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**beonecenry** · 07-11-2012, 09:49 AM

Just as there are traces of the tree/chair/ash so our traces pass from one birth to the next. "I" am never reborn only the traces of "I". When "I" am reborn the "I" is not the same, it is different, just as the tree/chair/ash are different, yet it is still "me" just as it is still the tree/chair/ash.

I'm puzzled so forgive me for asking a question here. When the tree is turned into a chair and the chair is burnt to create ash, there is a continuation of the carbon and nitrogen and whatever else is in there. At extremes, these may convert into energy and then back into something else but there is still continuation of a sort. That sounds fine. But how does that map onto the self? In this case (the self) we're talking about something which is non-material so I'm struggling to see how the analogy works because there's nothing to convert into anything else. My body might feed the flowers and the rocks and the bugs (as that great line from Munch has it: "From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity. ") but I just can't see how any 'self' gets in on the act.

07-11-2012, 09:49 AM	#20
beonecenry Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 492 Senior Member	Just as there are traces of the tree/chair/ash so our traces pass from one birth to the next. "I" am never reborn only the traces of "I". When "I" am reborn the "I" is not the same, it is different, just as the tree/chair/ash are different, yet it is still "me" just as it is still the tree/chair/ash. I'm puzzled so forgive me for asking a question here. When the tree is turned into a chair and the chair is burnt to create ash, there is a continuation of the carbon and nitrogen and whatever else is in there. At extremes, these may convert into energy and then back into something else but there is still continuation of a sort. That sounds fine. But how does that map onto the self? In this case (the self) we're talking about something which is non-material so I'm struggling to see how the analogy works because there's nothing to convert into anything else. My body might feed the flowers and the rocks and the bugs (as that great line from Munch has it: "From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity. ") but I just can't see how any 'self' gets in on the act.
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