WendyDarling wrote:Essences are us. Each soul is individualized with essences. Some silly examples that you may be able to relate to since you cannot get beyond your physicality...kindness=green eyes, compassion=large feet, generosity=pointed ears, easily amused=webbed toes, optimistic=brown hair, etc.
You are the same being you have always been, that is how you identify you and operate in this conscious continuum. Your soul, your essence, is unchanged.
The meatbag you fill in a world of meatbags changes, but your filling is a constant that is how you remember yourself, recognize yourself, identify yourself. All this change you speak of is apart from your core self, its superfluous life, the passing of time so you can discover how to be the best you, you can be throughout eternity. Why can't you differentiate the external you from the internal you?
Wendy, I'm not just considering physical change, I'm considering mental change as well (if
anything changes, it's the mind). Other than those two--body and mind--I'm not sure what else there is. The 'self' is something we project onto ourselves.
Think of it this way: the soul, to me, is like Northern Lights. If you look up at the Northern Lights one late evening, it looks like glowing waves splashing high above the atmosphere. You could keep your eye fixed on one streak or one wave and watch it dancing around with the others--it may stretch, bend, split in two, join with another, and even change color--this is how I imagine the soul--never remaining still, always changing--but you can still identify it, you can still keep your eye fixed on a particular stretch of light and watch it as it moves around, changes shape, goes through different colors, and all the while say "Yep, it's the same stretch of light." <-- I think we can say the same of the soul: even though it's never the same from moment to moment, we can still identify it, saying, "that's the same soul I had yesterday, I remember
being that soul, and I remember my seamless experience from then to now."
If it's a question of whether the soul will survive death, that has nothing to do with the permanence or fluctuation of the soul. Think of it like a student taking a course. From the beginning of the semester to the end, the student is undergoing constant change--cells are being replaced, personality changes, new memories are formed, more skills and knowledge are acquired--but then what does the professor say after the final exam: "Sorry, kid, can't let you pass. You're not the same person who registered for the course." <-- Of course not! You think God would reject you in the afterlife because you technically go through change in this life?
How has your essence changed since you were a child?
You are getting hung up on extraneous, external change.
You are supposed to be answering questions, not asking a gazillion more. 