Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
10 January 2019
To look forward
“Happen”
Present-day man and woman look forward to what is going to happen and when it is going to happen. This is because of memory of what has happened. Present-day child does not look forward to what is going to happen or when it is going to happen, because a child does not have memory of what has happened.
This fact of life signifies that primitive man or woman did not look forward to what is going to happen or when it is going to happen because memory of what has happened had not evolved in primitive man or woman.
As memory of what has happened evolved in humans, including that he or she is a doer, in memory, man and woman began to look forward for what is going to happen.
To look forward for what is going to happen is accompanied with anxiety, impatience and shadows of different emotions depending on the state of understanding life that has evolved in man and woman.
Even when something does happen man and woman are not free from the different shadows of emotions, because he or she once again looks forward to what is going to happen next.
If man and woman are really the doers, he or she will not only be certain of what is going to happen, but will also be certain of the precise moment when it will happen. They will not look forward to what it is going to happen or when it is going to happen.
If man and woman are really the doers, he or she will not only certainly make what is in the moment, but also will be certain of the shadows of emotion that will accompany what happens in the moment. This signifies that man and woman will not look forward for what is going to happen.
If man and woman really are the doers, man or woman will only make those things whose accompanying emotions he or she is comfortable with happen in the moment. But neither man nor woman is certain of emotions that happen. They look forward to emotions with which they are comfortable. This signifies that neither man nor woman is a doer.
The wise understand that a moment in life happens and neither man nor woman makes the moment in life. The wise also understand that what is within the moment cannot be other than what is within the moment. This also implies that man and woman do not make what is within the moment. The wise understand that neither man nor woman is a doer.
The wise with this wisdom makes them patient for what happens because their memory will inform with certainty only after it happens. The wise do not look forward to what is going to happen.
The enlightened accept what happens in the moment with patience and trust.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2018
Editor’s Note:
Walking is a very common and very popular human activity. The style of walking often reflects the mood or expectation of the walker: slow for the reflective, swift for the reward that may lie ahead, stealthy for a first meeting, jaunty for the carefree. By and by you may happen to meet a wise man on your path, as you are meant to. ‘Where do you live?’ he enquires. The answer immediately starts: ‘Oh, I live in…’ and then stops. ‘You live where your feet touch the ground’. Such is the release; such and so deep is the flood of love. Beautiful simplicity, beautiful.
Julian Capper, UK