Tag: Inquiry
-
‘Cultivate Indifference To Everything’
In Astavakra Samhita, Astavakra states, “Cultivate indifference to everything” (X.1). With the help of the direct path teaching of Atmananda, we can easily grasp what “everything” means. By “everything,” we mean “experience” or “direct experience.” When we ask, “What sorts?” we then come to a very simple, and provisional, taxonomy: perceptions (the world); sensations (the…
-
Why I Can’t Know Myself So Long As I Take The World To Be Real
Ramana Maharshi’s “Who am I?” is such a wonderful text. Consider just one brief line of inquiry. A Dialogical Summary His interlocutor asks him about when Self-realization will occur (Question 4). Not until the idea that the world is real has been removed, replies Bhagavan. There can’t be?, queries the disciple. Nope, says Bhagavan. Why…
-
The Banality Of Evil, Revisited: The Horror of Just ‘Let[ting] Off Some Steam’
When we think of someone spraying bullets through stained glass windows into a Catholic church where young children are observing morning mass, we should feel horrified. In an effort to make sense of our horror, however, we should not resort to psychological categories like “mental illness.” If we do, then, sadly, we’ve failed to reckon…
-
The Mystery: Ego Only (Seemingly) When ‘Looking Elsewhere’
The reason our ego disappears when we investigate it in this way is that it does not actually exist even now, but merely seems to exist when we are looking elsewhere instead of at ourself alone. –Michael James, in reference to the teaching of Sri Ramana Maharshi (my emphasis) There’s something very peculiar about the…
-
Self-inquiry, Vivarta, And Ajata
Michael James has written a number of excellent long form essays (for example, here and here) about the ajata doctrine, the highest or ultimate nondual teaching according to Gaudapada, Ramana Maharshi, and others. The ajata doctrine states that there is no creation, manifestation, or origination. Being is only being. Period. I’d like to briefly lay…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 