Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academ-advaita.com
The Netherlands
7 December 2019
Anxiety (9)
“Impatience”
Once you have understood that repetition is a folly in the mind, a futility, a ridiculous situation, you will understand that, in the same manner, how ridiculous it is to be in anxiety.
Then you are free from anxiety. So what could be that understanding which could make you realise how laughable it is to be in anxiety. Why do you think you are anxious? If you are anxious and if you are fine with it. The question does not apply to you.
It applies to others who are not fine being in anxiety. What could be the reason that you are anxious and in anxiety? One portion is because you understand that repetition will get you something.
Even without repeating, man is still anxious. Is it not so? Even though the repetition is not obvious to you. If you do a spiritual technique, it is obvious to you that you are repeating,
But in everyday life, you look at it, you are asking for a repetition only of some pattern. But it is not obvious to you that you are repeating. When you are expecting to be at a certain place, at a particular time, and you are unable to be, anxiety sets in and so does impatience.
If you understand that life does not always happen as you think it should happen, you will neither be in anxiety nor impatient. When you understand that life will happen the way it is meant to happen, you will neither be in anxiety nor impatient.
Understand that you are losing life, which is happening, when you are anxious and impatient. It will be a glaring example to you at that time. Man thinks about his future, but he does not live the present moment as it is.
You want to live the future. That is why you think about the future, but you do not realise that you can never live the future. Understand that you can only live the moment that is as it is and cannot be other than what it is.
Memory is nothing but a record of events that have happened. Memory is nothing but a record of events that have happened in thought-form. Memory is a record, a record of events that have happened.
When you observe your own description of a new event, every word is nothing but a word which is easily recognisable in your memory. Just by recognising words in your memory, which is the past, you are deluded to think you are seeing a new action in life.
Understand that there is no new event in life. Life is just moving by. You simply recognise old, familiar words. The illusory event that should be and is not leaves you impatient and in anxiety.
Man and woman with wisdom understand that what is meant to happen, albeit illusory, will happen and no force in life can stop it from happening.
The enlightened live life that happens and do not expect life to happen. The enlightened are neither in anxiety nor impatient.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V.S. Shankar 2019
Editor’s Note:
An executive has a secretary and a diary in his daily life. These are his or her regular companions without which he would miss or be late for important events. A non-executive has a daily pattern of work and a clock as his companions. These are his safeguards. Only the enlightened live without safeguards for they understand life. Safeguards are, however, the sine qua non in every man’s waking state. They guard against the unexpected, unpredictable and uncontrollable events that may upset the regular patterns of the workplace and the household. Only the wise understand that whatever happens is meant to happen by the intelligence of life. It cannot be otherwise. Understanding this may lead to respite from anxiety and impatience in everyday living.
Julian Capper. UK
German Translator‘s Note:
Most humans are not yet awake enough to realize that every moment is unpredictable, unique and without repetition although the mind makes you believe it is different. A deep inquiry has not happened to most of them until they meet a wise man like Dr. Shankar here.
The inquiry might look like this: When a fork in the road comes and you move toward it, how do you know whether you are going to go right or left unless you actually make a turn? You cannot know!
No matter what thought comes to mind at the moment you turn, ask yourself: Did you plan the thought? It happened to you, just like the turning happened to you, because you didn't have a thought that planned the thought of where to turn.
And is there a thought every time you turn, or do you just suddenly turn, sometimes with and sometimes without a thought? So who decides about turning, you or life?
It is life, because "you" are not present when you turn, because in one moment there is no whole thought that could possibly fit in. And the thought of coming to a fork in the road and being faced with the same choice every time is equally illusory, for every moment you approach the fork is unique and new. The repetition is an illusory thought in your mind!
A wise inquiry into choice and decision in everyday life could happen in this or a similar way and come to the wise conclusion that it is not you who controls your thoughts and actions. However, it worries the person as long as this inquiry has not been done and deeply understood. Making decisions and choices in everyday life seems difficult, because nobody wants to make the "wrong" choice.
The resulting impatience and anxiety affects every choice in a person's everyday life that seems meaningful to them. Dr. Shankar's article throws a perfectly clear light on the spontaneous unfolding of life and makes it clear that there is always only one way through life for all of us, even if it seems that we can choose between two or more options.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.