Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
10th May 2018
Learn 2
“Mistake”
Learn from the mistake you did in the past is the advice given by people with knowledge, so that you do not do a mistake again in the present. Every man and woman is convinced about the value of this advice.
The value of the advice refers to being happy and to avoid being sad. This is because man and woman are either happy when they do not make a mistake or sad when they do make a mistake.
The emotions concerned with being happy because of not making a mistake are always wanted in the present, while the emotions concerned with making a mistake are always not wanted because the emotions are distressing, to say the least.
The advice by the people with knowledge is valuable to every man and woman because they only wish and want to be happy in the present and not sad in the present.
If man could learn not to make a mistake that he did in his past so that he would not make the same mistake in the present, the question arises why man cannot learn not to make a mistake in the present, because he always wishes and wants to be happy in the present.
Why does man haveto depend on learning from his past mistake to be happy in the present is the question? If man cannot learn not to make a mistake in the present, it means that he will not be able to learn not to make a mistake in the present from his past mistake either. This is because the past is known only in the present and not actually in the past.
The question is, therefore: is a man or a woman able not to make a mistake in the present in order to be happy in the present instead of learning from his or her past mistake? If he or she is unable to learn not to make a mistake in his or her present, the past gives man and woman a hope that they can learn not to make a mistake in the present from their past mistakes.
Is it ever possible to learn from the past moment not to make a mistake is the further question?
The wise inform wisdom to man and woman that they are happy only in the present moment, if they are happy. The wise also inform wisdom that, if man and woman are able to make the moment in life, they could very well make themselves happy in the moment as well by not making a mistake in the present.
The wise further inform wisdom that neither man nor woman makes the moment in life which becomes the past. They also inform that the moment in life is not made by them either. The moment in life has always been there much before man and woman were received in the moment by the intelligence in life.
The enlightened have rightly proclaimed that we come to do what we are meant to do, albeit illusory, in the ‘here and now’.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
©Copyright V. S. Shankar 2018
Editor’s Note:
The proposition that there was life before man and woman arrived is not disputed. Nor is the proposition that the moment in life was already there. Nevertheless, man and woman have made the assumption that they are responsible for the content of the moment, for better or for worse - even for the moment itself.The wise, however, reveal that what man and woman are meant to do they come to do, albeit illusory. They will even come to understand - if they are meant to.
Julian Capper, UK.
German Translator‘s Note:
The belief that a mistake of the past is transferable to the present to learn for the present is based on the false idea that life can be twice the same situation. In the mind, "situations" appear as illusionary thoughts that can be repeated, giving the impression that one could and should avoid mistakes that were made in the same situation earlier. But in the flow of life as light and sound, there is never real repetition, because life in the “here and now” is always unique. The enlightened, like Dr. Shankar, show that life is like a river. The metaphor of comparing life with a river is already very old. For example, as the Greek pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus said 2500 years ago, "You cannot step into the same river twice."
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.