Actually, the foundations have not shifted, but rather it is some form of our immortality that is being capitalized on... "Things" you inherit or leave as inheritance, be it a family heirloom or debt. We become immortal through those "Things".
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By taking an immortal life here, we close the door to other lives and experiences that come after death.
I think you would agree with me, that the things through which we are 'immortalized', are not mere material things, but rather experiences, memories, and emotional relations one has.
These are the things one considers inseparable from 'me' and 'mine', the constants of one's existence. Yet, as much as we see these things as permanent, I believe that all of them, our possessions, our relations, our ideas and tastes are in continuous flux. As much as we see ourselves as unchanging, we do change. I would even say that the only constant of our existence is the fact that we change. This change takes place within the continuum of consciousness. Or rather it is the continuum of consciousness that changes through its own reflections. What ends in death is this continuum, and with it the opportunity of a mind, a whole universe in some sense, to evolve indefinitely.
What we have to leave behind, what we have to let die (again and again) is any fixed idea of who we are. Yet the continuum of consciousness, an evolving mind, is worth being free of arbitrary discontinuation. Our deepest intuition as conscious beings, is that of life continuing and evolving infinitely, as you hinted in your comment. The wish to die is, I believe, a metaphysical blunder. It is a deep wish to become free of whatever is permanent in us, thus bounding the evolution of our mind. But instead it brings the ultimate permanence not an opportunity of change.
Xrene:
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I think you would agree with me, that the things through which we are 'immortalized', are not mere material things, but rather experiences, memories, and emotional relations one has.
These are the things one considers inseparable from 'me' and 'mine', the constants of one's existence. Yet, as much as we see these things as permanent, I believe that all of them, our possessions, our relations, our ideas and tastes are in continuous flux. As much as we see ourselves as unchanging, we do change. I would even say that the only constant of our existence is the fact that we change. This change takes place within the continuum of consciousness. Or rather it is the continuum of consciousness that changes through its own reflections. What ends in death is this continuum, and with it the opportunity of a mind, a whole universe in some sense, to evolve indefinitely.
What we have to leave behind, what we have to let die (again and again) is any fixed idea of who we are. Yet the continuum of consciousness, an evolving mind, is worth being free of arbitrary discontinuation. Our deepest intuition as conscious beings, is that of life continuing and evolving infinitely, as you hinted in your comment. The wish to die is, I believe, a metaphysical blunder. It is a deep wish to become free of whatever is permanent in us, thus bounding the evolution of our mind. But instead it brings the ultimate permanence not an opportunity of change.