No, we're certainly not "everything" - each of us is an individual - at least as far as we can tell from our limited perspective. The illusion (if it is, in fact, an illusion) is real for us. We are trapped in these individual bodies, with individual thoughts - all our hopes, dreams, and fears are passengers in a blood and flesh body - but only for a finite period of time. It is these thoughts and emotions that compell us to think in terms of "I" and "me". And, of course, we feel that these thoughts and emotions are continuous and we want them to last forever, along with the fragile vessel that carries them.
Perhaps there is an underlying unity, but we have no direct access to it. We can only think of it with symbols. When we contemplate our existence (or non-existence), we can only consider it in terms of what we see, hear, smell, taste, feel, and think. But all of those things are transient too. Everything is transient. What's on the inside, what's on the outside.
Consider the statement about the copy of myself. No, it could never happen (unless you're a Born Again Christian - in which case, at least scientifically, it's about the only way resurrection of the dead could happen!). Let's just say it could happen. An exact, perfect duplicate of me, my memories, down to the exact state of my brain could be replicated after my destruction. After giving it some thought, I can convince myself that it's at least possible that it really is the same me - yes, I am still alive! I can remember the same things and have the same skills and desires and faults as before. Ok. This "copy" really is me.
Now what happens if the operator of this fantastic machine decides to take away a couple of memories? Or skills? Or better yet, let's say I have everything I had before, but I get a new skill - like a perfect singing voice, or better "people skills". Am I still the same person? At what point would I become some other person?
How would this be different from the "continuous" life I've been living? I started out as a small child, with few memories and little understanding - am I the same person I was then?? As a youth, I was impetuous and brash, loud and silly. Now I am more often introverted - quiet and introspective (though sometimes still a little silly). Am I the same person now as I was then?
If you break up the continuity this way, it looses its meaning. If you took the right parts from each of us and added them together, you could make any one individual you wanted. I doubt this is incubusfunk's idea of "we are everything". It seems more likely that as we contemplate the nature of self, we realize that the boundaries are not as well defined as our senses would have us believe. As we increase our understanding of these expanded boundaries, we begin to see more of the unity of which we are a part - our fellow man, the creatures we share the earth with, the very elements themselves.
|
|
Bookmarks