Realizing Non- existence

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In AdvaitaToZen , Pesi <pedsie6 wrote:

> P: But you like going to sleep every night, and

> every night you cease to exist for a while. while

> completely unconscious there is no time, a billion

> years go by as fast as second. There can not be any

> subjective difference between the non-conciousness

> of deep sleep and that of death. So, its imagination

> which kindles the fear of death.

 

Thanx for pointing at this.

Yes, it is imagination.

But there is also the imagination in the evening

that Stefan will wake up again the next morning...

 

Greetings

Stefan

 

P: Very true! Every brain on surrendering to sleep

expects or take for granted that its consciousness and

memory will return in the morning. Every night,

as you know, a number of people die in their sleep,

and those never know they died.

 

Let's fancifully suppose, tonight, a genii, just for a

lark, switches our consciousness while we are sleep,

and we wake up inside the other's body. Would we

know? I doubt it. All memories of Pete were left

behind in Pete's brain. So my consciousness on waking

up, as it does every morning, will check for memories

of an identity, and will find only Stefan's memories. It

won't, even for a moment suspect the switch, because

every detail of being you will be there, and none of

being me.

 

What is the point of this silly thought experiment? Well

the point is even sillier, How do we know that this,

in fact, doesn't happen every night? It could be that

every night while memories sleep, our consciousness

play musical chairs, and randomly switch bodies. So

every morning, we are a different person, but we

identify with whatever story-line we find in a brain.

 

How would that change our view of death? Well, were

that true, and I don't say it is, then, death exist, and doesn't.

And all there is, is generic consciousness playing musical chairs

with memories stored in an infinitude of brains.