DO YOU ‘EXIST’ EVERY MOMENT IN YOUR EXISTENCE?

Ayad Gharbawi

February 17, 2010 – Damascus, Syria


Let me get straight to the point here.
We all assume that we are either ‘alive’ or ‘dead’.
Fine, but the question irresistibly resurfaces, and that is: what do you mean by yourself being ‘alive’? Yes, biological, physiologically, you are functioning, but the question that is concerning my mind here, is wether your own mind is functioning all the time?
What do I mean by the last phrase – ‘wether your mind is functioning all the time?’ Obviously, the first point we need to mention here, is the Awareness Factor (AF). Clearly, the more aware an Observer is, the more he is ‘alert’ to his own mind and to his surroundings, and the opposite is equally true. That is, the less the awareness the Observer has, the less he will be aware of his own mind and of his contents.
We all agree and understand that the (AF) is constantly fluctuating, and therefore, logically, the degree to which Observer is aware/unaware of his mind and surroundings will just as equally constantly fluctuate.
Next, we can understand that no Observer cannot possibly have an (AF) that is constant in its degree of intensity.
So, let us take a specific example.
Take an Observer (Ob) who is sitting at his humble home. He is thinking, feeling, imagining nothing. He is, in effect/de facto ‘blanking out’. Remember – and this is significant – that he is ‘blanking out’ for a moment in time (Time Factor, or tf).
Now, as per our Observer, how can we define/describe his Mind while he in this absent-minded, blanked out state?
We have already stated that the contents/constituents of his Mind, during this blanked-out state, is one where nothing is occurring or happening. He is not thinking of any thoughts; he is not imagining any images; he is not feeling any emotions; he is not seeing/looking/observing/noticing any visions in his surroundings; he is simply being vacant.
We have all been in that state of mind. It is not exactly unusual. It is like we are being empty headed, blanked out, or vacuous.
Fine. So now, we ask: how do we ‘define’ the Mind of Observer during this blanked out state?
Well, since he has ‘nothing’ in the contents of his Mind, then we assuredly can say, that his Mind has nothing, and therefore, the ‘definition’ or the ‘structure’ of the Mind of our particular Observer is one of ‘nothing’, or ‘nothingness’, during the Time Frame, when he happened to be in that mentally vacuous state.
Fine, what next?
Well, if our Observer’s Mind is composed of ‘nothing’, then it follows that our same Observer becomes as one with the ‘nothingness’ in which his Mind is composed of, during the prescribed Time Frame.
How can I say that and what exactly do I mean?
Because, the Mind and the Structure/Existence/Reality/Physicality/Bodily Constitution/Being of our Observer, are functionally inextricably linked with the Reality/Existence/Constituents/Structure of his Mind, and if the definition - or the Reality of his Mind - becomes an entity that is functionally composed of ‘nothingness’, then so too, will the entire person/subject/Self/consciousness of our Observer will just as equally become one of a ‘functioning nothingness’.
In other words, what I am saying, is that the entire constituents or Structure and Functions of the ‘Reality of the Observer’ are equal to the entire Structure and Functions of the ‘Reality of the Mind of the Observer’. Or, what whatever, the Mind of our Observer becomes or is, means that the reality of the said Observer will be the exact same.
You cannot functionally separate the - Reality of the Observing Mind - from the Reality of the Observer himself.
Therefore, if the Mind of Observer becomes, in certain circumstances, one that is composed of nothing/nothingness, then, just as equally, so will the Reality of the ‘existence’ of the Observer will be annihilated - and will thereby cease to exist, since it will become, in its entirety, one of nothing/nothingness.
Therefore, we cannot say that we sentient humans are ‘alive; in every moment in our lives- since there will be many moments/times/instances/circumstances whereby the Mind of the Observer will be extinguished. And by ‘extinguished’, I mean that the affected person in question cannot be described to be ‘alive’ in the full sense and meaning of the word.
Or, more simply, once our Observer gets out of the blanked out phase, ask him any question, like: ‘Where were you?’, ‘What were you thinking of?’ and he will reply that he remembers naught.
Therefore, apart from the physiological definition of life, by what account can we define our Observer to have been ‘mentally alive’ during those moments when he was in a vacuous state?
None.
And so, just as an electron has no ‘reality’ – as per momentum, position or any reality – until observation is made, so too, we find with the Mind of Man: until he/she ‘observes’ his own Mind and his surroundings, he will be in a functionally mentally non-existent state, wherein no Reality can be ascribed to him.
We human beings can no longer assume or believe that we are ‘existing’ or that we are ‘alive’ during every moment in our life. We exist at one moment, and then in another moment, we vanish and are extinguished into a Nothingness that is so crucial to the very fabric of the entirety of reality itself.