Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
12th February 2017
Writing (1)
“Sophisticated movement”
The pen is mightier than the sword. This proverb implies that you can solve problems or achieve your purpose better and more effectively through communication with words than by violence with weapons. Edward George Bulwer Lytton, an English novelist, wrote this for the first time in 1839.
Written communication through writing can either lead to knowledge or increase it. It can also reveal wisdom, which is in-depth, right understanding of knowledge. Knowledge, on the other hand, is superficial, right understanding. Wisdom is revealed when writing is understood to be illusory and not real, because it would then reveal that what is communicated either as feelings or emotions is illusory as well. The last line of the nursery rhyme row, row, row your boat points that life is but a dream, and a dream is illusory.
Writing happens when the pen touches paper and the fingers holding the pen move along the paper. When the pen touches the paper, all that happens is a dot of ink on the paper. A straight line, therefore, is a collection of dots on the paper. This implies that a collection of dots on a paper appears as a straight line to the conditioned mind. This further implies that any shape drawn on paper with a pen is nothing but collections of dots which appear as a shape to the conditioned mind.
A letter or a word written is, therefore, a shape which is nothing more than a collection of dots of ink on paper. The dots, however, appear as a letter or a word to the conditioned mind. Movement of the human body is a process of evolution. The evolutionary process of bodily movements has evolved from crude to being sophisticated. For example, primitive man’s walk was initially crude, which evolved to become sophisticated in modern man.
This implies that writing is a sophisticated movement of the human body. The above description of writing as a sophisticated movement that has evolved provides an in-depth understanding of writing to be illusory and not real. The human body moves constantly, including in sleep. Therefore writing is an illusion of this singular movement of the human body. The computer is evidence to prove that writing is illusory and not real. Merely by touching keys on the keyboard writing appears on an illuminated screen
The enlightened have rightly declared that daily life is illusory, and daily life includes writing as well.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2017
Editor’s Note:
Writing has long been embedded in education as one of the three R’s: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Given its status as the essential accomplishment of an educated person, its daily application has become taken for granted. Welcome therefore is the deep understanding of the wise as to the illusory nature of writing in daily life, not to mention that of the writer himself or herself.
Julian Capper, U.K
German Translator’s Note:
In written words, Dr. Shankar in the article “Writing“ reveals the illusion of writing. A paradox? No – illusory does not mean it doesn’t exist. Writing happens and later many others, if meant to happen, can read the written and understand the illusion of writing. So future generations hopefully will read what was written by Dr. Shankar here and in all the other articles and books on www.academy-advaita.com Check it out and share!
Marcus Stegmaier, Deutschland