Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
4 May 2020
I try, I tried, I am trying (1)
“I believe”
It really does not matter how many thoughts you have. But when you just recognise them as thoughts, the matter is over. Understand also that all the thoughts you think you collect, you do not. It has come to you. And it is fine.
Thoughts have come to you so that you may recognise them as illusions of sound. That is all. They are in their place in the backyard of memory; in the front yard in the mind as the present sound as illusory thought.
Thought decorates the front yard of mind, just as it does decorate the backyard of memory. Of course, it decorates them. It is a decoration. And it is fine. It is in its place and it is just fine.
All the enlightenment ideas and words are so decorative. And so is their purpose. It decorates your ego. And it is fine. If thoughts are not a decoration, it will not appear in the front yard and in the backyard.
You try, have tried and are trying to get everything in its place, when everything already is in its place. By every effort to get anything in life in its place, you misplace it. You cannot misplace anything in life. Life will not allow it.
The word ‘try’ is deceptive. You get attached to objects. You get attached to each other. You get attached to events and experiences. The question is, is attachment real?
If attachment is real, you will be attached to everything, but are you? If you understand why attachment is there, whether it is real or not, then you will be free of attachment.
Then you will understand, mind is neither attached nor detached. That will be your clarity of life. To have clarity in life is very important. When you are clear about everything in life and mind, you are steady in every moment of daily life.
No matter how hard you try, attachment never seems to leave you. Is it not so? Because you are attached to some things, objects, subjects, events, some small actions in life, you try to keep them.
If you are unable to get what you are attached to and, if others have them, you try to get them for yourself.
Understand that when you try, you are not steady. Understand that when you tried you were not steady. Understand that trying will never keep you steady. The wise understand that every moment in life will have what it is meant to have.
The enlightened are steady every moment of their daily life.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V.S. Shankar 2020
Editor’s Note:
‘Never give up’ has been the stern advice given to every schoolboy when he hangs his head or shows any sign of defeat. And when he does not give up trying – ‘well done’ they exclaim. Deep-seated is this condition implanted in the young mind and applied later to any situation in daily living. Deep-seated, however, is the understanding of the enlightened whose endless compassion never yields from declaring the steadiness of life – the life that is. Gratitude to absolute intelligence for the journey in which we all happened to meet a wise man who is relentless in clarifying the illusions of life. Live life as it happens.
Julian Capper. UK