Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
23 April 2020
Hope (2)
“Expect”
You believe you have a mind. You have not identified where it exists and how it appears. You have assumed you know the mind. Understand you know the mind with thoughts, but you do not know the mind as it is - and that is without thoughts.
If mind exists within you when you are alive, why does it not exist when you are asleep, because you are alive when you sleep? Sleep is part and parcel of your life. You need not hope to sleep; sleep will happen if it is meant to happen.
In the state of sleep where you are asleep, you do not have a mind with thoughts. Where does it go? Why does the mind, which you trust so much in your waking state, abandon you during sleep?
Why does the mind not give you answers during your sleep? Observe that you are peaceful in your sleep without your mind with thoughts. Understand that the mind with thoughts causes restlessness to man and woman. Not life.
Understand that the mind in life in every moment is with light and sound. Understand that the mind in life in every moment is without thoughts. Understand that intermittently the mind in life is with thoughts. Understand that the mind with thoughts is illusions of particular sounds.
If life is restless, there is no point in enlightenment because, if life is restless, enlightenment too will be restless. Understand that enlightenment is not restless. Enlightenment is freedom from restlessness.
Understand that life has many illusions of light and sound for man and woman in his or her lifetime.
Understand the illusory as illusory. So far man and woman believe what his or her mind says to be the truth. But you have not yet investigated your mind. Once the mind with thoughts is investigated and deeply understood to be illusory, enlightenment reveals itself to you.
Understand that illusory only appears to be real, but everything changes and is not permanent. Understand that the real does not change and is permanent. Have you not observed that any thoughts which come into your mind, though they may appear real to you, they do not stay with you for long, do they? They go away.
If they are real, they will not go away.
Understand that the entire life you battle with your thoughts. You battle with your mind which has thoughts. And it is a losing battle you fight because thoughts always come and always go.
Mind with thoughts remains undefeated because thoughts will remain as long as they are meant to remain. The mind with thoughts cannot be defeated because thoughts will go when they are meant to go.
The wise understand that hope too will always come. The wise understand that what you hope for may or may not happen and, when it happens, it will come and go too.
The enlightened are patient in every moment.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V.S. Shankar 2020
Editor’s Note:
Mind with thoughts is king in man’s daily life and will continue to be so for mind is neither examined nor understood. Its authority to determine, to judge, to criticise and to express any opinion is upheld by its forceful presence, the ego. Man has sold his birthright to the mind that entertains thoughts for a high price. An individual’s waking life is a figment of such a mind. Its thoughts are a man or a woman’s life or what passes for it. Little wonder then that mankind has no understanding of life as it really is. Little wonder then that life and living it is so stressful and lacking in patience. Realising that this is so may bring quiet gratitude for the gifts of life in every moment.
Julian Capper. UK
German Translator‘s Note:
This article about hope is intended to make you ponder. If the hope would be real during the day in the form of thoughts, how is it possible to get along very well without it while asleep? So hope is obviously only necessary to live the waking state. At least this is the belief of the ego. This has to be examined carefully whether it is true or not. One tends to hold on to hopeful thoughts because they help one to get over fear and restlessness. But if they are not real, fear and restlessness are not either. As long as hope is considered a necessity to live life, fear and restlessness will be the logical consequence. Free of hope, with the understanding of mind with thoughts as illusory, which is shared here, the mind without thoughts is revealed in every moment.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.