07 The Ship of Theseus

THE SHIP OF THESEUS

“The Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment about whether an object that has had all of its original components replaced remains the same object. Theseus was the mythical Greek founder-king of Athens, and the question was raised by ancient philosophers (e.g. Heraclitus and Plato): If the ship of Theseus were kept in a harbor and every part on the ship were replaced one at a time, would it then be a new ship? Some follow-up questions are common: If it is not the same ship, then at what point did it stop being the ship of Theseus? If it is the same ship, then could all the removed pieces be reassembled to form a ship, and would that be the ship of Theseus? The concept is one of the oldest in Western philosophy, going back to the time of 500–400 BC. It is a common theme in the field of metaphysics.” [01][02][03]

THE SHIP OF THRAWN

The ISD Chimaera (pronounced /kaɪˈmɪərə/) was a modified Imperial I-class Star Destroyer captained by Imperial officer Thrawn prior to the Galactic Civil War. It served as his command ship following his promotions to commodore, admiral and later Grand Admiral, transferring commands with him and eventually becoming the flagship of Grand Admiral Thrawn's Seventh Fleet. [04]

THE FIVE AGGREGATES - ‘What the Buddha Taught’ - Walpola Rahula [05]

Venerable W. Rahula describes that in Buddhist philosophy what we consider a ‘being’ or an ‘I’ is nothing more than a combination of ever-changing physical and mental phenomena which may be divided into five unique aggregates, as follows:

1. FORM or “matter”, which is the substrate of the physical world.

2. SENSATION or “feeling”, which is the sensory experience of an object. It is either pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.

3. PERCEPTION, which is the sensory and mental process that registers, recognizes and labels.

4. MENTAL FORMATION are all types of mental imprints and conditioning triggered by an object. It is Karma.

5. CONSCIOUSNESS is the awareness of an object and discrimination of its components and aspects.

Ven W. Rahula is adamant to point out that in this Buddhist idea of a ‘being’ there is no permanent, unchanging spirit which can be considered ‘Self’, ‘Soul’ or ‘Ego’. He stresses that consciousness should not be taken as ‘spirit’ in opposition to matter. The Buddha declared in unequivocal terms that consciousness depends on matter, sensation, perception and mental formations, and cannot exist independently of them. He says:

“Were someone to say: I shall show the coming, the going, the passing away, the arising, the growth, the increase or the development of consciousness apart from matter, sensation, perception and mental formations, he would be speaking of something that does not exist.”

With regards to the world, the Buddha also stated:

“The world is in continuous flux and is impermanent.”

Ven W. Rahula is quoted as saying in regard to this:

“One thing disappears, conditioning the appearance of the next in a series of cause and effect. There is no unchanging substance in them. There is nothing behind them that can be called a permanent Self, or Atman. But when the five physical and mental aggregates which are interdependent are working together in combination as a physio-psychological machine we get the idea of ‘I’. This is only a false idea, a mental formation which is nothing but one of those 52 mental formations of the fourth aggregate.”

In other words:

“Mere suffering exists, but no sufferer is found”

And so, I whispered into the air:

“Ven W. Rahula pontifies that there is no unmoving mover behind all the movement. It is only movement. Life and movement are fused as two inseparable things.”

I felt like I was stationed on the Chimaera; a ship with many constituent parts; a ship who’s very consideration and reflection was enough to sustain the idea of an permanent, unmoving identity; an idea that I explored through my meditations as an effigy of Thrawn; an idea that was becoming to appear more and more misleading and false. I want to address the elephant in room. This is the soul. Plato argues in favor of the Soul. Gotama argues that there is no soul. Haven’t I been arguing that a naval ship is a soul, by using Buddhist concepts? The way I approach this paradox is to say that the ship is not real; it is a ghost ship; a vessel to house the instruments of experience. When I refer to the ship as a soul I do so using conventional concepts and language. In reality there is no ship. There is no fleet. It is all an illusion. A construct or mental formation of the mind.