Month: September 2024
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Just Be. Then Investigate. Then Just Be
The direct path teaching of Advaita Vedanta is shockingly simple: Just be. Yet when that doesn’t seem possible, investigate. Investigate what? Superimpositions. Consider: Take it that you’re taking your stand as the finite mind, from whose perspective there is “projected” name-and-form (namarupa), which projection makes it seem as if the essential nature of Reality is…
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You Need, Simply, To Stop Looking For Something Else
Dear B, This is the path of investigation (jnana yoga). Whenever you find something unclear, turn toward it and look at it. Your essential being is right here. Always. It is not something to be achieved, gained, or lost. You can seem to overlook it, but overlooking your essential being does not entail its disappearance. Even the…
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What’s The Relationship Between Jnana, Bhakti, And Karma Yoga?
Sometimes the question is asked, “How does the path of knowledge (jnana yoga) relate to the paths of love (bhakti yoga) and action (karma yoga)? One simple way of answering the question–but, surely, not the only way–is to first ask what your spiritual temperament predominantly is. If you’re reading this post, then it’s likely a…
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The Nature Of Superimposition
Swami Nikhilananda makes an excellent remark about the nature of superimposition in his translation of Sadananda’s Vedanta-sara (“The Essence of Vedanta”). A standard line about superimposition is that it involves veiling the real with the unreal. This is a bit fuzzy. A clearer definition is supplied by Swami Nikhilananda: superimposition refers to “erroneously attributing the…
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The Meaning Of ‘I Love You’
When you first say, “I love you” and mean it, you don’t yet know what love truly is. In fact, you can’t. It’s as if you need to allow the nature of love to unfold over the course of some, if not many, years in order for the power of love to be clear, to…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 