Question:

Dear Ektaji, Is my understanding correct? At 6 pm, I keep my car keys somewhere in my house. At 8 pm, I want to go out. I am searching for the car keys, but can’t find them.

My mind’s story – I have kept the keys, so I must remember where I have kept them. Mind feels that the same experiencer is there in keeping the keys and searching for them.

My understanding – The experiencer (doer) who kept the car keys is different from the one who is searching. Memory creates an illusion of continuity, but each time a different experiencer arose and faded away, just like a wave rises and falls in the ocean.

 

Answer:

Yes, dear, it is absolutely spot on. Let’s dive deeper.

Just like the perception of the world [house + keys + person] is a temporary arising, similarly, the ‘I’ that claims to be the ‘doer’ or ‘experiencer’ in this world is a temporary arising. ‘I’ and the ‘World’ arise and fall together.

Attempt to see this truth that, moment to moment, the ‘present scenario’ appears and disappears.

• • Sight of the world appears and disappears.
  • Sound appears and disappears.
  • Smell appears and disappears.
  • Touch appears and disappears.
  • Taste appears and disappears.
  • Even the ‘I’ appears and disappears.

None is a continuous, permanent, inherently independent entity.

Moments of Nothingness are sandwiched in between two arisings, irrespective of whether they are perceptions, sensations, thoughts, or feelings. The temporarily arising intellect gets confused as it does not have the ability to interpret Nothingness. It is not available in the gap to record the gap of Nothingness. Hence, it fills up the gap with a story. This story is termed as memory.

So you are spot on! The doer of 6 pm and the experiencer of 8 pm are both different, temporary, dependent entities. The intellect that cannot understand Nothingness pulls up the 6 pm memory-story, which is unavailable in the Nothingness of 8 pm. It is interesting to recognize that the entire episode is only a mentalization.

• • The house, the keys, and the person are merely mental phenomena.
  • The idea of time, 6 pm and 8 pm, is merely a mental phenomenon.
  • The events of losing the keys and searching for keys are merely mental phenomena.

As the quantum scientists say, ‘We have never really stepped out of the mind’. All that is, is within the mind! It is only the illusion of continuity created by the memory that confuses. Step beyond and recognize the world is only mental!

Keep chugging! You are on the right track.