Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
27th May 2017
Acceptance
“At ease”
Everyone wants and likes be at ease in every moment with everyone in every situation or circumstance in daily life. Everyone accepts every situation or circumstance to be what they believe it should be so that they could be at ease.
Even if the situation or circumstance is what they accept it to be, everyone however is not at ease in every moment in any situation or circumstance in daily life.
Everyone is at ease with a lecture that teaches them how any situation or circumstance should be. But neither the lecturer nor the audience are at ease with every moment in any situation or circumstance that they face in daily life, including every moment in the lecture.
Everyone may behave so that they are at ease in a particular situation or circumstance as a social etiquette, despite being not at ease within themselves. The social etiquette happens as well, with which they are not at ease either.
So what could the understanding of any situation or circumstance be that would enable anyone, including the lecturer, to accept any situation or circumstance in daily life and be at ease in every moment, without the need of social etiquettes, needs to be pondered deeply?
Humans are not at ease in every moment of any situation or circumstance when they do not accept the situation and the circumstance and wish for changes in it. Wanting changes in the situation or circumstance makes man to be not at ease.
But every situation and circumstance changes every moment, because life evolves every moment. The human mind, however, can neither see the change nor understand the change that happens every moment.
This indicates that every situation and circumstance changes every moment and can neither be a situation nor a circumstance, because the human mind cannot understand the change that happens in a moment.
Therefore, any situation or circumstance in any moment is what it is without a conclusion of what the situation or circumstance is in any moment. The human mind merely concludes a particular situation or circumstance in a particular moment and wishes for changes in it.
Both the situation and circumstance are not only illusory, but also they cannot be changed to be other than what they are, because a moment in life is not made by man. A moment in life evolves the way it is meant to evolve.
The enlightened understand that any situation and circumstance is illusory and cannot be changed by man. They accept every situation and circumstance as it is and are therefore at ease in every moment of any situation and circumstance in daily life.
When man or woman realises this deep understanding, they too will not only be at ease in every moment of any situation and circumstance, but they will also accept any situation and circumstance as it is.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2017
Editor’s Note:
There is no one who is not familiar with experiences of inclusion, exclusion and conclusion in their life. Each of us, therefore, is familiar with experiences of shutting in, shutting out and shutting off. These are gifts of life, albeit illusory.
Each of these experiences is like a door which is shut. There are no doors in life, nor can there be for life is an endless flow. Understanding this is the gift of enlightenment.
Julian Capper, U.K
German Translator’s Note:
Acceptance is taught in many spiritual schools as well as by psychologist. But acceptance is nothing man or woman could learn by will and choice. Therefore acceptance also means to accept that the mind does not accept. Otherwise acceptance is mere knowledge and not wisdom. In order to deepen the understanding of acceptance, reading Dr. Shankar’s article “Acceptance“ may help tremendously, if is meant to happen.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.