X * 2 = 6

X * 2 = 6

Me once had a little math to do..
Two trains ( one a goods train and one a passenger train ) travelling at different speeds cross a pole , one after the other . Time taken by both the trains to completely cross the pole is given, and the question for the “nephew” in his bloody workbook was to find which train was the longest.

Because me was “reputedly” good at academics the brat took the problem to me , and worse of all in front of everybody. So me pretended to mumble and rumble , crossed me fingers and said it is of course the train one - the goods train- (which was god bless correct )

Now how did I arrive at the answer ? though in India there are more people than goods, oddly, there are more carriages to a goods train than to a passenger train! And LO there was my answer…nothing to do with any math. ( just for fun mate!)

All of us seekers boys and girls know what and why “it” is deemed illusionary , and yet , still a feeling that something “still” exists strongly persists.

If we take a look at one of snippets of wei wu wei , he says an entity cannot come upon the understanding that there is no entity , for it takes an entity to understand it ( that it is not)

We all know that self and thought are two sides of the same coin , and though we realize that thought or the thinking mind is illusionary , we feel that a reality exists---somewhere something.

Parallel to it we also seem to have a strong task in hand in doing away with the feeling of a self!

Now someone would say that task of “doing away with the self” too is part of conditioning. Let us not beat that track---its been - enough beaten.

Point is though we are able to dissect , analyse and also see through thought , we still feel something still exists ( a reality somewhere and something ELSE) and also we are not able to do away with the self , while very well knowing that self and “thought” are twins.

X* 2= 6

Though we know that x has to be 3 , we want to put it in neat logical /arithmetic steps! Like the problem was for 5 marks and unless we put in 5 steps the scorer/examiner will not give the full marks.

That there is something ELSE to thought/mind as a reality is a very strong feeling indeed. Adding to the fire are concepts such as “spontaneous movement of life” “ I am the present “ etc etc .

Then how do we cross this hurdle?

X * 2 = 6 means x = 6/2 no ?

Therefore we removed x the tricky part from the picture , got what was clear on the other side and let it answer x.

A shift happened , which eventually led to the “answer “ …like x – being answered , and not x answering itself!

A seekr could do with such a shift. Can put aside the riddle of the “I” for a while and focus on the understanding that he already has…the illusionary nature of thought.

Whether it(thought/thinking mind) is there …in the first place….whether his feeling that there is something else to thought is thought too.

And what does it “really” mean if his feeling that there is something else to thought is thought too!?

Once such a shift in questioning happens , as the masters says the bottom of the barrel, is bound to break! all the water , if any , just out! splash!

To end a quote from sosan
No past , no future NO PRESENT.

what the master says is not that there is nothing , but both something and nothing(both) are never present(reality).