Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
20th October 2016
Consistency
“Texture”
Man is convinced that not only is the world real but also his surroundings are real. This conviction of reality is due to the consistency, meaning texture, by the sensation of touch as being, hard, soft, or viscous.
It is very difficult for man to understand that the world and the surroundings that he experiences are illusory and not real, which the enlightened have indicated life to be.
Man’s intellect has evolved and it is easier now for man to understand through science, rather than through philosophy of wisdom, that consistency is illusory and not real. This makes it easier for man to understand that life indeed is illusory.
In physics the third law of motion states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The law implies that if you push on anything, it pushes back on you.
That is why if you lean against the wall, you do not just fall through it. The wall pushes back on you as hard as you push on it, and that is why you and the wall stay in place.
If you throw something, you put force behind it, which makes the throwing. So the throwing pushes you back with equal force. This is hard to observe, because usually, if you throw something away from you, the friction between you and the floor makes resistance to keep you in place. A collision with a wall gives the impression of hard whereas throwing a ball feels soft, even though in both cases an equal force is pushing you back.
Therefore, the opposing forces give an impression of consistency, as being hard, soft or viscous. Hard, soft and viscous are therefore illusory, because energy is not hard, soft or viscous.
Texture is conveyed by the sensation of touch and tactile sensation is real for a man or a woman. When two hands clap sound is heard. The opposing forces between two hands produce sound.
This implies that during gentle touch too the opposing forces produce sound, but the sound produced during gentle touch is inaudible to the limited mind.
Sound is energy and sound is not tactile.
Vibration is sound too and, though vibration is tactile, vibration is not sensed as sound. In gentle touch, such as when two fingers touch each other, man understands that as texture but not as sound or vibration, but only sound is present in gentle touch and when two hands clap. This implies that the sensation of texture is an illusion of sound and not real texture.
Through this understanding of consistency and texture, it is easier for man or woman to understand that they live an illusory life, just as the enlightened have indicated.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2016
Editor’s Note:
The craft and intelligence of life is exquisite. It is so exquisite that the sense of touch, though offering reality to the mind of man, when understood deeply and precisely by the enlightened, as presented in this article, is indicative of the illusory nature of the life that they believe to be real.
Julian Capper, U.K
German Translator’s Note:
Touch is the most intimate sense of all five senses. It is the sense which only functions with no distance at all. We can touch or be touched by a plant, a pet or a wild animal. Or another human being, like a friend, our or someone else’s child, or a total stranger. Only if we come very close, we touch each other. And touch is accompanied by many feelings and emotions, such as comfort or disgust. But now, the enlightened explain to us that touch is an illusion? How could this be understood? Thanks to Dr. Shankar’s article “Consistency“, the reader comes closer to a deep understanding of what “illusion“ really means: That life, though existing nevertheless, is nothing but light and sound.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.