“Now, I know there’s a difficulty in this, because it arises from the fact that we identify “I” with the ego, and a part of ego is a memory system. You know who you are in the sense that you remember who you are. You identify yourself with a series of events that you remember, and these are strung out in a line; they’re like a certain tune. And therefore you identify yourself with that tune. So we repeat ourselves, we have consistent characters, just in the same way as a tune is always constructed to repeat itself in a certain way with variations, so that we recognize the tune and the name of the piece by hearing even one part of it. So here is a tune, you see, that is being played. And it is attached to a center called “I.” Only, the “I” is much more than this particular tune, this particular series of memories. Even though we are persuaded and kind of hoaxed into identifying the whole “I” with that series of memories. But, you know, supposing somebody plays a Chopin Étude and then he stops. Then, later on, somebody else plays it. Is it the same tune? Why, in one sense, yes. In another sense, no. So it is possible, isn’t it, that, even though your tune was wiped out because the memory system goes with death, the same sort of tune could be played again with its characteristics themes. And that will be, in another sense, you in a more particular sense than the you of centrality.” — Alan Watts
(Text sourced from https://www.organism.earth/library/document/power-of-space)