from Robert Saltzman:
Clearly life exists and death is a part of it. To deny that makes no sense at all.
To get to the heart of the matter, consider the oceans that cover our dear Earth. We call them “oceans,” but really they comprise just one body of water divided into areas given different names by convention, not by dint of any essential difference. The ocean tastes of salt no matter where you sample it.
The same is true, we really know, of the aliveness we are and that we see all around us. There is only one life, one aliveness, that manifests as countless bodies. This is not some spiritual mumbo-jumbo, but an obvious observable fact. None of those bodies, including the one with your name attached to it, has a separate, free-standing existence. Without the other living beings, along with the inanimate framework that supports those living beings, you would not exist at all.
The human body/mind we call “myself” is not a neatly separate, self-sufficient island. It is a complex ecosystem—a “social network”—containing trillions of bacteria and other microorganisms that inhabit our skin, genital areas, mouth and especially intestines.
— Robert Saltzman from The Ten Thousand Things
