A classic Zen story begins like a bad joke…Two Monks are
staring at a flag waving in the wind…
But, as it continues, it turns out the two monks are arguing
about the nature of the flag and the wind.
One asserts, “The flag is moving,” while the other insists,
“The wind is moving.”
Upon hearing this, an enlightened Master interjects, “Not
the wind, not the flag; Mind is moving.”
The concept of the endless chatter of the mind that clouds
our thinking is also common to Advaita Vedanta as well as Yoga. In those moments, we are deluded into a trick
of perception and perspective. As when we are sitting in a train that is
stopped in the station, and suddenly the train next to us begins to move, it is
almost impossible NOT to feel like our train is moving. Though our body does
not feel it, our mind literally tricks our neural pathways into “feeling” our
train move…
In Shankara’s Aparokshanubhuti, he has a series of such
deceptions borne out in a string of similes, though all repeating the same
concept. Namely, we are often our own best deceivers.
Abhreshu satsu
dhãvatsu somo dhãvati bhãti/
Tadvadãtmani dehatvam
pashyajñãnayogatah//
Just as when the
clouds pass over the moon, it too appears to move, so too on account of
ignorance does one see the Ãtman to
be the mortal body.
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