Store consciousness is neither the same nor different,
individual nor collective.
Same and different inter-are.
Collective and individual give rise to each other.
Heraclitus of Ephesus noted that we do not step into the same river twice. He was describing the changing nature of all phenomena. According to Heraclitus, change is ever-present in the universe. The water in the river is constantly flowing. The water we see today is not what we saw yesterday. We are not the same person today as we were a few years ago but we are not a different person either.
Reality cannot be classified into extremes like same or different. Store consciousness too is neither same nor different. Our experiences are not only individual or only collective.
Our society brings about changes in us and we bring about changes in society. If slavery did not exist, it would not be possible to abolish slavery. The people who abolished slavery were influenced by a society which practiced it and by abolishing it they were able to bring about a transformation in the society.
The understanding of impermanence and interbeing frees us from such notions as birth and death, coming and going, same and different. If you think of time as past, present and future, then of what duration is the present? If you say it is just an indivisible moment, then objects in that moment must be stationary. What is stationary cannot simultaneously be said to be flowing. Then how can any experience be classified as 'present continuous'?
We can only make statements in the present continuous tense if we include the past and the future. So when we say we are going from Seoul to Kobe we are also simultaneously referring to the past when we began our journey and the future when we will end our journey. In fact, as the present is stationary, there is no 'going' happening in the 'present' at all. So present continuous is merely an attempt to describe the actions of the past and intended actions of the future. It is really an attempt to add continuity to the actions of the past and intended actions of the future. It has no separate existence. In the present there is no 'going'.
Much like that, no phenomena has a separate existence. Present is not different from the past, it is also not the same. Present cannot exist without the past. Same and different are notions dependent on each other.
When we say that something is same or different we are comparing the state of an object with itself or another object over a period of time. Is 'present continuous' same or different from the past tense? Is the ship of Theseus still the ship of Theseus even though all its parts have changed from the time it left the port of origin until the time it reached its destination? Is a person, after an organ transplant, same or different? If you say same, you are wrong. If you say different, you are wrong. If you say both or neither, you don't make sense. You can only say they 'inter-are'.
"Don’t you mind dying, sir?” the consul asked. “Forgive me a little lofty talk,” van Gulik said, “but all movement is illusory. From Seoul to Kobe. From life to death"
Reality is obscured by notions like same and different, birth and death, coming and going etc. The quicker we drop these notions the faster we can touch reality. Reality does not cause suffering, notions cause suffering.
(Based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh.)
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