नित्यानित्यवस्तुविवेकः कः ? नित्यवस्त्वेकं ब्रह्म तद्व्यतिरिक्तं सर्वमनित्यम् | अयमेव नित्यानित्यवस्तुविवेकः | * From the tattvabodhaH (1.1), Sri Adi Shankaracharya What is meant by the discrimination between the permanent and the impermanent? The Reality alone is eternal; everything else is ephemeral. This conviction alone is the discrimination between the permanent and the impermanent. Viveka (विवेक) is the ability to discriminate or discern. This ability is critical to seekers of truth. Without this discriminatory ability transcending the mind, body identification will be extremely difficult. What are we discriminating? We have to have the ability to discriminate the appearances of thoughts, feelings, sensations and emotions from ourselves.  We have to be able to discern the awareness in which these appearances appear,…