Month: March 2021

• March 11, 2021

  The Mind, The World, And The Self In Ramana Maharshi’s “Who Am I?”

  At the age of 22, Ramana Maharshi is already answering questions profoundly yet simply. In the short dialogue, “Who Am I?,” he is asked about the nature of mind (question 8). He replies, What is called ‘mind’ is a wondrous power residing in the Self. It causes all thoughts to arise. Apart from thoughts, there…
• March 10, 2021

  Ramana Maharshi’s Almost-direct Path

  Yesterday, concerning Ramana Maharshi’s understanding of self-inquiry, I wrote something that I now see needs to be corrected: Here, I think that Ramana, committed to the direct path, leaves out what, I believe, is a preliminary step for many (but not all) spiritual aspirants. That preliminary step involves strengthening considerably the powers of concentration first.…
• March 9, 2021

  The Intimacy of Hearing: A Dialogical Meditation

  You can listen to the entire meditation on my YouTube channel, The Second Axial Age.
• March 8, 2021

  Ramana Maharshi On Self-Inquiry In 2 Sentences

  In the “Preface” to The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi, Arthur Osborne includes an elegant summary of self-inquiry in Ramana’s words: “It is not right to make an incantation of ‘Who am I?’ Put the question only once and then concentrate on finding the source of the ego and preventing the occurrence of thoughts” (p.…
• March 5, 2021

  Metaphysical Univocity And Neti Neti: Going Too Far

  One of Brad Gregory’s elegant arguments from Th Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society is that metaphysical univocity made possible the disenchantment of the modern world. Here is his summary: Despite cascades of (post-)Enlightenment propaganda to the contrary, the mathematization of ordinary natural processes could entail no exclusion of God’s alleged, abiding, mysterious…