Friday, June 22

Are We Simply A Bunch Of Memories?

Cornish garden

Just a few meandering thoughts today.

I was walking around our garden this morning and I realised it was full of memories. There's Toby's bush, where our border collie is buried; bricks in a flower bed wall which came from Germany - they are from the house where my wife was born; there's Spikey a sharp succulent that our son gave us - and there is a story attached to this about how it was thrown in a river.

And so it goes on. There's the flower bed surrounded by Cornish stone, that was meant to become a fish pond. No matter how I tried: with polythene, barrow loads of cement I couldn't stop it leaking. So it became a slightly raised flower bed instead. And there's a story about a goldfish that goes with the reason as to why I tried to build the pond in the first place.

There's lots more besides, but I won't bore you.

Then I remembered, for some reason, a piece I once wrote about how 'memories are the food stuff of the old'. This got me thinking about memories in general: Is this all we actually are? A bunch of memories?

Even if we believe in a Soul or Spirit, call it as you will, what use is this without memories? If we don't have any stored away moments accumulated over time we, as individuals, don't exist.

If we believe in reincarnation, it's not much superior to an atheist's death if we can't remember past lives. Some will argue that we can remember, of course.

Everything about us is memories: we remember how to walk, talk, do certain things and the experiences make us what we are. There will be good memories and some sad or bad ones as well - and without these we wouldn't be as we are now.

Or maybe there is something more to us. Our intuition, for instance. Has that been learnt and so a stored memory? Or is it something completely different. But even if things like intuition are separate from memory, they are not a lot of use if we don't remember who we are.

I'm actually going to leave the post there as food for thought - at least for me.

Take care of your memories. When your body returns to dust these may be all that exists.

Further Reading:
Prime Your Memory Search Engine
Death Is The Secret Of Life
How To Recognise A Cosmic Master And His Message

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10 comments:

  1. Oh! That would be worrying if that's all we are only a bunch of memories. What happens when the memories fade. Ah! We keep on making memories so we remain aware. I hope.

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    1. But supposing we weren't capable for some reason of not making new memories would the old ones just fade away into nothingness.

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  2. For me memories keep the ones I love alive in my heart. If only one person has memories of me when I die, then that's okay... as long as they're good memories!! LOL. "Food for thought", memories for keeps. Good one Mike.

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    1. Yes, I hope to be remembered too but will we still remember those remembering?

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  3. Your post reminds me of a novel I read some years ago about a man who was dead and still "existed" because someone among the living still remembered him. Thoughtful post, Mike. And what a gorgeous garden!

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    1. That's rung a bell. I knew someone once upon a time who thought that Jesus was wise to this and lives on through our prayers and because people remember him. If those stop he will no longer live. So we live on via other people's memories??

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  4. Nice. Those memories were created and have a tangible presence in your beautiful garden. We are the creators of memories and they have substance.

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    1. Thanks Terri. I believe memories do have substance and can imprint themselves on all sorts of things and places.

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  5. What is it that retrieves those memories ?
    Is it just a memory of how to retrieve a memory?

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    1. Now that's the big question isn't it? Who / what retrieves those memories? Has that something beyond memories? Hopefully it's something more than simply a memory retrieving a memories.

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