Category: philosophical counseling
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Some Direct Path Experiments Pertaining To Doership
Suffering pertains to identifying the Self with the non-self. Common misconceptions include “I am the doer,” “I am the controller,” and “I am the chooser.” One way of disentangling oneself from these misconceptions comes through direct path experiments. Here are a few you can explore: I. Doer 1. Thought–Experience #1: “I am doing X.” 2.…
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‘The Separate Self Delights In The Sense Of Separation’
When, in 2019, my wife and I went on a retreat with the contemporary direct path teacher Francis Lucille, he said to the group: “The separate self delights in the sense of separation.” I was telling my wife recently: “It’s really sad that A and B are suffering.” And she said, “Don’t be. They’re really…
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Superimposition, Reconsidered
The classical Vedantic view isn’t wrong, but it does put the point rather “vaguely”: the body, it says, is “superimposed upon” the Self. What’s that mean, really? 1. The body, in the above formulation anyway, is really an idea. Hence, the usual formulation is: “I am the body idea.” 2. So, an idea–or thought–is superimposed on…
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How Do I Investigate My Feelings?
Dear S., 1. Any feeling–like sadness or fear–is only an apparent limitation of ananda (peace). Hence, the essence, or svarupa, of all feelings is peace. See that the latter is true–through a somatic experiential investigation. 2. Here’s how: With palms joined together, Andrew
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I’m Told That I Am Awareness, But I Don’t Think So
The statement–“I’m told that I am awareness, but I don’t think so”–is parsed in terms of superimposition. Superimposition: How It Works 1. There’s a habitual association between experience #1 and thought #2. 2. That association, in fact, is only announced in #2. You’ll never find that association, of course, in experience #1. Whenever there’s a…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 