Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
21th March 2017
Belief
“Believe”
Whatever anyone believes is a belief that he or she has as a thought in the mind. Everyone has a belief and therefore believes something or the other. The belief that anyone has in the mind conditions him or her to believe. Therefore, to a believer, the beliefs that he or she believes are the truth to him or her.
A believer believes anything that happens in daily life, has answers to why and how it happens, or why and how it has happened. This belief has evolved over time.
A believer believes that it is either man or woman who is responsible for why or how anything happens in daily life, implying that man or woman does everything that happens in daily life. That man or woman can do is a strong belief in the mind and it is believed to be the truth.
A believer believes that ‘why’ or ‘how’ anyone does is done in the moment in life and also that he has a choice whether to do or not to do it. But neither the moment in life could be made by man nor has he a choice to make or not to make a moment in life, because to make a moment or not to make a moment requires a moment.
This indicates that a moment in life is manifested by life and cannot be made by man. So the belief of choice and the ability to make a moment, which is the truth to a believer, is not the truth.
This also implies that everything happens in the moment as well and is manifested by life and man’s belief of choice and the ability to do anything in the moment is not the truth. The conditioned belief that man does, which a believer believes to be the truth, is therefore only a belief, but not the truth.
Similarly, the beliefs that are in the mind as knowledge are either true or false, whereas the beliefs that are in the mind as wisdom are always true and never false.
For example: A believer, who could be either man or woman, believes that wisdom is more knowledge, and this belief is true to them. This belief however is not true, because wisdom is deep understanding of beliefs that are as knowledge and not more knowledge. This wise belief in the mind of the wise man or woman is the truth.
For example, when the wise walk in nature and hear the sound in nature, for example the chirp of birds and dogs bark, they understand that even a man or a woman just makes sounds and sounds appear as illusory words that he or she speaks.
When a believer walks and hears the sounds in nature, for example the dog barking or the bird chirping, he or she does not believe that even a man or a woman just makes sound, which appears as real words when he or she speaks. The truth is sound appears as illusory, spoken words.
Deep understanding of beliefs that are believed as wisdom by the wise happens as a process of evolution, just as superficial understanding of beliefs that are believed to be knowledge by the believer has happened to man or woman as a process of evolution. When beliefs of what is believed are deeply understood to be an illusion of light and sound, man or woman becomes wise.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2017
Editor’s Note:
‘I believe’ has been enshrined, even sanctified, in the traditions of man and woman throughout countless generations. Once learned by heart, uttered and thus confirmed, these words become the bedrock of a believer’s life. The revelation by the wise that belief is an illusion, an illusion of light and sound, is a profound gift of understanding.
Julian Capper, U.K
German Translator’s Note:
Wisdom and knowledge both are illusory words, meaning sound, in life. Whereas knowledge is either right or wrong, depending on the point of view, wisdom is always right, as pointed out in this wise article “Belief“ by Dr. Shankar. Wisdom is irrefutable. Wisdom is on a higher lever than knowledge because wisdom explains all knowledge as relative and illusory. Therefore there is no contradiction in saying that wisdom is illusory too but nevertheless it is relative to knowledge, irrefutable and always true. For the mind of a believer this may appear as contradiction, but the mind, when evolved, becomes wise and there is no contradiction any more.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.