Its worth writing things down to see what they look like. The post on Christmas Day despite being of interest is actually useless I think. It in no way actually helps to grasp the point. In fact I feel I've taken a step back with that post!
The goal here is to liberate. But thinking about Heraclitus' river or the Ship of Theseus does not really help to liberate. It simply causes confusion.
Newton's Cradle is perhaps better at raising the much more sublime issue.
At root, and how we should conduct ourselves in life, is to not fixate upon a view of the world centred in our self. When something goes wrong for me, it is worth remembering that it has only gone wrong for me, and other people carry on quite unaffected. Indeed its extraordinary really how we can be obsessed about something that has happened to us, and remain oblivious to what is going on in other people's world. We literally have grown used to walking around like this, seeing only what concerns us.
Now we can argue at length that this "self view" is a myth and based around the illusion of "self". And while we are certain we can see this self, in fact on closer examination it is a phantom. And yet this direct approach never seems to quite work. It is like telling someone to stop smoking. Simply focusing on the problem is never enough, we need to also encourage them into a different way of living. Have a cup of tea instead of a cigarette, or go for a run, or embrace the idea and benefits of fasting (I did this last one).
What we need to do in addition to questioning the reality of self, is to focus on the bigger picture also. In every situation there is a large world, and filtering it just to see what is relevant to us is actually just closing down options.
Its so funny how we do this obsessively and almost instinctively. When hearing the lottery numbers read out we are obsessed about our numbers coming out. When in fact it doesn't matter: someone will win, what is so amazing about that person being me? Well we may argue "but it would change my life." To that we need to think carefully. Chances are you won't win, and you are going to get that same life back (minus the cost of the lottery ticket). And you will get that same life back 14 million times before you win on average. So you better learn to live with "this life" cos that is the winning you are going to get most of the time. And if we are living "this life" 14 million times before the big win, actually it can't be that bad. But despite all this wider thinking its amazing how we can obsess on "winning" and "better life" and do this to such an extreme we get sad about our actual life. Speak to a corpse next time you are sad about your life! Whatever form your life takes, it is nevertheless life! And that is the best win of all.
And if we unobsess then we can look at the people who do win and enjoy their winning, instead of our own. And if we can do this well, and take the blinkers off, we don't get so trapped in "our" life and see life as a big expansive thing that includes everyone here and far. With such a wide view there is little that can touch us. A "bomb" goes off here, and destroys something, but across the landscape that damage looks small. The wider our view the more impervious we are to what the world has to throw at us. And if we let go completely and have an unlimited unconditional heart and mind that can go freely anywhere then we cannot be hurt.
But contrast walling ourselves inside our possessions and holding as tight as possible to what is "ours" and focusing exclusively on "me" makes us incredibly vulnerable to damage. This is the core teaching of Jesus and Buddha to name two.
This also seems a much better approach to expressing this than attacking the illusion of individuality, personality and self.
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