Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
6 March 2018
Here and Now 3
“Eternal Moment”
Every man and woman is very sure that they can think in the moment which is ‘here and now’. To every human being thinking is taken for granted that it is possible.
The enlightened have, however, proclaimed that man is not the thinker. So how could man or woman understand that man is not the thinker is the question?
Now, every moment is ‘here and now’. Therefore, the present is the moment ‘here and now’ where man or woman can think. Also, in between the moment ‘here and now’ and the past moment is also a moment ‘here and now’.
Similarly, in between the moment ‘here and now’ and the future next moment is also a moment ‘here and now’. This signifies that the moment ‘here and now’ is eternal and a division between moments is not an actuality.
The eternal moment is a mystery and so too the moment that is not actual. Now science, as knowledge, informs that the smallest unit of numerical time is one zepto second, which is one trillionth of a trillionth of a second.
Firstly, within this duration of time thinking is not possible, but yet man and woman are convinced that they can think in the moment ‘here and now’. And it is obvious that they can think.
Secondly, if the smallest unit of time could be added to make the next moment, then too to do thinking in the here and now would not be possible, because to think a certain duration of time is needed.
If the time needed to think were to happen, thinking could never happen in the here and now, as thinking happens in different durations of time from minimum to maximum.
But yet thinking does happen in the moment of different duration of time from minimum to maximum. Actual thinking does not happen in the moment here and now because, in the time duration present within the moment, only incomplete thought is present.
Also a movement of an individual in a moment is not separate from the movement present in any moment in that particular individual. This signifies that an individual’s life is a singular movement.
The intelligence in life projects a subtle, auditory illusion of thinking in the moment here and now, while all there is in any moment “here and now” is a minimal, incomplete thought as an illusion of subtle sound.
The enlightened have rightly proclaimed that daily life is a singular movement, which includes the movement of illusory thought. This signifies that thinking is an auditory illusion of subtle sound.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2018
Editor’s Note:
Just as the husbandman cultivates his land with patience and understanding gathered over the years, so it is with enlightened beings whose gift of wisdom enriches our lives. Thus, the nourishment that is to be gained from these articles gradually matures a depth of understanding. There is the world of illusion, projected by the intelligence of life, in which man acts, speaks and thinks, and there is actuality.
Julian Capper, UK
Note from the German translator:
Descartes did not understand that man's thinking is not continuous. Thinking happens intermittently and man exists/is even when there are no thoughts. As in deep sleep man is thoughtless, he can understand that the Here and Now, even in the waking state with thoughts and without thoughts, is thoughtless, because the Here and Now does not contain time to contain a letter let alone a whole word or a thought context. Dr. Shankar indeed shares the Here and Now in this wise article.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.