"A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive."
- Albert Einstein, 1954
To build on what Einstein said, I think that our almost mechanized behaviours - to avoid things that pain or displeasure us and to crave for pleasures - are driven by a wrong concept of self.
I.
What is I?
I seems to refer to either my physical form and mental entities (personality, memories, etc).
That is still the apparent reality.
The actual reality: We use I for convenience.
"I" am actually made of cells. Breaking that down further, "I" am made of atoms.
To be exact, 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms.
Every atom lasts 0.001 second (metastable state) and 0.000000001 second (excited/high energy state).
So technically, every 0.000000001 - 0.001 second, the atoms making up "me" dies off and were replaced with new ones (energy transferred from the food we eat).
So "I" die and is reborn again every second.
I think it helps to imagine ourselves as a "mass of bubble" popping away and replaced with new bubbles.
Alternatively, you can imagine a river.
If I take a dip & came out of "The River" 5 minute ago, is it "The same river" as I am seeing now?
It also helps to question,
when you say something like "I want to play football!"
Who and what is the I that you're referring to?
The I that has popped away a few second ago, or the current I that's anew?
I'll write about I that refers to mental entities (personality, memories, etc) another time.
Me needs to sleep.
(I wish I don't have to sleep, so I could read, think, write, talk, and smile all the time :D sleep is for the weak! :P but that implies that I am weak. I refuse. Noooooo. *falls asleep*)
I, it, they, is a bulk of atoms and molecules in one cluster either moving very slowly or moving pretty fast like free will but their fate will be the same in the end. They will fall apart or join together become one then vanish forever.
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