Month: April 2024
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Why Self-help Is A Dead End
Self-help is a dead-end because it’s going in the wrong direction. “How can I…?” is the wrong question based on the wrong setup. How can this conclusion be understood? 1. The separate, inside self emerges at the same time that the separate, outside world emerges. You can’t have one without the other. Hence, Ramana Maharshi…
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Worldliness Won’t End Suffering
1. You must understand, via a searching, deep inquiry, that dukkha is almost ubiquitous. This is true in two senses: you experience loads of discontent and thus long for contentment (ananda in sense 1). And you experience lots of disturbances, intrusions, agitations, volatilities, and restlessnesses and thus long for abiding peace (ananda in sense 2). …
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How Seeing Reveals You
When you squint hard, you’ll be able, for a short time anyway, to focus on a sight, one that may be at a distance. Notice that you’ll feel the sense of separation between you, the apparent seer, and the squinted at object. This is the gross level. Suppose someone tells you to relax and to…
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Where The Finite And The Infinite Meet
“[T]he knowledge ‘I am,’” states Rupert Spira in Being Aware of Being Aware, “is the experience in which the finite mind and infinite awareness intersect.” We can, in fact, find at least three privileged intersections: “I am,” here, and now. Do You Exist? If someone were to ask you, “Do you exist?,” then you would…
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What’s The Difference Between The Ignorant Person And The Sage?
The ignorant person and the Sage, let’s say, find themselves in the desert. Both see the appearance of a pool of water in the distance. The ignorant one, exclaiming “Finally, I will slake my deep thirst!,” runs toward it, only to discover that it’s a mirage. It’s actually just a heap of sand–just sand and…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 