All That Comes and Goes Is Not True

Well… as long as we have the construct of truth and lie… how to explain? So it all depends on the framework, isn’t it? So, if we say ‘The coconut is green’ is it true or lie? If we take the content of our perception to be true then we can say ‘The coconut is green’. But is the content of our perception is true? True would mean what? It depends on the definition that you apply to it. Now in Vedanta, the definition is ‘That which comes and goes is not true, is not real.’ Now what happens to ‘The coconut is green?’ It’s green-ness will go. Then is it true or lie? So it depends on the standard of Truth that we apply, if we take perception to be true then coconut is green but if we are following the Sages, if we are following their pointing ‘That which comes and goes is not real’ then it’s not true. So, what is this ‘true and false’? It’s a mental bracket no? It’s an intellectual bracket as to where we are slotting things. So far we have considered, everything that we have thought and everything that we have perceived to be true. Now if we were to apply a filter like this ‘Everything that comes and goes is not true’ then what remains? That is the ‘neti-neti’ (not this, not this). What remains - so it all depends on which standard you want to apply. There is no such thing as true and false ultimately. All these are just distinctions in the intellect. But when we are riddled and suffering from our intellect then the Sages have given this antidote; that in your box of true and false only fill that which does not come and go as true, and know that all that comes and goes is false. That is the first aspect of this (of lie) of the mind what it is saying (is it a lie) ‘the coconut is green’? Perception, representative of perception! Can a thought truly represent perception in the first place? No, just very broad strokes. Like green is very broad, he is wearing a green shirt but those of you can’t see his shirt maybe visualizing a completely different green. Those of you online can’t see his shirt so if then I say ‘green’ it could mean very different things to each of you. The second aspect of this is - can a thought really represent even perception? I want to propose to you that you have never experienced the same thing twice. Like they say, the Greeks have said ‘You can never walk into the same river twice, never step into the same river twice’. In the same way, you never experience the same perception whether that is emotion, whether that is a pain, whether that is a pleasure, whether that is the world, you can never experience it twice. But in our thought constructs, they are limited, vocabulary is limited, so you keep putting it back in that construct. So then is it a true thing or a lie? Is it really green, what do we mean by green? So that is the second aspect. But fundamentally the most troublesome aspect which is the third aspect is - what it makes you out to be? Because there are very few thoughts like ‘The coconut is green.’ Even if the thought is very neutral (seeming like that) very quickly it is ‘But I prefer, yeah I like green coconuts no, green is so nice.’ And there is an invention of this mythical ‘me’ which is presumed in most thoughts or it is offered up to you (as consciousness) to presume yourself to be that in most thoughts. It makes you into something that likes green coconuts or doesn’t like it. That wants to move next to the beach because you like coconuts so much. It could just start like that ‘I like green coconuts, oh it will be so nice to live next to the palm tree. Maybe I should move to Goa.’ [Smile] And some people actually end up making choices, life decisions like this based on this kind of thought constructs, simple thought constructs. And even that (of course) are not real decisions. It is a play of how consciousness is playing. So the invention of the ‘me’ is dependent on these thoughts, these notions and that is why most importantly they are a lie because no such ‘me’ has ever existed.