I was talking with Gustaf about my project, and he said something along the lines of "oh, that's like the buddhist concept of Anatman" so, being me, I spent the afternoon in main library looking for books, now I have way too many. Also knowing me, I won't read very much of them.
In my basic understanding, anatman is no-self, an idea that humans don't have a soul... there is no permanent, underlying substance to us. Which is what I'm interested in... instead, we are aggregates of our bodies, feelings, perceptions, ideas and consciousness. These things are constantly changing, so that while we retain an identity, it is made up of layers of experiences and expressions that are not the same from one moment to the next.
Also, the books gave me a present. I found a card in one of them that I love:
It says "what's observed from telescopes changes with practiced looking" and the letters that spell Herschel in order are greyed.
