Author: Andrew Taggart
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What Is Direct Experience In Advaita Vedanta?
A technical–indeed, keystone–term in Advaita Vedanta is pratyaksha, which is translated as almost always “direct experience,” only on occasion as “self-evident” or “direct knowledge.” All translations in Advaita Vedanta refer to the same experience. The term appears in the nondual teaching of jnana yoga just when the question is put: “How am I to know…
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An Argument Against The Possible Existence of Ego
1. The ego is said to be the “mixing up” of the Self with the non-self. 2. Is this even possible? 3. If two things can be said to be mixed up, then there must be (at least) one point of contact where the first touches the second. 4. Consider: Does the Self (one experience)…
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The Ego Is A Logically Incoherent Notion
The ego is a logically incoherent notion. This can be demonstrated deductively. 1. What exists is either formless or formed (law of the excluded middle). (Ultimately, form does not exist, but for the purpose of this writing, we’ll presume that it does.) 2. The ego can be defined as a “quasi-formless” entity that can acquire…
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Your Inquiry Into ‘yourself’ Reveals Only YOURSELF
Once you contemplate “Who am I?” enough, you come to the conclusion that you’re neither the perceiver (of the so-called world), nor the gross body, nor the energy body, nor the mind. The most obvious candidate staring you in the face is that you are a self. And as you begin to contemplate this sense…
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The Self Cannot Dance
The Argument In Brief Death is a thought and thus is of the mind. All movements appear only in the mind. See clearly that all multiplicity and diversity–or, in a word, duality–appear only in the mind. The statements above set up the central going interest: to wit, the nature of the mind. The error is…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 