It is said that man exists. Is it a truth or a fallacy? Let’s understand. Man does not exist. Man exists as an existence. In fact, existence exists in man. Existence mothers him. Existence raises him. Existence destroys him. Man is born in existence and dies in existence. Fear of death breeds fear of God. If there was no death, God would have completely disappeared from earth. God is an extension of our fearfulness.
Man simply exists. Look at a tree. The way the tree stands. Do you think the tree is thinking or does it have the sense of time as we do? Tree begins from seed. Roots are sprung. From a little sapling to a big tree. All this happens. The tree stands. All this happens and keeps happening. Tree keeps standing. It sees everything. It saps vitality from water and sun. Dances in the rain. Hip-hops in winds.
We have evolved to walk. By walking we have evolved to see. Tree also sees. It sees from its whole body. Our sense of seeing the long distance grew because of our needs. Either we were the hunt or the hunter. Humans survived and outnumbered animals on earth. We have a calculative sense of the vision and the sense of listening and the sense of walking and the sense of distance. That sense of distance and walking grew into the sense of time and space. Now we can think in terms of time because of chronological time which is just a utility. But we don’t exist in time. We exist in existence as existence itself. Our existence is just like the existence of the tree.
Existence incarnates us. Existence incarnates in us. We are the incarnation of existence. We are existence. Existence exists in us. In fact it would be true to say that existence exists. We are a superfluous identity created by our mind. Existence exists, we don’t. When we think we exist in the world, it is just a utility. When we say we live in this world we mean we live in the world as an ego. Ego is not. Thinker lives in this world in his own thoughts. Thoughts that a thinker thinks is the life of the ego. Ego lives in thinking. We don’t exist in the world by thinking that we do exist. We exist in the world. But ego says I am because I think I am. In fact I am and nothing else is. In fact I am therefore I may think. But ego says I am because I think I am. That’s the difference of being in the existence and being in the ego.
In thinking we live and we are fearful that our plans may shatter by death, so we birth the thought of God to ensure extension of worldly wealth and pleasure in heavens. People donate not to help. People pray not to be in prayerfulness. But to use good deeds as investment to ensure good times in heaven. Buddha had said that there is no God and got awakened. After Buddha had gone, we manufactured Buddha as God and continued our intoxication. We worship Buddha now. We do exactly what Buddha forbade us to do. Buddha showed us the way to become awakened. Buddha set milestones for us to walk on them by our own feet. Buddha told us that man can become Buddha. Buddha in fact means ‘the awakened’-one who woke up from the state of dreaming. Therefore Siddartha Gautam became Gautam Buddha. We treat all awakened ones the same way.
Buddha told us that like we all carry the seed of awakening to be Buddha one day. We are all carrying the seed of awakening. He asked us to go beyond the state of dreaming.
In thoughts in the state of dreaming, the thinker thinks that everything is changing. And that he is living in time so the chronological time that passed and that will come is the time that he has. Everything changes that is true. But nothing changes in time. Time is a measure of change that we have devised by thoughts. And thoughts and thinkers are not two but neither the thought is nor the thinker exists but only the thinking exists.
In fact we don’t change our circumstances. The screen on which the film is screened changes every bit. Scenes keep changing. Summer goes, winter comes. Days give birth to nights. You become big, you become small. You become A to B. All this is a screen. Scenes, acts constantly change. You remain where you are. You remain what you are. Right before you landscapes change on canvas. And you think time is changing. You say time is all powerful. Time is bad. Time is good. Time will do this time will do that. You want to store that moment. And because of that sense of time you breed your insecurities. Tomorrow something unpleasant might happen. Day after something bad might happen. This scene on the screen keeps changing. That’s what life is. That scene that changes on the screen is life. That which does not change is you.
Zen masters ask disciples to sit silently and watch everything change around you. Happiness changes into sorrow and sorrow changes into happiness because both are oscillating towards each other. Change lives in the extremities. Change is that you are shaken. Time is when you are shaken. Mind is that you are shaken. Thought is that you are shaken. Like ripples in a silent lake. But you are seated in the middle unperturbed. Buddha says be in the middle. Let the film of the world go around you don’t change into it. But we keep watching our time watch. That keeps making us miserable, insecure and pointless. Then we keep feeling that we are going to die. Death comes as existence. You that you are will continue to exist as you are. Body won’t. Body is part of the film.
You never change. You are eternal. But man thinks it changes therefore man is mired in the misery manufactured by him
The author is a spiritual teacher. He can be contacted at arunavlokitta@gmail.com.