• Hegar@kbin.social
    14·
    9 months ago

    I do find that very comforting.

    It reminds me of a bit in the outer chapters of the zhuangzi that’s talking about fearing death. It points out how bad a lump of iron would be if it demanded to only ever be a knife and never recast into anything else.

    How am I to know that the current configuration of the molecules I’m made of is the best use of them? There will come a time where everything that’s me is recast and put to better use.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    13·
    9 months ago

    The scary part is realizing the part that is you is not the particles, but its momentary pattern.

    You’re a quasistable event.

    You’re a wave.

    You’re a brief song.

    You’re a vibe.

    And then you’re gone.

    Most people aren’t ready to deal with that.

    • gandalf_der_12te@feddit.deOP
      5·
      9 months ago

      Like, there’s tons of philosophy to the question “what is (the) I”.

      I like the buddhism answer that the I is only an idea, and therefore non-physical and timeless. The material just flows and sometimes happens to be in one shape and another. The consciousness, which we perceive when we see something, is more like a dream that shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

      There’s a Zen riddle to that: (riddle of the wind) Two student monks were standing in front of a flag that was moving in the wind.
      The first monk said: The flag is moving.
      The second disagreed: No, the wind is moving.
      Along the way came the zen master.
      The students asked him: Is the flag moving, or is the wind moving?
      Upon which the master replied: It is neither the flag that is moving nor the wind that is moving; It is the soul that is moving.