On Transcending The Material World
All religions talk about importance of soul. That the body and in fact everything material, is subject to destruction and decay. If the human mind is in quest of the unchanging, the timeless and the eternal, it has to transcend the domain of matter. Our thoughts should reach out and soar beyond the material world to experiencethe overwhelming fullness of the cosmic void. When you go beyond the world of matter, you can get into the subtler world of the mind. The body remains vulnerable to constant churning and change. But the world of the mind is always there, existing, functioning, ticking away in the realm of the conceptual. It is like the idea of a man or adog In the abstract. Anything can happen o an individual man or dog. But the Concept of a man or a dinosaur is etched for eternity in the map of the mind. The mind can capture the ephemeral, squeezing the macrocosm into the world of the microcosm. It is the mind that shrink-wraps distant galaxies into a few mathematical equations. Thesoulis a different dimension altogether. It is like the third dimension of solid geometry vis-à-vis the two dimensions of Euclidian plane geometry. It can also be compared to the four dimensional space-time continuum that Einstein created as part of his general theory of relativity, as against the three dimensions of space that ruled our mindset from the time of René Descartes and Isaac Newton up to the beginning of the 20th century. The spiritual dimension of the soul is more than a new perspective or paradigm. It is a perspective to end all perspectives. A point of view to end all points of view. The soul, says Buddha, is nothingness. It is not a nothing that is something. It is a nothing, period, a creative emptiness that resonates with the music and dance of divinity. It is like tender leaves that are sensitive, ready and open to dance to the breeze. It is nothingand has nothing. So it carries the music of the spheres, the celestial symphony, fully and faithfully. Themind is undifferentiated oneness. It is advaita. It is unified reality because it ind. It is a no-mind. It is a blank sheet of paper. The smallest line on that sheet of paper divides that undifferentiated oneness multi-fold. It divides what is to the left of the line from what is to the right; what is on top of the line fromwhatthe bottom. The mind perceives only through comparing and contrasting. The mincan only perceive an entity by seeingagainst a contrasting backdrop. Likeseeing a diamond against black velvIn logic, any entity is defined by first figuring out the broader species thabelongs to. Then you specify what distinguishes it from the broader claBut when you see something against background you have moved away from direct perception in the spiritudimension. You have come away frorthe undifferentiated reality of advaiYou are consequently reintroducingand reinforcing the dichotomy betwthe perceiver and what is perceived. The mind artificially separates the dancer from the dance, the perceiverfrom what is perceived.
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are SH Venkatramani kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it.
Courtesy: SH Venkatramani Speaking Tree,Times of India
On Transcending The Material World
All religions talk about importance of soul. That the body and in fact everything material, is subject to destruction and decay. If the human mind is in quest of the unchanging, the timeless and the eternal, it has to transcend the domain of matter. Our thoughts should reach out and soar beyond the material world to experiencethe overwhelming fullness of the cosmic void. When you go beyond the world of matter, you can get into the subtler world of the mind. The body remains vulnerable to constant churning and change. But the world of the mind is always there, existing, functioning, ticking away in the realm of the conceptual. It is like the idea of a man or adog In the abstract. Anything can happen o an individual man or dog. But the Concept of a man or a dinosaur is etched for eternity in the map of the mind. The mind can capture the ephemeral, squeezing the macrocosm into the world of the microcosm. It is the mind that shrink-wraps distant galaxies into a few mathematical equations. Thesoulis a different dimension altogether. It is like the third dimension of solid geometry vis-à-vis the two dimensions of Euclidian plane geometry. It can also be compared to the four dimensional space-time continuum that Einstein created as part of his general theory of relativity, as against the three dimensions of space that ruled our mindset from the time of René Descartes and Isaac Newton up to the beginning of the 20th century. The spiritual dimension of the soul is more than a new perspective or paradigm. It is a perspective to end all perspectives. A point of view to end all points of view. The soul, says Buddha, is nothingness. It is not a nothing that is something. It is a nothing, period, a creative emptiness that resonates with the music and dance of divinity. It is like tender leaves that are sensitive, ready and open to dance to the breeze. It is nothingand has nothing. So it carries the music of the spheres, the celestial symphony, fully and faithfully. Themind is undifferentiated oneness. It is advaita. It is unified reality because it ind. It is a no-mind. It is a blank sheet of paper. The smallest line on that sheet of paper divides that undifferentiated oneness multi-fold. It divides what is to the left of the line from what is to the right; what is on top of the line fromwhatthe bottom. The mind perceives only through comparing and contrasting. The mincan only perceive an entity by seeingagainst a contrasting backdrop. Likeseeing a diamond against black velvIn logic, any entity is defined by first figuring out the broader species thabelongs to. Then you specify what distinguishes it from the broader claBut when you see something against background you have moved away from direct perception in the spiritudimension. You have come away frorthe undifferentiated reality of advaiYou are consequently reintroducingand reinforcing the dichotomy betwthe perceiver and what is perceived. The mind artificially separates the dancer from the dance, the perceiverfrom what is perceived.
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are SH Venkatramani kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it.
Courtesy: SH Venkatramani Speaking Tree,Times of India