Category: philosophical counseling
-
Do I Have To Clean Up All My Psychological Baggage Before I Can Hope To Wake Up?
I have to Clean Up all of my psychological suffering before I can even possibly Wake Up. Isn’t that right? No, the Direct Path teaching would point out that that view is precisely courting ignorance: implicit in what’s written is the deeply held belief that one is a vigilant doer who must “do all of…
-
The Individual Has No Control Over The Content Of Experiences
Awareness naturally manifests Itself as the universe, and the universe flows forth spontaneously with all sorts of experiences. I, as an apparently existing individual, have no control over the experiences that arise. Thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and sense perceptions all arise spontaneously and subside just as spontaneously. Therefore, any attempt that I, as an apparently…
-
What I Am Cannot Be Disturbed
The teaching says that What I Am cannot be disturbed. How can this be understood? Objective experiences are (a) thinking and feeling (finite mind), (b) perceiving (the world), and (c) sensing (bodily sensation). What I Am is not an objective experience. I’m the Unseen Seer (The Upanishads). That is, I can never find Myself as an objective…
-
Meditation Is Just Letting Each Experience Be
Meditation is simply letting each experience be. Each experience is gently welcomed and, accordingly, is allowed to unfold however it does. There is thus no struggle, no fight, no resistance. There’s neither liking nor disliking. There’s no desire to change the experience nor is there any fear that the experience will last forever. If there…
-
The Lila View Of Suffering: Being Captivated By The Role
The standard view of suffering is that, well, it’s bad and that anyone who knows that it’s bad would want it to end. The Dalai Lama puts the standard view well when he states, “Nobody wants to suffer, and everyone wants to be happy.” The lila view of suffering, as I’ll call it here, turns…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 