Author: Andrew Taggart
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The Finite Mind In Atmananda’s Reduction To Consciousness
One way of interpreting a particular line of inquiry in Atmananda’s teaching is to say that he is showing you that the penultimate step in the reduction to Consciousness is the finite mind. Let’s suppose that we take over Rupert Spira’s schematization from his book The Transparency of Things: perception (the world) can be reduced…
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The Sweet Flow Of Experiencing
Experiences aren’t things. When they’re not reified, they flow naturally and thus are fresh and innocent. Hearing is sweet, melodious, and receptive; sensing is effervescent; touching and tasting are sensitive; seeing is relaxed and expansive; feelings like sadness or anger gently roll without roiling. A separate self, coming after the flow of experience, is a…
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Things And Egos In Atmananda’s Teaching
In Atmananda’s teaching, we can pull out two basic areas of focus: the independent existence of things and the independent existence of separate selves. Both areas of focus are amenable to the same style of analysis. Pick any purportedly independently existing thing–for instance, dense, solid sensations in the chest that seem to indicate that there’s…
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Does Time Pass? An Atmananda-style Investigation
Does time pass? 1. Call to mind any thought directed toward some past event. Ask yourself: “When is this thought arising?” Settle into the self-evident answer: “It’s arising now–that is, in the present?” 2. Test: “When does any past-oriented thought arise?” Answer: “In the present.” 3. Go on from here to consider: “This thought seems…
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Each Thought Is A Dream
Each thought is a little dream. The first insight is that each thought cannot point to anything outside of itself. The second, which is just an implication of the first, is that each thought is “self-enclosed.” At this point, what’s disclosed is, as it were, the thought’s self-enclosed world. A thought is like an act…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 