Life and death are often thought as two separate things. You are alive or you are dead. But really, life and death are completely inseparable, a unitary dynamic. We see this continuously in the body with old cells dying and being discarded, and replaced with new. Destruction and rejuvenation. What about ‘clinical death?’ Likewise, the body lives on in different forms … microbes feed on the corpse, which feed the soil, which feed plants, which feed animals, and so on. The better question is, what can you know about death, that isn’t a projection of thought, of extending ‘me’ into a beyond? Nothing (and even this ‘nothing’ is an abstraction of thought). A more pertinent question is, is there a ‘me’ separate from this whole sphere of thought in the first place, while you are still alive?

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It seems to me that life is a series of independent, disconnected events, with each event having its own unique dynamic. That there is no singular ‘me’ having experiences and thinking up thoughts. Rather, an event happens, which is the stimulus. Then, via memory, the response comes to the fore of its own volition. So stimulus and response are tied in together. Not a separate movement and not a ‘me’ orchestrating.

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When we look at something what we see is frames of memory. Same with all senses. When you really ‘see,’ it is not something you ‘do’ because the movement of thought has burned up into itself and is disengaged. It’s as if seeing for the very first time. It is both mysterious and astonishing.

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The movement of thought is such that a stimulus occurs and thought comes to the fore for the duration of need, then of its own accord burns up into itself and recedes to the background into not-thought. Until the demand arises again. And so on and so on.

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Free will or no free will? A better question would be, is there a singular, separate ‘me’ independent from frames of memory? Or does what has gone before - the backstory - direct the ‘choices’ we make?

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The quest for spiritual liberation is flawed. It assumes there is a separate ‘me’ to liberate. How can you free ‘me,’ when the so-called ‘me' to free is but another aspect of thought? So called ‘freedom’ already is.

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Regarding freedom, what do we know? Everything and nothing. There is a whole world of knowledge out there. But every answer prompts more questions. When the questions burn up into themselves, seeking stops.

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Your ‘true nature’ is no state of mind at all; has nothing to do with thought. ‘It’ is of ‘not-knowing’. Not as in ignorance ~ as we are connected to all of thought anyway ~ but of not-thought. The process of thinking is declutched and what remains you have no way of knowing anything about whatsoever. ‘It’ is both empty of everything and full of everything at the same time.

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Longevity hacking - intending to live til 110, 150, 300 years, or more - is counterproductive. The body already has innate survival mechanisms. Exhaustive exercise, pharmaceutical, eating and supplement strategies increase the demand to thought and obsessing. Thinking more, and ‘living in the head,’ increases the energy demand and wear on the organism.

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