Re Duveyoung: Nisargadatta's so "out of the person business" and, too, so clear that perfect nothingness is sentient and eternal, that I truly do not think he cared if the soul has metaphysical staying power. It was all illusion to him.
He was a heavy smoker till his dying day. When asked about his habit he said that his body had become addicted to the drug and it was too much trouble to stop smoking. Better just to let the body die as only the Self is important. I can't imagine a statement more out of tune with contemporary new-age types who are obsessed with detoxifying the body! Re salyavin808: The problem here is the metaphors taking themselves too seriously. You probably think that's ducking the question but it's just avoiding getting pulled into the endless cycle of ever more mysterious sophistry. We won't work it out how minds work from the inside, at least no one ever has, so it's probably be a good idea to hang five and work out how it's all actually put together and start again from there. Yeah, but . . . it's the "actually put together" bit that is soaked in metaphysical assumptions. The type of person who tells us he's a hard-nosed, down-to-earth, "just the facts ma'am" type is saying that *the real world* must conform to his IDEAL view that the world is no-nonsense sensible. I agree about not taking metaphors too literally. We can't escape from the language trap. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJPa45uO0-A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJPa45uO0-A
