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**aabbaDE** · 07-26-2010, 03:06 AM

survival instinct.

I haven't repsonded to the various posts but appreciate reading them. I'm still perplexed by the idea that there is no "self", no "I". I understand that even if there is such an entity, we cannot identify it - that is, we cannot point to an area of the brain (or elsewhere) and say this is where "the self" resides.( Actually, without mirrors or other reflecting surfaces, we would not even know what we looked like - we could feel our bodies but this would give a different view than seeing it. Our impression of what "we" are is critically dependent on our sensory sytem.) Saying that all mental constructions are impermanent seems to me not to answer my question. I'll keep reading and thinking about it.

Appealing to a "survival instinct", it seems to me begs the question of what is it that has the survival instinct. Can we indentify this enitity? Or is it another of those items that we, with our limited sensory system, are incapable of "understanding" (perceiving).

07-26-2010, 03:06 AM	#26
aabbaDE Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 329 Senior Member	survival instinct. I haven't repsonded to the various posts but appreciate reading them. I'm still perplexed by the idea that there is no "self", no "I". I understand that even if there is such an entity, we cannot identify it - that is, we cannot point to an area of the brain (or elsewhere) and say this is where "the self" resides.( Actually, without mirrors or other reflecting surfaces, we would not even know what we looked like - we could feel our bodies but this would give a different view than seeing it. Our impression of what "we" are is critically dependent on our sensory sytem.) Saying that all mental constructions are impermanent seems to me not to answer my question. I'll keep reading and thinking about it. Appealing to a "survival instinct", it seems to me begs the question of what is it that has the survival instinct. Can we indentify this enitity? Or is it another of those items that we, with our limited sensory system, are incapable of "understanding" (perceiving).
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