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Impermanence And Life

Salty Booger

Royal Crown Cola (RC)
In a Universe where all things come to an end (all things must pass), what is it that seems unchanging?

pexels-cottonbro-4874234.jpg

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Nothing. Nothing is permanent.

Yes, some folks say the self or the soul is permanent, but when I hear such things I think, "They're not looking for themselves. They're just taking someone else's word for it, just following someone."

If you look for yourself, everything you can see is, in the end, impermanent.

And, in my opinion, thankfully so.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Yet life continues.

I think by "life" you must mean some relatively high-level abstraction. Surely you do not mean the bacterium on the top of the period at the end of this sentence who happens to be winking at us, do you? For concrete, tangible, living things -- as opposed to life in the abstract -- are constantly being born, changing, and dying, are they not?
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
I mean an ongoing process. When we or any other organism dies, there most certainly be another to replace us.

I would suggest that to see that "ongoing process" as continuous, and therefore unitary, is to see it through a lens of abstraction.
 

Salty Booger

Royal Crown Cola (RC)
I would suggest that to see that "ongoing process" as continuous, and therefore unitary, is to see it through a lens of abstraction.
Call it what you will, it is a fact that life is an ongoing process taking place on a sphere of rock somewhere in the Universe--conscious and evolving.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Call it what you will, it is a fact that life is an ongoing process taking place on a sphere of rock somewhere in the Universe--conscious and evolving.

I can't agree with your interpretation of that "ongoing process". I'll leave it at that.
 

SalixIncendium

अग्निविलोवनन्दः
Staff member
Premium Member
Nothing. Nothing is permanent.

Yes, some folks say the self or the soul is permanent, but when I hear such things I think, "They're not looking for themselves. They're just taking someone else's word for it, just following someone."

I agree with you that this is generally the case, but as with everything, your mileage may vary. ;)
 
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