Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
4th May 2018
Action 2
“Unspoken word”
The enlightened have declared that life is the timeless and thoughtless ‘Here and Now’. They have also said that life flows like a river. But to every man and woman, however, time and word are present in the here and now and life is full of actions, each separate from the other. It is not a flow like a river.
So what is the understanding of the enlightened, is the question?
Action and actions are known as a thought or thoughts. But a thought is not present in every moment of daily life. If a thought or thoughts of action were indeed present in every moment of daily life, the mind would be unable to recognisethe thought of action. But it is also impossible for every moment to have a thought of an action within it.
It is impossible because in between a moment and the next is a moment as well. Therefore, if the thought of an action was present in every moment, the thought of action would not be recognised by the human mind.
The reason why the mind would not be able to recognisethe thought of action, if every moment had a thought, including the moment in between moments, is the fact of the moment in daily life.
The fact of the moment in daily life is that the moment in daily life is continuous, spontaneous, uncontrollable and unpredictable. A continuum does not have multiple moments in order to contain multiple words of a human language, but the continuous flow of life is a singular, moving moment. Also, the moment of numerical time present in any moment is not known by humans as yet.
To know the numerical time present in a moment is also impossible because a distinct, actual moment, separate from the next, cannot be determined, because there is no actual separation between moments.
What is present in life is a continuous, spontaneous, uncontrollable and unpredictable sound of various intensities and qualities. In the human mind only a particular sound of varying intensity and quality appears as a thought of an action.
Now a thought is a word. The ‘here and now’ does not contain numerical time to be able to contain a letter for a thought of a word. This signifies that the ‘here and now’ is only sound with varying intensities and quality.
This implies that intermittently a thought of an action, which does not actually exist as an actuality, is precisely manifested by the intelligence in life. This convinces man and woman that an actual action actually exists, while all that exists in any moment is only sound, which appears as an illusory thought of an action or actions.
This signifies that the waking state with a thought of an action and without a thought of an action is actually word-less, because the ‘Here and Now’ neither contains a letter nor a thought of an action.
This implies that a thought of an action is an unspoken sound, because all that is present is only a river of sound. Not even a part of a sound could be a thought. A river is also a spontaneous, uncontrollable and unpredictable flow. There are no parts in a river and the continuous flow is also only sound, just as life is only a continuous flow of sound in light. This signifies that life is timeless and thoughtless, flows like a river with sound and is, therefore, action-less just as the enlightened have rightly proclaimed.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
©Copyright V. S. Shankar 2018
Editor’s Note:
As the human mind matures, it may come to understand the revelation here of the wise that life flows like a river, a simile presented by the intelligence of life as an actuality as well as a figure of speech. Throughout our waking life we do not question the regular occurrence of thoughts and actions. They are the focal point of each and every day. This is norm although, occasionally, we may adjourn for a rest.
Julian Capper, UK.
German Translator‘s Note:
Actions make human beings human, is the general belief. When you think about your life, actions are the most important element in the tales of what you have experienced. Actions are the building blocks that make up a biography. Actions are the basis for historians when writing history. That actions are illusory thoughts in the mind of man and not real entities in life, with a beginning and an end, as the enlightened and Dr. Shankar in this article reveal, does not in the least contradict the statement that actions constitute the human being, for only man has thoughts in his mind. However, as thoughts are illusory and not real, actions are also illusory and not real. This makes “your life“, “biography” and “history” illusory too.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.