Category: philosophical counseling
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Nisargadatta’s Long Teaching And His Shortcut Teaching
Question: What is Nisargadatta’s teaching? Nisargadatta’s Long Teaching: The Negative Way See the mind (or personality); go beyond the mind (or personality). See the body; go beyond the body. This brings about detachment. It also brings one to the witness state. Now, don’t nest here. Nisargadatta’s Shortcut Teaching: The Final Teaching Start at I Amness.…
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The Huatou As Torsion
A huatou, Chan master Xuyun (1839-1959), observes consists of the spoken word or words (hua) and of “the head or source” (tou). That is, a huatou–such as Wu or “Who?”–is a supreme, supremely charged, talismanic-like pointer, one that points immediately the source beyond words. Poetically put, the huatou’s immediate aim is to place one right…
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Atmananda On The Witness Teaching
Atmananda’s Essay “The Witness” I begin by quoting a very dense paragraph from Atmananda, one that opens his very short essay simply entitled “Witness”: No object can exist without getting recorded in knowledge. Sense-objects (sound, form, touch, taste, and smell), bodily activities, activities of the senses (seeing, hearing, etc.), and of the mind (thinking and…
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The Primacy Of Subject-Oriented TypesOf Meditation Over Object-Oriented Types Of Meditation
1. Begin by distinguishing between “object-oriented types of meditation” (OOM) and “subject-oriented types of meditation” (SOO). 2. OOM include–for instance–following the breath, reciting a mantra, counting to a certain number, and so on. 3. OOM can be beneficial inasmuch as they can help to cultivate concentration. 4. However, at some point, OOM must give way…
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What Is I Am?
Question: What is I Am? I Am is at the doorstep of God. It is not the Self Alone. It could be said to be luminous, intimate, yet mysterious Presence. Is I Amness the end of sadhana? No, I Amness is the beginning–the true start–that is almost but not quite the end. If you stop…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 