The infinity that the mind thinks of is bound to be finite || (2016)

Acharya Prashant

3 min
48 reads
The infinity that the mind thinks of is bound to be finite || (2016)

Questioner: What if the ocean, we are thinking of as so immense, is not so immense?

Acharya Prashant: Good question!

The moment the ocean is a thought, it cannot be immense at all.

But you see, how you take things—I mentioned the ocean as a metaphor, as a dualistic image pointing to non-duality, and you catch hold of the duality so that you can conveniently escape the non-duality.

The intention of mentioning a dualistic image pointing towards non-duality was that you will use this dualistic image to enter non-duality and then you discard the dualistic image; the image of the ocean.

But instead, what did you do?

You latched onto the dualistic image of the ocean and forgot what the ocean was pointing towards. And now, the question is, "What if the ocean that we are thinking of is not so immense?"

Did we think of the ocean?

Is ocean really a matter of thought?

And if it is a matter of thought, certainly it will not be immense. And that’s what happens, that’s how you grow suspicious, that’s how you grow doubts, that’s how things change the moment you are out of this room.

What appears absolutely clear and certain sitting in front of me starts appearing very nebulous, the moment you are out of this room.

Why?

Because there is a certain flow here and the flow is so strong that it outpaces thoughts, it leaves no space for the flow of thought. The moment this flow stops, the flow of thoughts resumes. And now you have doubts. Doubts like these!

“Okay, So, he said that the ocean is infinite. Ah! But no ocean is infinite. Hence, I have proved that the speaker is mistaken.”

Was the speaker talking about oceans? Is the speaker a sailor?

What is my interest in the oceans? What will I do? Go fishing?

When I say 'oceans', do I mean 'OCEANS'?

God is forgotten, water is remembered.

And you must also see the danger here in sticking to words, the danger inherent in quoting somebody, the danger inherent in remembering somebody’s language.

In chemistry class, language is important. In fact, even English does not suffice there, so you have the IUPAC symbols. Here language is so secondary, here language is like the vehicles that brought you to this room. Somebody came on a bike, somebody in a car, somebody in an auto-rickshaw, somebody on the metro train. Language is just like the vehicle that brought you here, do you keep sitting on the vehicle? Are you still on the metro?

This article has been created by volunteers of the PrashantAdvait Foundation from transcriptions of sessions by Acharya Prashant.
Comments
Categories