Beschrijving

Part of the Preface
What a remarkable text to come before one’s eyes. There are so many revelations here that together uproot the edifice upon which the life of man and mankind has been (falsely) erected: an edifice of sand which, thankfully, falls under the weight of its own falsity. This falsity, starting from the most harmless, it seems, assumptions about man and the wonderful achievements of his mind and intellect, to the universally-held convictions about birth and parenthood, is undone meticulously in this chapter ‘Birth’. Where does this leave the authority of the Bible, with its allegory about the rib of Adam making woman, or the allegory of the Holy Grail, or the theories of evolution and the origin of the species, once held as Colossi in the Western world and beyond? This chapter does not just undo the false, it makes a gift to man of the most significant and sought-after point in his life – life itself, that is alive every moment. What a wonder!

The author’s understanding of mind and life is pure gold. Never has the place of mind in this creation been so perceptively and convincingly illuminated. To gain some understanding of the overwhelmingly attractive and forceful nature of mind and its deep imprint on man is a gift beyond price. To value mind is to drink a poison far deadlier than anything modern medicine can concoct. Mind, however, for all that, has no inkling of life, for it flirts with death: it knows only that which is dead and pretends it is life. Man is powerless to escape for he has no inkling of this deception. The wisdom that life gifts, on the other hand, will resurrect the daring man who accepts the gift – such is the birth of life that this chapter on ‘Birth’ brings forth.

It seems to be a natural instinct in life to attempt to overcome difficulties or tolerate them as well as possible; to find ways round them or pretend that they are not there. On the other hand, it also seems to be a natural instinct to regard whatever pleases us as a good achievement or a just desert. In this way, we find divisions in life and we swing between them, as a boat tossed on the swell of the ocean. These are the ups and downs in life that Dr Shankar illustrates so clearly in this chapter ‘Ups and Downs’. This, he says, is the world of mind and the ego – it has nothing to do with life. It is borne of expectation, hope and demand. The understanding that emerges throughout this chapter is that life reveals itself as it will – not to the mind or the ego – but to those who have the patience to understand. Fortunate are they who live with life and not in spite of life.