As the human brain which gives rise to his mind, evolved over thousands of years, it developed enormous intelligence and memory to such an extent that a lot of myths about the concept of existence have come to stay and practically been accepted by everyone.
While existence of any entity is a momentary mental phenomenon, the mind develops the concept of time with past and future to make it appear as if time is eternal. With uncanny ability making use of memory and intelligence, the mind extends the momentary existence to a non-existing past and an imaginary future, thus creating the concept of time. Similarly the mind evolves the concepts of space and matter aided by sensory perceptions to make the picture of existence complete. Once the picture of existence is complete, in a singular and mysterious development the mind disowns the fact that it is all its own making and treats the space-time-matter as absolute and existing independent of mind itself. This is the reason why every one finds it impossible to accept the truth that existence of any entity as such is a momentary, illusory and a mental phenomenon. However this truth was well known to many saints from Vedic ages in our sub continent. Sankara and Buddha accepted this truth as the basic premise in developing their philosophy and approach in life.
A friend of mine who is a physicist was not convinced about this truth at all. He argued – “What is the point in dismissing this world as momentary and illusory? Such an attitude shall deprive a person of any motivation to work hard and succeed in life. Further it is well established in Physics and also accepted by every scientist that this space-time-matter universe had been in existence for billions of years before man with his mind evolved on the scene and will also exist for billions of years after the human species becomes extinct. It is true that quantum physics has established that reality is caused by observation. But it has more to do with the position and movement of fundamental particles and in any case it is undisputed that the space-time-matter universe exists independent of the observing mind.”
I replied – “ It is ultimately your mind that concludes that the space-time-matter universe exists. So it is intrinsically a mental phenomenon only and can never be independent of the mind. However the fact remains that truth is an intensely personal notion. Just like the fact your mind is unique and different from the minds of other people, truth is also different for different people. You are entitled to your truth, just like I am entitled to mine provided you are quite convinced about your truth.”
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