot bring lasting satisfaction;
everything which arise from causes and conditions is impermanent;
everything which arises from causes and conditions is without an unchanging self/essence."
"This body with its mind and other senses, arises from causes and condition. Like all causes and conditions these are impermanent, they arise and pass away."
And so on.
All that I would make out of the quotation is that the chemical elements of my body get used elsewhere, and those particular things which incorporate them will in turn deteriorate and their elements be used elsewhere, and on and on. But as has already been pointed out by someone else, this can hardly be the me that I understand as the particular process of my particular life. Even assuming the mental "energy" (don't know what word would be appropriate there) of my physical body is recycled as are the chemical elements, I still cannot see an individual You in this which the quotation appears to be pointing to.
Thus, not having the man here to ask, I am baffled by his words.
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.
I agree.
I was thinking that I had a wonderful cat named Pooks a decade ago. He has since died. Maybe elements from his body are to be found in the wood of my desk, say; or in the paper of my books, the paint on the wall.
But even if that should be the case, I would not expect that I were to call, "Here, Pooks. Here, kitty, kitty" that there would be any meows in response. That creature I called Pooks be dead, and me will likewise be totally defunct one day.
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