Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academ-advaita.com
The Netherlands
1 February 2020
Awakening (1)
“Process”
The question ‘who really am I?’ is simple, but it defeats intellect to answer that question. No matter how 'intellectual' you are, you just cannot answer that question.
It is a very simple question, who are you really? You claim you know a lot in life about life, but to address that question you will feel defeated. You really do not know who you or the other really is.
That question puts you in a questionable spot because, if you do not know who you really are, it only means there is no validity in what you say about life. There cannot be any validity because you do not know who you really are.
Also, you do not know who is really asking the question. Therefore, there cannot be any validity in what you say. That fundamental question should be addressed first. Determine who you really are and then there is validity in what you say in life about life.
How would you know that a person has come to know who he or she really is?
Experiences are in the past. They are not alive in the present. All experiences are in the mind as thoughts. They are in the past and the past is not alive in the present. They are in memory as the past
Consciousness has got no experiences. All experiences are within the boundaries of the mind with thoughts reflected by consciousness. As long as you are depending upon your experiences to know who you really are, you are memory.
Somewhere you are digging in memory. No. Refrain from being in the memory. All that you know, even to say my experiences, even that is from the mind, Even that is from your memory.
Ignorance too is knowledge. Every knowledge which you have is related to your ego. Consciousness puts forth every morning a root thought 'I'. This is the root thought and from this root thought all knowledge is gathered through the five sensations indirectly as thoughts.
And all the sensations gathered together as thoughts form knowledge through words and are conditioned in your mind as memory.
All the knowledge that you have is related to the ego. The ego, as you know, is false. False in the sense that it has no real existence in the now as an actual individual. The ‘I’ is only sound in the here and now.
Awakening is a deep, understanding process that is completed in the moment ‘here and now’ by the intelligence in life and not by the ego.
The enlightened realise that enlightenment will happen if it is meant to happen and it cannot be made to happen by you.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V.S. Shankar 2020
Editor’s Note:
Everyone, from a child to a pensioner wants (and is legally obliged) to have an identity. He/she wants to know who he/she is, but he also wants everyone he meets to know who he is. Just being alive is not enough because he does not know who he really is. The illusory substitute by the intelligence of life, is the ego, endowed with the energy and commitment to play the part. There is no interest for the ego in knowing who he really is because he already knows that and ensures that everyone else he meets also knows. When a child is conceived, the parents help with identification by giving the unborn child a name, which is never lost. In knowledge memory has important functions, such as passing exams, remembering where you live, knowing your name, making a phone call, knowing the meaning of a word etc. Man is reliant on memory, for it can bring him many rewards in daily life, but it is no place in which to live with ghosts from the past. Man’s eternal search for who he really is will never cease until one day…..until he may meet a wise man on his path.
Julian Capper. UK
German Translator‘s Note:
Wisdom that can lead to awakening is irrefutable. However, in order to awaken man, wisdom needs confirmation through, when it happens, own investigation in everyday life, that it is indeed so. Otherwise wisdom remains an empty phrase, incomprehensible to the conditioned mind because it is completely contrary to conditioning. This series of articles about awakening from the dreams of the mind, initially thought to be real, accompanies the reader in self-enquiry in everyday life. A precious gift of life to humanity.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.