IN my understanding, my "self" consists of a combination of five constantly mutable things: matter, sensation, perception, mental objects, and consciousness. Taken together, I perceive my "self".
To use a metaphor, multiple strands wrapped and joined together creates something called a "rope". Or, wheels, tires, a metal frame, an engine, transmission, and other parts, joined together, creates something called a "car".
Yet in the sense of my self - or even for a rope or car - we do not exist apart from the combination of the individual parts which makes up the whole. Additionally, the individual parts are all subject to change and decay. What is subject to change and decay cannot be eternal. So it cannot be said that there is anything identifiable in my "self" that is eternal.
Do you propose that the essential "self" is eternal, and what is it exactly that is eternal?
To use a metaphor, multiple strands wrapped and joined together creates something called a "rope". Or, wheels, tires, a metal frame, an engine, transmission, and other parts, joined together, creates something called a "car".
Yet in the sense of my self - or even for a rope or car - we do not exist apart from the combination of the individual parts which makes up the whole. Additionally, the individual parts are all subject to change and decay. What is subject to change and decay cannot be eternal. So it cannot be said that there is anything identifiable in my "self" that is eternal.
Do you propose that the essential "self" is eternal, and what is it exactly that is eternal?