Tag: Inquiry
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Working With The Work: Who Are You Without These Beliefs?
A Workshop On Byron Katie’s The Work On August 23rd How Can’t I Help? In 1985, Ram Dass wrote a book entitled How Can I Help? The assumption, about the primacy of caring for others, is that we can. Could it be that this is the wrong question to ask, at least at the outset? Early in the pandemic, I…
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The Specific Meaning Of The Inward Turn
Ramana Maharshi states, “The Self is known to everyone, but not clearly.” All that’s needed is right here. The Self cannot be an object, nor can it be conjoined to one. This is because–to take but one distinguishing factor–the Self is continuously present whereas all objects appear and then disappear. Therefore, the Self is not…
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Am I Really Not The Doer?
Question: I’ve often heard it said that “I am not the doer.” But I don’t really understand this teaching, and, what’s more, it seems rather implausible, considering that, as an agent, I certainly seem to do things much of the time. What sense can be made of this statement? Let’s read carefully Shankara’s reply: 104.…
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A Philosophical Defense Of Byron Katie’s The Work
Philosophical Theses I’d like to offer a philosophical exposition and defense of Byron Katie’s process called The Work. My claim is that when one goes very rigorously through a large batch of beliefs (“belief” will provide one with that which will be tested through this 4-question directed inquiry), one could come to the following basic…
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‘Mind In Purity Is The Self’
“Mind in purity is the Self.” –Ramana Maharshi, Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi (ed. David Godman), p. 118. How can it be that the mind that has been purified is identical with the Self? To understand how this is so, we had better begin our inquiry with the question: “What…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 