religion

We are to a great part experiencing life perhaps to the millionth time as the number of times we've been born and died could be ascertained by the height of all the bodies one would have at one time held - a grand height indeed, perhaps taller than the tallest mountain.  Such would be a comparison of the corpses which do not collect due to the natural breakdown of organic matter to its smallest component.

And so what we were and what we are has been broken down into infinite number of particles and absorbed into the next physicality to come our way.

As for who we are - the sentient nature of our existence proves that we are.  But who we are is relative to who we think we are.

We are paupers if we think ourselves to be lacking in thought, form, possession and we are wealthy beyond measure if we believe ourselves to be having all thoughts, forms, and possessions.  We are exactly who we make ourselves out to be.  We live and then we die, to be eventually forgotten.

Such is existence.

Such is the nature of life - to die: and then we simply cease to be - until we are again.