Category: philosophical counseling
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Death In The West & In The East
Question: Assuming that we can even speak of “elders” today, what would you say is the wisdom of the elders? Specifically, what do they have to say about death? Two Theses 1. West–Death: “To philosophize is to learn how to die.” (The latter is attributed to Cicero who is paraphrasing Plato’s Phaedo.) 2. East–Deathlessness: To realize…
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What Is The Yoga Of Relaxation?
What is the yoga of relaxation? The answer comes in this beautiful and astonishingly hard-to-find book entitled Yoga: Art of Relaxation (1979) by Wolter Keers et al. A preliminary and only very partial answer follows: 1. The first suggestion the authors make is that we open to tensions. While the latter remains undefined, we could say…
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Don’t Make Spiritual Practice Into More Attempts To Get Rid Of Experiences
When it comes to something you don’t like, our deeply ingrained tendency is to want to get rid of it. Spiritual practice, however, will continue to fall into the same trap by subtler means if it insists that “by doing X or by opening to Y or by practicing Z, I’ll be rid of X…
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Why Don’t I Know The Self? It’s Due To Thought
Dear A, Ramana Maharshi’s Reply Sri Bhagavan admitted the truth of the disciple’s statement and pointed out why the Self, though obvious, is yet [apparently–AT] hidden. It is the wrong identity of the Self with the body, etc. D.: How did the wrong identity arise? M.: Due to thoughts. If these thoughts are put an end…
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Do Feelings Appear Outside Or Inside Of You?
Do feelings appear outside or inside of you? The standard, commonsensical view is that someone does or says something that causes me to feel this way. It’s as if the feeling were to appear at “the border” between outer act and inner, private suffering. If this view is correct, then we’d do well to change…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 