Author: Andrew Taggart
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‘Why Does Consciousness Think That It Is Something Other Than Itself?’
This is word-for-word the question posed to Sri Atmananda on October 13, 1951. His reply: This is a question very often asked. Now, examining the question itself, we find that it is asked from the position that such an identification exists. And this question has also conceded the existence of body, senses and mind, besides…
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An Ego Is A Mistaken Identification With Some Object
Ego = Ignorance According to the nondual teaching, suffering is the result of ego, and ego is itself ignorance. And what is this fictitious entity called “an ego”? One simple way to define an ego is to say, with Wei Wu Wei, that the I mistakenly identifies itself with some object. (This is akin to…
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Waves Are Only Water: On The Dissolution Of The Subtle Duality Between Witnessing And Arisings
A Subtle Duality On the Direct Path, there can–and Greg Goode notes this both in his Standing as Awareness and in his Direct Path: A User’s Guide–be the understanding that (1) there is Witnessing Awareness, which is none other than the background of all experience, as well as (2) arisings (touching, tasting, seeing, hearing, smelling,…
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Unreal Causation In Advaita Vedanta
In his fantastic book The Method of Early Advaita Vedanta: A Study of Gaudapada, Sankara, Suresvara and Padmapada (2008), Michael Comans discusses perhaps the most basic question concerning the relationship between the One and the many in the thought of Advaita Vedanta. The puzzle comes, in part, from the nondual position that Brahman is both…
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How Can A Changeless Reality Undergo Change?
One of the basic questions for nonduality in general and for Advaita Vedanta in particular is: “How can a changeless, partless Brahman undergo change?” The basic answer would take us deep into an account of unreal causation. For now, let’s simply turn to Ananda Wood’s words from his Ways to Truth: A View of Hindu…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 