The mere belief in an immortal soul, or the conviction that
something in us survives death, does not make us immortal unless we
know what it is that survives and that we are capable of identifying
ourselves with it. Most human beings choose death instead of
immortality by identifying themselves with that which is perishable
and impermanent by clinging stubbornly to the body or the momentary
elements of the present personality, which they mistake for the soul
or the essential form of life.