Theos-Talk Archives (October 1998 Message tt00149)

[DALLAS:]
>That does not make sense to my logic -- I know firmly that 
>neither you nor I are "illusions" although our forms are in 
>constant alteration -- the non-physical MIND through memory 
>retains identity -- or is this "off-base ?"
 
It is off base, and it isn't. Mind does tend to retain memory,
and because of memory over time, we like to think we have a
real and concrete self or ego or personality. 
 
You say that you know "firmly" that we are not illusions, and yet
I would submit that we are indeed illusions and nothing more.
The basic "atoms" or "substance" that comprise our being is 
emptiness in the Mahayana sense. What happens to ego when
we lose our memory as in amnesia? What happens to ego
when we dream? Now, I believe that when we dream we are
focusing on the astral or mental planes. So, memory on those
planes is flakey or tenuous at best and thus our sense of
identity is also. Just as our physical body feels real and concrete,
so our ego or personality. But both change constantly, and have
no reality other than in a very relative sense. When we die,
only the "aroma" of the past life continues. All the "real" details
dissipate into their true nature which is emptiness.

Jerry S.