Independence/Remembrance (स्वतन्त्र/स्मृति)
‘Ego’ is the boundary at which a distinction between the ‘observer’ and the ‘observed’ is possible. It provides a locus of fixation of attachments, creating the space of (preselected) possibilities, within which everything what ‘is observable’ has to manifest itself. Statements about observability are thus dependent on the choice of the boundary, and are relative to it. By incorporating a specific piece of information that is used to redefine ego, specific different observables are becoming available, at the expense of some other observables becoming irrelevant or unavailable. Impermanence is impermanent, but in any effective model (of observer and observed) there is a particular choice of regularisation of levels of possible (conceivable) impermanence. Thus, many impermanent situations are not seen within a scope of a particular model. Seeing all of them is possible only by resigning from any models, but this makes life’s stability unsustainable. The notions of independence (svátantra) and remembrance (smṛti) are both strengthening and attachment to a specific choice of a boundary: the former by aiming against ‘outside’, the latter by aiming towards ‘inside’.
11.XI.17, 78 Euclid Avenue, Waterloo