Month: March 2021
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Atman And Anatta
According to a Wikipedia entry comparing Advaita Vedanta with Mahayana Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta holds the premise, “Soul exists, and Soul (or self, Atman) is a self-evident truth.” Buddhism, in contrast, holds the premise, “Atman does not exist, and An-atman (or Anatta, non-self) is self-evident.” This seems like a dubious “difference without a distinction” so long…
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Nachiketa’s Greatest Boon: Going Beyond Death
The Katha Upanishad is remarkable for its poignancy, beauty, and clarity. Poignantly does it describe a dialogue between a teenager Nachiketa and Yama, the presider over death. Nachiketa, afraid of death and rightly so, asks how he might go beyond death. What is clearly articulated are the whispers of a path. So: When the five…
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Samskaras And Thoughts: On Ramana Maharshi’s Fresh Approach
Yesterday, I sought to show that there is an especially close relationship between samskaras and Ultimate Reality. I’d like to expand on those reflections here. To do so, I return to Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi. A disciple, who is also a busy householder, is asking Maharshi about the role that meditation plays in realizing…
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Samskaras And The True Self
On November 30, 1936, Ramana Maharshi is speaking with a visitor at Ramanasramam. The visitor is wondering about how the nature of Ultimate Reality could have seemed to have forgotten Itself, and Maharshi supplies him with an answer to his question. And then things, by my lights, get really interesting. “Having heard this truth,” the…
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Inward Training (Nei-yeh): A Meditation In Two Voices
Translated variously as “inward training,” “self-cultivation,” and “inner development,” the Nei-yeh is an early Daoist work consisting, according to the translation we have followed, of 26 interconnected verses. Set out in these subtle, beautiful poems is a program concerned with aligning one’s posture, breathing, and mind with the Way of things. Some Daoist scholars, therefore,…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 