Category: philosophical counseling
-
A Loving Critique Of Nisargadatta’s Ontology
The basic ontology we find in Nisargadatta’s late teaching consists of (i) the personality (or jiva or bodymind or body-identity) at the lowest level, of (ii) I Amness (or Beingness or Knowingness) at the second level, and of (iii) the Absolute state (or Parabrahman or the real, etc.) at the highest level. The point of…
-
Three Pillars And Three Spiritual Temperaments
In The Three Pillars of Zen, Philip Kapleau sets out, well, the three essentials of Zen or Chan practice. They are: great doubt, great determination, and great faith. I remember my Zen teacher saying that one doesn’t actually need all three legs of the stool; one–for him it was great doubt–was enough. I think we…
-
What Is Nisargadatta’s Understanding Of The Relationship Between Consciousness And The Body?
Confusion For years, I’ve found Nisargadatta’s discussion of the relationship between consciousness (“I am”) and the body to be somewhat puzzling. The standard Vedantic view is that the ontology is, in the apt words of Francis Lucille, a “one-way street”: whatever is lower is dependent on the higher while whatever is higher can’t be dependent…
-
Where Is Abiding Happiness To Be Found
1. If you feel in your very bones that dukkha is profound, pervasive, and central, then you’ll naturally long for liberation. 2. You won’t settle for “contingent happiness” (in the words of Shinzen Young) because contingent happiness will subside and then contingent misery will arise. And this is just more samsara. 3. To long for liberation…
-
Why Cognitive Therapy Can’t, Ultimately, Work: A Brief Note On Cleaning Up
An illustration: suppose you’re driving your car, and suppose a fear of being in an accident arises. Let’s say that you use some form of cognitive, or reason-based, therapy to talk this through. You might note that accidents, in some grand sense, rarely occur. You might note that you’re a meditator who is keenly observant;…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 