Category: philosophical counseling

• July 14, 2023

  From Dukkha To Samsara To Samskara To Maya To Moksha

  1. The first thing you may not have fully grokked is that you need to see whatever negative emotion or thought that arises as an instance of dukkha. Otherwise, you’ll continue to think: “Oh, I’m just nervous. What do I do about this instance of nervousness?” Or: “So and so and I are disagreeing. How do…
• July 12, 2023

  No Freedom Of The Will, Only Freedom Of Attention

  1. There is no freedom of the will; there is only freedom of attention. What we call “will” is just an experience-arising. And the latter just arises out of awareness.  Here’s Zen master Bankei addressing laypersons and monks in a Dharma talk: This Buddha Mind you have from your parents innately is truly unborn and…
• July 10, 2023

  Nisargadatta’s Negative Way Teaching

  Quotes from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj “You are what you are, but you know [you can only know–AT] what you are not” (The Wisdom of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, ed. Robert Powell, p. 95) “Before the mind–I am. ‘I am’ is not a thought in the mind; the mind happens to me, I do not happen to…
• July 5, 2023

  Why Do People Run After Worldly Happiness?

  Near the end of The Essential Anandamayi Ma, the theme of homesickness strikes a forceful chord: Question: Why do people run after material happiness? Mātājī [Anandamayi Ma]: You know this happiness from experience, and hence your question. But God is gracious and makes you see that this so-called happiness is not happiness. He kindles discontent…
• July 4, 2023

  Is There A Point To Trying To Alleviate Physical Suffering Only?

  Can one ever really help another being? The answer might seem as if it’s obviously yes, but in what sense can help of the highest kind truly be offered? In this connection, we might contemplate Anandamayi Ma’s reply to a disciple who pointed to the “karma yoga” of Mother Theresa: While it is obvious that Ānandamayī Mā agrees that alleviating physical…