Avalokiteshvara, clearly saw all five skandhas are empty, freeing us from all identification as a separate self and thereby releasing us from all anguish and distress. From the perspective of emptiness this body and mind is like a waterfall. A waterfall is not a thing but rather a name for a process of happening. Our name and date of birth are just conventions. Just like we cannot distinguish where the waterfall begins and ends we cannot distinguish when Andrew begins and ends. Andrew doesn’t appear and disappear, he is just a convenient fiction.