A kid on the phone says, “Miss, my son is not coming to school.”
Miss: “Who is speaking?”
Kid: “My father is speaking.”
We are victims of our own wiring. The absence of such wiring is vedyam—to be known.
The mystery of our lives is the mystery of the movement of life, and this moves in the dimension of time. When we look deep into time, we see that it is nothing but past, present and future, in which the past was present, the future will be present and the present is the present. Time, therefore, is always present. Life always shows up as the present even though we refer to the past and future.
There are dimensions to this. The present is influenced by the past—past hurt, past trauma, past apprehensions, past dogmas, etc. The past thus exists in the present. The future will be an extension of the present. The future represents present unhappiness, present hurt, etc. In life, when we need to deal with time, actually we need to deal with the present, which has a past and future. If the present is in conflict, we need to change it. If we seek enlightenment, we should do so in the present. We cannot do it in the past or future.
The brain uses thought as a vehicle to change the present. Thought is nothing but a memory. Memory is the past, and the past is the present. If this is so, then how can we erase the past? How can thought to change the present? If the past is dead and the present is alive, then how can dead and alive meet?
This is how we have gone through centuries without changing ourselves. When we think of thought as the memory that represents an experience, we may think that this is a fact. It is, however, a limitation of language. Let us look at an example. If we want a photograph of ourselves, we ask someone to take
a picture using a camera. The picture is of us, but it is not us. We are dynamic, while the picture is static. This fact is not the reality of “us”; it is merely a representation of this factuality. Therefore, although the photograph represents us, it is still not us. Likewise, thought is the representation of an experience. It is a fact like a photograph, which is not us, because it is static, while we, as people, are dynamic.
Thought is incapable of handling consciousness. Our brains are, therefore, used to thoughts as they have been for centuries. It is necessary for our brains, and our minds, to learn something different altogether. This is what Lord Krishna refers to as vedyam—what should be known. We should view the whole and what we do; it is not thought that can change us, but the perception of ourselves that will drive the change. Therefore, Buddha said, “Ehi pasikko (come and I will teach you how to see).” What can change us is not thought, but perception.
Can we look at things like scientists, without being burdened by the past? When we do, there is cognition, not recognition. At present, we only recognise. In recognition, the past validates the present. This results in the present becoming an extension of the past.
Swami Sukhabodhananda is an international management spiritual & corporate guru
(For more details on his online workshop ‘Spiritual Warrior’, starting July 17, email: support@prasannatrust.com)