Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
24 February 2019
Granted
“Life”
Man or woman takes for granted, meaning they fail to appreciate properly someone or something, especially as a result of overfamiliarity. Man and woman are overfamiliar with life and take life for granted.
Man and woman believe that something is true and take it for granted without questioning it. Man and woman take life for granted without questioning how and why life happens.
Primitive man neither knew life happened nor why life happened. Therefore, primitive man did not take life for granted because he was not familiar with life. This is because primitive man did not have memory.
As life evolved a belief that man was the doer, the belief became memory. As knowledge about actions evolved in primitive man, memory that man is the doer evolved as well to primitive man.
Knowledge about life as memory happened as well to primitive man. Memory informs man what happened in life and why it happened in order to familiarise man with what happens in life.
Man became familiar with memory and the beliefs within memory. The overfamiliarity that man is the doer convinced man and man began to take life for granted, namely that man brings about daily life, which is real.
Knowledge and memory take life for granted that man is the doer. Thus, he is not free from the turmoils of emotions or from praise by emotions.
Knowledge in memory takes a moment in life for granted. Wisdom reveals that memory does not convince that man makes the moment in life. Wisdom reveals that the moment in life was much before man was in the moment.
Wisdom convinces man that the moment renews itself in life. Wisdom convinces man that within a moment only a moment exists and neither two nor many moments exist.
Wisdom convinces man that within a moment only a movement exists and neither two nor many movements exist. Wisdom convinces man that within a moment only a sound exists and neither two nor many sounds exist.
Wisdom convinces man that within a moment only a movement exists and a sound does not exist along with the movement. Knowledge believes that within a moment an action and sound exist, which is not possible.
Wisdom reveals that the intelligence of life, within the moment, manifests an optical illusion of an action within the moment out of the single movement in the moment in the human mind.
Wisdom reveals that the intelligence of life, within the moment, manifests an auditory illusion of an action within the moment out of the single sound in the moment in the human mind.
Wisdom reveals that daily life happens in the moment and man does not make daily life happen. Knowledge makes man take daily life granted, namely that he makes it happen. Wisdom reveals that the daily life, which is manifested by the intelligence in life within the moment, is illusory and not real.
The enlightened have rightly proclaimed that daily life is illusory, not real and man is not the doer. The enlightened understand that what is meant to happen, albeit illusory, will happen and no force on earth can stop it.
The enlightened are steady in every moment of life as it happens, because the enlightened do not take the moment for granted and are grateful for what the moment contains, albeit illusory.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2019
Editor’s Note:
‘A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country and in his own house.’ The touch of familiarity exists in every family and in every community and has been so for generations. It may enshroud the virtue of the familiar, albeit illusory, so that it is taken for granted by those dependent on it. The elements, for example, water, air and earth are subject to contamination, neglect and even disputed use by man for whom these gifts from the intelligence of life are essential to daily existence. The wisdom presented in this article, is life’s gift to humanity. No word of the wise is taken for granted by those who come to understand. There is gratitude in abundance.
Julian Capper, UK
German Translator‘s Note:
The illusion of being a real doer has evolved evolutionarily in man and is present in modern man, with interruptions. The illusion of being a real doer is present in the form of thoughts. How life in the human mind generates the illusion of a real doer in all possible situations through thoughts, it is necessary to understand. Understanding is also evolutionary. Participating in the process of becoming aware that life cannot be taken for granted are the words of the enlightened ones, as in this article. Every moment is a miracle! This is certain because man has not made the moment and yet lives in it NOW. Security for the future is an illusory thought that happens to the conditioned mind. As far as the Now is concerned, life ensures that with certainty. If the thought that man is the doer and the thinking about the future is understood as illusory, one experiences security in the now, because then one trusts the life in the Now.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany