Common sense would have it that I can, and very often do, move through space. Is it true? What does the direct path teaching of Advaita Vedanta show?

Three Prakriyas, or Lines Of Inquiry

The First: Movement involves going from here to there. But there is not-here. So, the first question is: “Where am I right now?” The answer is here. The second question is: “When I am ‘not-here,’ where am I, actually?” I’m here.

I can’t leave here to get to not-here. It’s just not possible. “Not-here” is a concept, not direct experience.

But if I can never leave here, then I’m always here. Therefore, movement is impossible. I am beyond movement.

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The Second: Space is a physical characteristic. Therefore, whatever moves in space must also be physical.

The mind is nothing but thought. Does thought appear in space? No, it seems to unfold through time. Let’s allow this statement for now, as it’s enough to reveal that mind is not involved in movement. Besides, the mind, in direct experience, is not physical.

Now, what is the body in direct experience? It’s just sensation. Then ask yourself, “Does sensation move through space?” No, it rises and sets here. We never experience a sensation moving from here to there.

“But what about this tingle that’s running up the spine?” That’s a superimposition, not a direct experience. Thought says, “A string of rising and falling sensations is like a single thread running up the spine.” But thought is not the direct experience of sensation. Loosely speaking, it’s a story. Set it off to the side.

Sensation, then, does not move.

And what is the experience of the world? It’s nothing but perception. Take seeing. Is it ever your experience that seeing is moving through space? No, it’s only rising and setting here.

So, perception doesn’t move.

Then no experience ever actually moves. And I’m aware of all experience. I don’t move.

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The Third: It seems as if the body is moving through space. That is, it seems as if the world is fixed and stationary while the body, being ambulatory, is going through it. But the body, as Rupert Spira says, is (provisionally understood) nothing but a “collation of sensations and perceptions.” Let’s look at perceptions first, at sensations second.

Take perceptions. Doesn’t a single experience of seeing include both the colors and shapes “of the world” and the colors and shapes “of the body”? Yes, all in one composition. And does this single composition move? No, it simply appears and then disappears. So, perceptions don’t move. The body, being perception, doesn’t move either.

Take sensations. Does this tingling sensation go from here to there? No, it just appears, then disappears here. So, sensations don’t move. Then the body, as sensation, doesn’t move either.

So, the body doesn’t move.

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I, consciousness, don’t move. I’m continuously present throughout all objective experiences. I never leave myself.