Could you accept that you have no independant existence?

Question

Think about it a few moments.
People argue enough about where life starts... with different opinions at different stages. Life ending tends to be a bit more simple... though there is still an element of uncertainty.

But what of the energy and matter that makes you?
It is being replaced all the time. A molecule that forms a part of "you" today might be in a river tomorrow... and another could have been part of a carrot yesterday.
How does one draw lines at exactly when something becomes part of you and when something ceases to be you?


And what of all other things?
It is the same with the rest of the Universe. The matter isn't created or destroyed.... but merely recycled, in a state of change. Eventually... every bit of matter which you consider a part of you at any point in your life could end up scattered all across the face of the Earth....

But is it you? Or is it any of the countless other things it has been? How are "You" distinct from the rest of existence?

[ Note: Right now... my individual instinct is strongly suspecting that my grasp on the biological imperitive is slipping.... and my social instinct suspects that I need mind-altering drugs and social rehabilitation.
I contest that I don't even exist so I frankly don't give a toss. Afterall, giving a name and supposed identity to what is basically just energy flying around and temporarily passing past other energy (which it does everywhere) seems a bit silly.
By conventional definition though... I am quite insane. I don't much care about that either. ^_^ ...]

Congratulations Demetri on your philosophy classes.... but that isn't the subject at hand here.
This is about something rather akin to pointing at part of the ocean... about a metre cubed.... over the course of 2.6 hours.... and calling it David for that duration.

Kaboodle :~ Souls are just wishful thinking. I'm talking about reality.
You WANT to exist as an independant entity.... but there is no such thing.

Diamond Sunlight :~ And now it becomes a little clearer why Nietzsche referred to christianity as Nihilistic.
I guess we do have something in common..... but it all lacks context, which makes communication at the best of times futile.

Maybe it is best that I just got back to work and quit overthinking multifold irrelevancies....

Answer 1

Having a mental breakdown mr Interrogator?
It happens to all Nihilists intermittantly.
A physically extant mind simply is not capable of comprehending the notion of non-existence effectively, and attempting to process it will cause you more mental errors than you have the capacity to gloss over and ignore.

But ... in your head be it.

I'm just a Badger.
I don't think about it too much. I kinda value my head the way it is.

Answer 2

I am a collection of all the pieces of matter and energy that have formed together to make me. When I die, my body stays whole for a little while, then breaks down and eventually decomposes into the earth to start again. The same happens with my spirit. It's a ball of energy, literally, that sticks around for a while, sometimes interacting with my loved ones energies or spirits, and then slowly disapearing and blending with the rest of the energies throughout the earth. The energy and matter that make me right now could have been part of a carrot, or a dog, or a couch, or the wind, or a orld war two soldier, or an african tribesman, or a geisha.. or all of these things. they combined to make me.

as far as the whole "when does life start" part which plays into abortion... it doesn't. it already began. before you were a baby in your second trimester, you were a blob in your first, before that you were an egg or a sperm, before that you were nutrients in a body, before that you were the food that your mother or father ate... you are always "alive" therefore, it doesn't matter if you are aborted or not. the energy and matter that would have made you will be recycled into something else.

Answer 3

You know you are asking some very deep questions - yes we all would like to know the answers to them. Even the so called experts realy don't have the answers. So how can I share anything with you that you would understand. However in nature everything is and understands who and what it is. A tree for example knows it is say a oak tree that is produced from an accorn. It just is and continues to be . Yes if someone cuts it down and biurns it as fire wood it changes into ashes.. But another acorn planted by a squirrel will grow sky ward.
The only other thing I can share with you that contained within each of us are the answers to all of our questions. Yes the secret lives within you - you have the keys to open up your treasure to the rest of your life. Just find the keys - within. Good lucky.

Answer 4

We could just as well ask "What defines the Boston Pops orchestra?" or "Who exactly makes up the New York Yankees"? We think of these both as distinct entities of people, but they had completely different people 50 years ago, and 100 years ago they had completely different people from that too.

However, I don't jump to the conclusion of "Well this means categories and boundaries are useless, so let's throw them away." No, I find labels to be very useful and I shamelessly use them. You can argue that I don't have the same atoms as I did when I was a baby and didn't even look the same, but my parents sure as hell have no problems recognizing me in a crowd.

I do think it's amusing to think of how every sub-atomic particle that makes up me was also part of the Big Bang. But philosophically, again, I have no problem identifying myself as the "self". In fact I am very anti-Buddhist; I believe in completely glorification of my ego/self. It is my "God".

Answer 5

Yes, I feel this way myself. I feel like the boundaries that my ego draws are artificial constructs. We are the stuff of stars. We are walking dirt, and will be dirt again, and every day we take it into us and pass part of ourselves away.

Even with all of this, my conscious mind is still separate, unique, and independent. That consciousness will not turn into anything, but be irrevocable lost when I die. There is no indication that it is in anyway different than this.

As you can tell, this is an idea that I have not fully come to grips with. It was good to respond, thank you for the thoughtful question.

Answer 6

Interesting thought, but there is a line, albeit a fuzzy one, when matter and energy is incorporated into you and when it leaves you - actually it may not be that fuzzy, just hard to define without studying the body's processes. The same is true of life and death they clearly are not either at one point, but there seems to be gray areas before and after.

Answer 7

If you believe in the existence of a soul, then you would add that soul into the equation of something that cannot be destroyed, but only change forms.

Who knows? It may be that there is some sort of "oversoul" into which we are absorbed at death and then recycled as well.

Answer 8

We are a unique configuration every day. What makes us us is our perception of ourselves. Which as you point out, can change at any moment.

We are just tiny pieces of flotsam and we pick up and drop of other pieces constantly. We are never and forever changing, being and not being.

Our brief existence is a blink in the eye of the cosmos. We will never stop being recycled.

Answer 9

Very thought provoking. I believe you are correct. I am eying another carrot that will be a part of me tomorrow.

It has been said there is nothing so permanent as change. The thought process you present represents how fluid even we are. We are part of a much larger system.

Answer 10

Wow a first! Somebody cracked the case wide open! You are absolutely right we have no independent existence at all,as we are ONE.It is merely the ego that give us the illusion of separation,so that we may experience physical reality.There is no "line" to be drawn,this is precisely what the ego wants us to do,we are in every moment One with all that is,everywhere in the universe,whether we believe it or not makes no difference.We are each distinct in that we are fragments of one SOUL(guess Who's).We are not one of many we are many of one.You have discovered the truth my friend,now try to grasp it!