“Ποταμοῖς τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐμβαίνομέν τε καὶ οὐκ ἐμβαίνομεν, εἶμέν τε καὶ οὐκ εἶμεν.”
“We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not.”
The ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, the so-called “Weeping Philosopher”, is reputed to have written these words, though his works are now largely lost. It’s interesting to note that Heraclitus lived around the same time as the Buddha, during the “Axial Age” of Man, and it’s also interesting to note that both arrived at the same conclusion.*
When one can understand that existence, like the river, changes from moment to moment, with no permanent essence, then one can understand that there is nothing lasting with which one can cling to. The self is no exception. We are and we are not. We exist, but there is nothing permanent within us that we can rightly call a self or identity. When we can grasp this thought, we can then see the ego for what it is, an artificial construct, an illusion.
Or as the Buddha said in the Lankavatara Sutra:
All that can be said, is this, that relatively speaking, there is a constant stream of becoming, a momentary and uninterrupted change from one state of appearance to another.
Namuamidabu
* – Perhaps Heraclitus was a Pratyekabuddha, a “private Buddha” and just didn’t know it. 
Hello, this blog is about my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile / Koreaphile. Any useful information I can pass along will hopefully make the 
