Overthrowing Eastern and Western Economics: Economics by Chán Zhōng Shuō Chán (Chapter 13)

2006/8/21 18:39:10

Regarding the fact that every human will die, there exists a fallacy that claims "if one does not know life, how can one know death?" This fallacy has a premise: that life and death share the same logical foundation. Otherwise, even if you understood life, what would that have to do with death? And there is an even more important question: what exactly is this "knowing" that knows life? Without knowing this "knowing," who can say that what "knowing" knows is knowable, genuine knowledge? But what is it that knows this "knowing"? Without knowing this "knowing," how can one speak of knowing life or knowing death?

Of course, there is another logic that can link "knowing" with life and death: "knowing" is life, and not "knowing" is death. Then, is the knowing that knows "knowing" itself "knowing" or not "knowing"? If there has never been any knowing that knows "knowing," then where does the knowledge of "knowing" come from, let alone "knowing" and not "knowing"! And knowing, not knowing, knowing knowing, and not knowing not knowing—these four logical entanglements constitute all the delirious babbling about human life and death.

If there is no continuation of life's "knowing" into a post-death "knowing," then knowing death is impossible. What is called "knowing death" is merely knowing a living person's imagination of death, or the phenomena that another person's death presents to a living person's observation. In reality, the living person does not know death! As for whether our knowing of life can extend beyond death—this can never be known by this knowing itself. Any so-called knowing, or related theories, are nothing more than imagination and conjecture.

"Every human will die"—this sole premise has a most fundamental corollary: every person's "knowing" is finite. And even if you know life, you cannot know death. You cannot even know whether this knowing of life can extend beyond death, much less actually know death. And if what you call "knowing" is related to life and death—that is, one "knows" when alive and does not "know" when dead—then this "knowing" is merely a phenomenon of being alive. Under the premise that "every human will die," everything about this "knowing" becomes impossible to be premised upon!