Category: philosophical counseling
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Does Awareness Experience Pain?
Does awareness experience pain? No. Open to any bodily sensation. Notice that it’s just a pulsation of energy. A thought, a superimposition, might arise and label the sensation “pain.” Stay only with the sensation. Does it have any label “pain” immediately or directly attached to it? No. So, pain is nothing but a thought and,…
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Why Haven’t I Experienced Any Altered States?
I haven’t had any wonderful, non-ordinary spiritual experiences. Because of this, I doubt whether I’m on the right spiritual path or whether the teaching is correct. The Direct Path teaching is elegantly simple: you’re invited to investigate the nature of your direct experience. And you don’t need to go anywhere–to India or Japan–to do so.…
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Do Emotions Arise IN My Body?
Question: Fear arises in my body. Anger arises in my body. Anxiety arises in my body. But while at times overwhelming, many times they arise from a more loving space . As a first pass, one can say that “fear [as well as other emotions] arises in my body” (my emphasis). It’s true, at this level…
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Though The Image Of “Myself” Appears 10 Or 20 Feet Away, I’m Always “Here”
Would it make any difference to your understanding of your own nature if you were to look at an image of “yourself” that’s 10 feet away? 20 feet away? 50 feet away? The image of this body would get smaller and smaller, of course, but would any other, more elementary insight dawn? It might. When…
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Why Self-help Is A Dead End
Self-help is a dead-end because it’s going in the wrong direction. “How can I…?” is the wrong question based on the wrong setup. How can this conclusion be understood? 1. The separate, inside self emerges at the same time that the separate, outside world emerges. You can’t have one without the other. Hence, Ramana Maharshi…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 