Category: philosophical counseling
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How Can The Witness Be Identical With The Supreme Reality?
A keen disciple is speaking with his guru. It seems odd to the disciple that the witness of any jiva could somehow also be the same as the Ultimate Reality. So, in Vichara Mana Mala (“Jewel Garland of Inquiry” as translated by Sri Ramana Maharshi), the disciple asks, “How is it possible for even the…
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The Minimal Threshold For Relationship
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I’m sure that many people have noticed how some relationships have withered away while others, through attentive nurturance, have thrived. What makes the difference? In this post, I’d like to dig in a bit in hopes of espying something even more elemental than the question above–namely, what is the minimal threshold…
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How Can The Self Be Known?
We find a wonderful, and wonderfully illuminating, question included in Shankara’s poem “Atma Bodha,” or “Knowledge of the Self.” The poem is here translated by Sri Ramana Maharshi. The questioner, experiencing doubt, is deeply puzzled. “If,” he states, “the Self cannot be known by the intellect, there will be no knower to know the Self…
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The Mind, The World, And The Self In Ramana Maharshi’s “Who Am I?”
At the age of 22, Ramana Maharshi is already answering questions profoundly yet simply. In the short dialogue, “Who Am I?,” he is asked about the nature of mind (question 8). He replies, What is called ‘mind’ is a wondrous power residing in the Self. It causes all thoughts to arise. Apart from thoughts, there…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 