Category: philosophical counseling

• February 11, 2023

  Neither The Wild Thyme Unseen Nor The Wild Strawberry: A Poem

  The first poem is an excerpt from Eliot’s Four Quartets, the second–a reply–my own. * I. From T. S. Eliot, “East Coker,” Four Quartets I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hopeFor hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faithBut…
• February 9, 2023

  Investigating The Fundamental Nature of Cit (Pure Awareness)

  We can take very seriously satcitananda: Being-Awareness-Peace. In the last post, I only began to sketch an account of how an inquiry into the body reveals sat, or Being. Today I wish to consider how an investigation of the mind reveals cit, or Awareness/Consciousness. Naturally The Question Arises Naturally, the question arises, “Who am I?”…
• February 8, 2023

  The Investigation Of Reality (Sat) Via An Inquiry Into The Body

  I. I Am The Body Idea Perhaps the most basic teaching in Advaita Vedanta is that I am the body idea is ignorance (avidya) and, being ignorance, is suffering. One can hardly underestimate how essential this point is. If I believe and feel that I am the body, then I take immediately on board the…
• February 2, 2023

  Eric Baret’s Bhakti Teaching

  Preface Even though Eric Baret states, in the spirit of the nondual direct path, that there is no teaching and that there are neither students nor teachers, each “teacher” nonetheless is like a facet of the diamond through which the Divine Light passes. If I may still use the word, then I’d say that each…
• January 24, 2023

  Dying Before Death: On Dying Consciously

  She related that the old man, then 100-years-old, had just come in from outdoors after he’d finishing chopping and stacking the wood for the winter. His face flush with life, he turned to his wife and, with eyes loving and gently determined, told her that he’s ready to go. “I’ll stop eating now,” he said.…