Category: philosophical counseling
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How Can A Changeless Reality Undergo Change?
One of the basic questions for nonduality in general and for Advaita Vedanta in particular is: “How can a changeless, partless Brahman undergo change?” The basic answer would take us deep into an account of unreal causation. For now, let’s simply turn to Ananda Wood’s words from his Ways to Truth: A View of Hindu…
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‘A Chicken’s Beak Held By A Chalk-line’: On The Illusion Of The Existence Of Egoity
Wu Wei Wu nicely summarizes the teaching of Zen and Advaita on the non-existence of the ego-self: If one seeks to rid oneself of, or even to transcend, a false self, ego, or personality, one thereby accepts as a fact the existence of such [an] entity and so-doing affirms its strangehold (a constraint can be…
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What Is The Difference Between The Soul And Consciousness?
Question: What is the difference between the soul and consciousness? Answer: 1. Non-difference There is a non-difference between the soul and Consciousness (which is usually capitalized). Synthesizing The Upanishads, The Brahma Sutra states, “And the effulgent Self [= Consciousness] appears to be different [from the soul] during activity, as is the case with light etc.;…
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How Everything ‘Gets Transformed’ Into Pure Consciousness
Out of compassion, Atmananda sometimes tells the earnest reader or disciple that every experience “gets transformed” so that it can be witnessed by Consciousness. Take the following representative example: “[T]he I-principle [one of his favorite terms for the Ultimate] is said to be the witness of thoughts. The ‘I’ cannot come down to the mind’s…
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How Can Atma Choose Who Gets Realized?
The Katha Upanishad states, “Only he realizes whom Atma chooses.” But how can Atma, which has no personal qualities, choose anything or anyone at all? Let’s listen to Atmananda: It is ordinarily said that a thing attracts one. It is not on account of anything done by that particular thing that it is said to…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 