To harp on the theme, death of self is analogously expressed in Daoism. Specifically in Zhuangzi chapter 21 with a description of Laozi’s in meditation:
“Confucius went to see Lao Dan, who… was lying there looking creepily inert, like some nonhuman thing. Confucius waited off to the side for a while, but finally showed himself, saying, “Am I seeing things? Is it really so? Just now your body, sir, looked like a dried-up stump dug out of the ground, like you had cast off all things and departed from all people, standing alone in the alone.”
Lao Dan replied, “I have released my mind to wander in the beginnings of things.”
Dried wood might be understood as a desire-less state, recalling chapter 1 of the DaodeJing:
Therefore, always desire-less, you see the mystery
Ever desiring, you see the manifestations.
Similarly, Laozi’s remarks in chapter 33:
If you die without loss, you are eternal (死而不亡者壽)
Chapter 23 of the Zhuangzi also associates a body like dried wood and a mind like dead ashes 死灰 with the state of an infant:
Laozi said, “The standard procedure for preserving the life in you—well, can you embrace oneness? Can you keep it from slipping away? Can you know good and bad fortune without divining? Can you stop whatever you’re doing? Can you leave off? Can you ignore how it is with others and seek it in yourself? Can you be unconstrained and oblivious? Can you become an infant? An infant screams all day without getting hoarse—the utmost harmony! He grabs hold of things all day without tightly clenching his fist—for the intrinsic powers he deploys come from both himself and the objects. He stares all day without blinking—for he does not one-sidedly privilege the external……
An infant acts without knowing what he’s doing and moves along without knowing where he’s going, his body like the branch of a withered tree and his mind like dead ashes. In this state, neither good nor bad fortune can reach him.”
And of course, association of an infant-like disposition with a desire-less disposition naturally recalls Matthew 18:3, “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” and John 3:3, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
''All things alike go through their processes of activity, and (then) we see them return (to their original state). Then things (in the vegetable world) have displayed their luxuriant growth, we see each of them return to its root. This returning to their root is what we call the state of stillness; and that stillness may be called a reporting that they have fulfilled their appointed end. The report of that fulfilment is the regular, unchanging rule. To know that unchanging rule is to be intelligent; not to know it leads to wild movements and evil issues.'' Dao De Ching ch 16 line 2
To harp on the theme, death of self is analogously expressed in Daoism. Specifically in Zhuangzi chapter 21 with a description of Laozi’s in meditation:
“Confucius went to see Lao Dan, who… was lying there looking creepily inert, like some nonhuman thing. Confucius waited off to the side for a while, but finally showed himself, saying, “Am I seeing things? Is it really so? Just now your body, sir, looked like a dried-up stump dug out of the ground, like you had cast off all things and departed from all people, standing alone in the alone.”
Lao Dan replied, “I have released my mind to wander in the beginnings of things.”
Dried wood might be understood as a desire-less state, recalling chapter 1 of the DaodeJing:
Therefore, always desire-less, you see the mystery
Ever desiring, you see the manifestations.
Similarly, Laozi’s remarks in chapter 33:
If you die without loss, you are eternal (死而不亡者壽)
Chapter 23 of the Zhuangzi also associates a body like dried wood and a mind like dead ashes 死灰 with the state of an infant:
Laozi said, “The standard procedure for preserving the life in you—well, can you embrace oneness? Can you keep it from slipping away? Can you know good and bad fortune without divining? Can you stop whatever you’re doing? Can you leave off? Can you ignore how it is with others and seek it in yourself? Can you be unconstrained and oblivious? Can you become an infant? An infant screams all day without getting hoarse—the utmost harmony! He grabs hold of things all day without tightly clenching his fist—for the intrinsic powers he deploys come from both himself and the objects. He stares all day without blinking—for he does not one-sidedly privilege the external……
An infant acts without knowing what he’s doing and moves along without knowing where he’s going, his body like the branch of a withered tree and his mind like dead ashes. In this state, neither good nor bad fortune can reach him.”
And of course, association of an infant-like disposition with a desire-less disposition naturally recalls Matthew 18:3, “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” and John 3:3, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
''All things alike go through their processes of activity, and (then) we see them return (to their original state). Then things (in the vegetable world) have displayed their luxuriant growth, we see each of them return to its root. This returning to their root is what we call the state of stillness; and that stillness may be called a reporting that they have fulfilled their appointed end. The report of that fulfilment is the regular, unchanging rule. To know that unchanging rule is to be intelligent; not to know it leads to wild movements and evil issues.'' Dao De Ching ch 16 line 2