Category: philosophical counseling
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Neo-Advaita Vs. Rinzai Zen: The Paradox Of Effort
In a 2010 Buddha at the Gas Pump interview with Timothy Conway, Rick Archer and Timothy discuss, starting at 1:31:30, the errors in Neo-Advaita. To summarize almost verbatim: –There is no need to meditate. –There are no degrees of perfection on the path. –All “you” need “to do” is to realize that “you” are That…
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God And Emptiness
We have only two basic questions when it comes to merging with what is ultimately real. The first is: “Who am I?” The second is: “What is?” or “What is ultimately real?” One kind of spiritual seeker prefers “Who?” to “What?”; the other “What?” to “Who?” Both questions, being necessary, terminate in the same placeless…
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Contemplating Emptiness
A very beautiful meditation is called “contemplating emptiness” (no-thing-ness/boundlessness/openness). According to Chan master Sheng Yen, one simply allows the attention to fall on any object–a thought, a physical sensation, a perception, or an emotion–and then passes on, letting it gently go. Simply, one dwells in awareness, where awareness is “behind” and “beyond” agile attention. In…
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The Fourfold Process Of Discovering Who I Am
In the midst of an especially lucid exposition of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj’s teachings, Timothy Conway writes: The Maharaj’s quintessential spiritual way for any visitors and disciples ripe enough to fathom was awakening to this Universal Consciousness and even beyond that unto the Absolute Awareness or Open Divine Reality. The specific method was a radical disidentification from the dream of “me…
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Ramana Maharshi on “Who Am I?”
Yesterday I re-read Ramana Maharshi’s brilliant and clear “Who Am I?” It’s really an astonishingly limpid dialogue about self-inquiry, or self-abiding. The excerpt is quite short; you should read it in its entirety. Here, I comment on a very brief section: 5. Will [the questioner asks] there not be realization of the Self even while…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 