> Although, like everything, this proposition turns into its opposite;
> when it comes time to die, we do it as individuals. Humans _are_
> lower animals, a species with individual members. Our sociality does
> not obliterate our biological natures.
And this fact, I think, is directly related to the whole issue of the Buddhist "no-self" concept. It is because we die as individuals that we fear death -- the obliteration of the (individual) self is what one's self (using the word in the sense it is used in ordinary language) is constantly trying to stave off, by doing the biological stuff of eating, breathing, fighting off attackers, engendering offspring, etc.
Once one gets the insight that this self which supposes that it is a constantly existing, permanent thing (that is, it would be permanent if it succeeded in winning the fight to keep existing forever, which is what it hopes it can do) is actually merely a set of "heaps" of momentary events, physical and mental, enlightenment begins to dawn. (At least, that's the theory, on an elementary level.)
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ "The years of a lifetime are a flash of lightning; who clings to objects? They are empty through and through. Even if you care for the nose hung
in front of your face, still be careful and value every moment to work on enlightenment." --Dogen, "Eihei Koroku"
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ "The years of a lifetime are a flash of lightning; who clings to objects? They are empty through and through. Even if you care for the nose hung
in front of your face, still be careful and value every moment to work on enlightenment." --Dogen, "Eihei Koroku"