Tag: Advaita Vedanta
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The Bogeyman Fallacy In Spirituality
When you’re a child, you might, at some point, become afraid of whatever goes bump in the night and, in particular, of the bogeyman. For a while, you might close your eyes and hope that by virtue of your falling asleep, he won’t appear. But this won’t do since sleeping children could still be bothered,…
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‘I Am Not Of The World, Yet I Am In It’
‘I Am Not Of The World’ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They…
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Contrition As A Key To The Spiritual Life
What role does contrition or shame play in nondual spirituality? Perhaps an interesting one insofar as it could be a gateway. To what? So long as one takes oneself to be an agent, the teaching says, just so long are the fruits of one’s actions “one’s own.” Honesty, then, encourages one to admit, perhaps, that…
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Raja Yoga Vs. The Direct Path
The difference between the Direct Path of Advaita Vedanta and, for instance, raja yoga is that what the latter takes for granted is drawn into question by the former. Allow me to unpack this statement. Quite understandably, raja yogis will say, “You need to take these forms–the gross body, the energy body, and the mental…
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What’s So Special About Self-inquiry
What’s very special, it could be said, about Self-inquiry is that it’s an inquiry. But what sort of inquiry is it? Not, to be sure, a philosophical inquiry whose point is to come to unimaginable clarity in the mode of thought (see The Art of Inquiry). Usually, the conclusion of a philosophical inquiry is a…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 