Neither Born Nor Dying
The knower is neither born nor dies. It came from nowhere and became nothing. Unborn, constant, ancient — it is not slain when the body is slain.
The something that watches the body age and fade — is it aging too?
📝Reflection
This verse makes us ask again what, exactly, we fear before death. The body surely withers and fades. Yet the place that watches the withering, the something that binds yesterday's me to today's me, counts no years. The Upanishad calls it the Self. Here Buddhism answers the very opposite — that no such unchanging self exists (non-self). Between the two teachers' different answers, each of us receives our own question. Rather than memorizing an answer, it is enough to carry through today the question: what is the 'I' that watches the fading 'I'?
🌱Apply It Today
Before the mirror, as you see the aging face, quietly greet the 'watcher' who beholds it.
This verse is read as universal humanistic wisdom, not religion — no faith is promoted, and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
