We are constantly dying

[sarapr]

I was looking at a picture of myself when I was only couple of years old and I wanted to hug her so much but she was no longer there she was truly gone because that body is certainly not there and her personality and her mind are no longer there, either. I don't even have her memories anymore and memories are what the self is revolved around. So basically she's dead and this dying process doesn't only apply tho childhood years but we are constantly evolving and in that process we are constantly dying and being reborn because our bodies, our minds, our memories and even our DNA is changing all the time, the things we thought were the most static in our lives. That realization made it easier for me to see the highly shaky grounds of the self.

[Leo-Tzu]

Being rooted in the present eliminates the problem.

[Dodo]

@sarapr Yet this is not true on the consciousness level. You know this, in your experience you have always been the same - back when you were a kid, now and when you grow older, you will still be the changeless which is untouched by all the changes in your experience.  So the true you, in your very experience, never died.

[cetus]

@sarapr What if you took that thought a bit farther and realized that no one is dying because no one is being born? (it's a deception you are the body/mind).

[sarapr]

@Dodo Yeah exactly that's what I meant, too that the sense of self is continuously changing but perhaps not the authentic self which can't really be defined and pointed to.

[DocHoliday]

...and was never born either. I'm watching a lot of Rupert Spira's youtube content right now and at one point he described it in a very beautiful way, comparing life and death to deep-sleep and the waking state, he said (paraphrasing): "It's just the contraction of consciousness in one focused point and the relaxing of it - going back to its source." So this means that while you're in the waking state (awareness is aware of itself), consciousness is focused and compressed on one particular point, which is "you" or your finite mind in other words. In deep-sleep or death, this compression relaxes and falls back into its ultimate, absolute form of being. Therefore the waking state and deep-sleep are just shorter cycles but absolutely identical to the "physical" birth and death of our bodies.

 

[sarapr]

@cetus56 Nice 

[cetus]

7 minutes ago, sarapr said:

@cetus56 Nice 

@sarapr I stole that one from Nisargadatta.

[SOUL]

We are constantly changing, yes, but there is no dying without first living so we can appreciate life and it's changes until the change of death actually comes to pass.

[Monkey-man]

There are animals that never age and only die by accidents

[DocHoliday]

@Monkey-man Which animals would that be? Never heard of them before, sounds really interesting 

[Joseph Maynor]

How about this paradox -- you are both changing and staying the same.  You could easily cling to the paradigm that the Now never changes and that all change is an illusion.  

Edited January 20, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[Joseph Maynor]

Paradoxically you are constantly changing and also always staying the same. 

[Monkey-man]

@DocHoliday there r many for example lobster, bowhead whale, hydra, one kind of tortoise but the number one star among scientists is naked mole-rat coz he's mammalian as we are, the dude is forever young and resistant to cancer

 

Edited January 21, 2018 by Monkey-man

[Guest thesmileyone]

It's just the body. "You" are immortal.

[Nahm]

@sarapr I would (if you’re in a good mood) look into how it is that you’re not alive right now. Then you might be free of that. Also, just go ahead and hug yourself, like, you’re right there. Extend your arms out in front of you like a big X, then pretend you’re grabbing two ropes, and slowly pull them towards yourself. Lol ❤️

[sarapr]

@Nahm That should do the trick just what I needed.