Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
6th May 2018
Action 3
“Spoken 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 the spoken word or words are present in the ‘here and now’ and life is full of actions, each separate from the other and not a flow like a river.
So what is the understanding of the enlightened about a spoken word, is the question?
Action and actions are known as a word or words. But a word is not present in every moment of daily life. If a word or words implying action were indeed present in every moment of daily life, the mind would not only be unable to recognise the word that implies action, but it would also be impossible for every moment to have a word indicating an action within it.
It is impossible because in between a moment and the next is a moment as well. Therefore, if the spoken word that indicates an action was present in every moment, that spoken word would not be recognised by the human mind.
The reason why the mind would not be able to recognise the spoken word ‘action’, if every moment had a word ‘action’, 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 word that implies action.
Now a word is made up of letters. The ‘here and now’ does not contain numerical time to be able to contain a letter needed for a word. This signifies that the ‘here and now’ is only sound with varying intensities and quality.
This implies that intermittently a word implying 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. However, all that exists in any moment is only sound, which appears as an illusory word that implies an action or actions.
This signifies that the waking state with a spoken word ‘action’ and without a spoken word ‘action’ is actually word-less, because the ‘Here and Now’ contains neither a letter nor a word.
This implies that the spoken word ‘action’ is a spoken sound, because all that is present is a river of sound and not even a part of a sound could be a word ‘action’. 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:
Precise is the manifestation by the intelligence of life that convinces the mind of man and woman of the actual existence, albeit illusory, of action and actions. Precise too are the steps in understanding whereby the human mind may come to realise that the existence in daily life which the mind perceives as an actuality is actually illusory. The steps are presented in these articles by Dr. Shankar.
Julian Capper, UK.
German Translator’s Note:
We are completely convinced of the reality of actions from earliest childhood. Our minds are not at all aware of its own functioning until wisdom enters the mind, first drop by drop, but then like a torrent sweeping away the previous conditioning. Actions attain their illusionary power and reality only in the thinking human being, not before language and thoughts, words and meanings manifest themselves. Language suggests that it simply names what exists outside, including real actions. But Dr. Shankar in this wise article, shows how man can overcome the conditioning of actions by understanding the functioning of the mind – how it makes actions appear through words, where in life there is only a singlular flow of light and sound.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.