SeekerOfWisdom wrote:Funny that we were just speaking of his definition on another thread, "One is free of all attachment to form (and, by extension, to formlessness). And because of this, one ceases to engage in life and death". Which clearly shows you have incorrectly interpreted their writings. How can one not engage in life and death while at the same time you say death is the end?
Death is the end of that which dies. I never said that death is the end of everything. The statement "ceasing to engage in birth and death" also refers to a death, i.e, of ignorance, ego, delusion etc.
You think you have something to lose, "en ego-entity and what it possesses", imagining that this can come to an end along with your existence. On the other hand, you imagine people speaking of eternal life to mean that there is an ego-entity which continues forever.
Nothing, whether an ego-entity or a non-attached mind, continues forever. On the other hand, it is not my imagination that my mind(whether deluded or enlightened) will die with my body.
It is neither of these, recognizing that nothing, including the body, belongs to you, there is then nothing to lose or to continue on. Aka, not being part of life or death.
If there is no self to begin with then what do we want with recognising that it doesn't belong to us, has nothing to lose and isn't part of life or death? You're imagining a demon(self or ego or whatever else) so you can coil up in fear of its presence, muster up the courage to fight and destroy it and then be escorted by angels to heaven. Birth and death is going on right now in your very own brain, probably multiple times in a single day, and yet you seek inspiration and answers in some dusty old scriptures and the snow-filled well of a foolish sage.