Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
13 September 2019
Lives
“Daily life”
Every man and woman lives with a hope of living the life which he or she hopes for. Man and woman live with a hope of living the life which he or she longs for. Man and woman live with a hope of living the life which he or she expects.
Every man and woman lives with a hope of living the life which others have lived. Man and woman live to live the life that is expected in the future.
Every man and woman hopes to learn from how he or she has lived in the past, because he and she believe that the past will help him or her to live the life which he or she hopes to live in the present.
Every man and woman hopes to learn from how he or she has lived in the past, because he and she believe that the past will help him or her to live the life he or she expects to live in the future as well.
Every man and woman hopes that knowledge of how he or she has lived in the past and also believes that knowledge of the past will help to live the life he or she hopes to live in the present and in the future as well.
Knowledge of how every man and woman has lived in the past and from which he hopes to learn is, nevertheless, not free from the unwanted emotions of disappointment, anxiety, anger, hope, fear, sadness and doubt in the present. There is no guarantee for man and woman that in the future they will be free of the unwanted emotions of hope and expectation.
Wisdom of how he or she has lived in the past, however, is free of every unwanted emotion of disappointment, anxiety, anger, hope, fear, sadness and doubt in the present.
So what is the wisdom of ‘how man and woman have lived in the past’, is the question?
Wisdom of how he or she has lived in the past reveals that every moment, which is here and now, is always in the present as an actuality. Wisdom of the past reveals that the moment in the past is not an actuality.
Wisdom of how he or she has lived in the past reveals that he or she lived it actually in the present, which appears as living it in the past in the human mind. Wisdom of the moment in the present, which is the here and now, renews itself as the next moment in the present, which is the here and now.
Wisdom of the present here and now moment reveals that it is made neither by man nor by woman. Wisdom of the present here and now moment reveals that life and its content within the moment are made neither by man nor by woman.
Wisdom of the present here and now reveals that life and content within the moment cannot be other than the life and its content, which is in the present moment here and now.
Man and woman with this wisdom are free from the unwanted emotions of disappointment, anxiety, anger, hope, fear, sadness and doubt in the present. Man and woman with wisdom of life in the moment live every moment, which is here and now, with patience and trust in life.
The enlightened lives every moment in peace which is here and now and neither hopes how to live nor expects how to live. The enlightened lives every moment in peace, no matter how materialistic or non-materialistic the present moment here and now is to him or her.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2019
Editor’s Note:
Every man and woman has placed undisputed reliance on mind for countless generations as their guide in daily life, challenged only by the mind of other men and women. As many minds as there have been, as many minds as there are and as many minds as there are yet to be hold as many beliefs and conditions as principles for living. This crowded space is fertile ground for conflict, with mixed emotional consequences. In their deep and compassionate understanding of man’s plight in this eternal traffic jam, albeit illusory, the wise have gifted the guidance of wisdom, as revealed in these articles and elsewhere.
Julian Capper, UK
German Translator’s Note:
Man is conditioned early on to say "my life". Although people's lives are completely different from each other and belong only to the respective individual, they are not the property of the individual that he or she can dispose of as he or she wants, which implies "mine". The wise share an understanding that makes it possible to speak of "my life" without being deceived by the illusion of having life at one's free disposal. This frees you from the emotions inherent in any possessive thinking about the most valuable thing that man has, albeit illusory: life.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.