Are we really separate from each other? Let us examine this issue. In order to prove that two things are separate two steps will have to be followed.
1. To know and recognize the things in question.
2. To compare the outer and inner qualities of the gross body, its origin and dissolution, quantity, shape, functioning of various outer and inner parts etc.
Step 1. Knowing and recognizing:
Do we really know who we are? Perhaps not.
a) Are we the body?
Perhaps not, because it is made up of food and the body stays even after death.
b) Are we the thinking mind?
Perhaps not, because it is nothing but a bundle of impressions of all the experiences we have. We can even exist without it in states like deep sleep, non-REM sleep, unconscious and comatose states. So how can we be the thinking mind?
This implies that we don’t know who we are as we have no other experiential information about us other than the body and thinking mind. If we are neither body nor mind, then making comparison among us for the purpose of proving our separateness, is not possible at all or is a useless exercise. Hence from this first step itself it can be easily inferred that there is no way to prove that we are separate, because we have no information about who we really are.
Step 2. Still for the sake of further discussion, for the time being let us assume that we are body and mind because we behave as if we are body and mind. Hence, let us try to compare the body-mind structure so that separateness can be proved. So let us start from origin of this psychosomatic instrument.
1. Do we get conceived in a way other than by the combination of sperm and ova? No.
2. Do we grow in the womb in different ways? No.
3. Did we come out from anything other than the womb, natural or cesarean is a different issue? No.
4. Are we growing and aging in different ways? No.
5. Are we going to die in different ways other than the so-called consciousness leaving the body or whatever? No. Even if it is different at least we don’t know.
6. Are we breathing differently, the process as such, oxygen needed to survive? No.
7. Does sleep, as it happens, come to us differently? No.
8. Are all the internal bodily processes, as such, like digestion, beating of heart, functioning of kidney, etc. happening differently? No.
9. Are all of our motor organs like hands, legs, jaws, neck, etc. being used as such differently? No.
10. Are our all negative and positive actions, feelings, emotions etc. as such happening differently, results are a different issue? No.
11. Is our process of thinking as such happening differently? No.
12. Is the process of origination of actions and reactions different for different persons? No.
13. Are we something other than a bundle of energy, atoms, molecules, chemicals? No. At the level of atoms and energy there is no difference even between animate and inanimate. All are same.
14. Lastly, the thinking mind where difference appears to be existing, is nothing but accumulated impressions of experiences. Hence, the variations are bound to be there. Hence differences lies here if at all we consider ourselves mind. But we are not, as proved in first stage.
From the above inquiry can it not be inferred that knowledge and feeling of separation is false, but appears to be existing only because of the differences in the impressions of experiences, i.e. mind, which we are not. Basically the idea and feeling of separateness that we have is cultivated, imposed on our psyche, by the social environment. This is not our consciously known, inquired and proved idea. On the contrary, in fact there are similarities only among all of us, including other life forms as well as inanimate, on all accounts.
Photo by Alexandra, Germany.