Evolution of Love 2

UNREALITY OF THE BODY

Rāma: In the inspiring account of Bhuśuṇḍa that you have narrated, you made mention of a body which has three different pillars, nine gates, etc. Pray tell me: how did it arise in the first place, how does it exist and who dwells in it?

Vasiṣṭha said: O Rāma, this house known as the body has not been made by anyone, in fact! It is only an appearance, like the two moons seen by one suffering from diplopia. The moon is really only one, the duality is an optical illusion. The body is experienced to exist only when the notion of a physical body prevails in the mind; it is unreal, but since it appears to be when the notion arises, it is considered both real and unreal. Dreams are real during the dream state, though they are unreal at other times; ripples are real when they are seen to exist, not at other times. Even so, the body is real when it is experienced as a real substance. It is only an illusory apprearance, even though it appears to be real.

The notion of ‘I am this body’ arises in relation to what is truly a piece of flesh with bones, etc., because of a mental predisposition; it is an illusion.
Abandon this illusion.
There are thousands of such bodies which have been brought into being by your thought-force. When you are asleep and dreaming, you experience a body in it. Where does that body arise or exist?
While daydreaming, you imagine you are in heaven, etc. Where is that body?
When all these have ceased, you engage yourself in diverse activities, playing different roles. Where is the body with which you do these?
When you besport with your friends and enjoy their company in self-forgetful delight, where does that body abide?
Thus, O Rāma, the bodies are but the products of the mind; hence, they are regarded as real and unreal. Their conduct is determined by the mind; they are non-different from the mind.

Vasiṣṭha continued: ‘This is wealth’, ‘This is body’, and ‘This is a nation’ – all these are notions O Rāma, which are the manifestation of the energy of the mind and which are otherwise illusory. Know this to be a long dream, or a longstanding hallucination, or daydreaming, or wishful thinking. When by the grace of God or the self you attain awakening, you will see all this clearly. The existence of a world independent of you or the mind is but the jugglery of the mind; it is nothing but the recognition of a notion as if it were a substance.

If a man resolutely seeks the source of the notions, he realizes consciousness; otherwise, he experiences the illusory world-appearance again and again. For by continually entertaining such notions such as ‘This is it’, ‘This is mine’ and ‘This is my world’ such notions assume the appearance of substantiality.
The permanency of the world is also an illusion: in the dream state what is really a brief moment is experienced by the dreamer as a lifetime. In a mirage only illusory ‘water’ is seen and not the substratum; even so, in a state of ignorance one sees only the illusory world appearance and not the substratum. However, when one has shed that ignorance, the illusory appearance vanishes.
Even the man who is normally subject to fear is not afraid of an imaginary tiger; the wise man who knows that this world is naught but a notion or imagination is unafraid of anything. When one knows that the world is nothing but the appearance of one’s self, of whom need he be afraid? When one’s vision is purified by enquiry, one’s deluded understanding concerning the world vanishes.