Tag: Spirituality

• June 30, 2025

  Huang Po’s Uncompromising Direct Pointing Teaching

  The Zen master Huang Po (d. 850 AD), whose teaching can be found in The Zen Teaching of Huang Po: On the Transmission of Mind, gives you no conceptual handles to hold onto. In this regard, his teaching resembles The Avadhuta Gita, which is a deconstructive wrecking ball also. Huang Po won’t, just won’t let…
• June 25, 2025

  Ego In Two Senses: Covert And Overt

  Question: The nondual teaching says explicitly that the Self is not the doer, and yet I’m still hung up on being the doer. How do I go beyond this idea? Ego In Two Senses In what briefly follows, I don’t mean to suggest that ego “in the two senses” is anything but a stipulative distinction.…
• June 23, 2025

  Is Atmananda’s Direct Path Teaching The Same As Ramana Maharshi’s?

  Question: Aren’t Atmananda and Ramana Maharshi essentially saying the same thing, and can’t their direct path approaches be regarded as versions of the Witness teaching? Excellent question! And just the right one. In short: No! Atmananda’s teaching can be divided into “the lower” and “the higher.” The lower teaching employs the Witness in order to…
• June 21, 2025

  What, Really, Is Karma Yoga?

  One common misunderstanding of karma yoga would have it that it’s about being of service to others. While this view isn’t wrong per se, it largely misses the essential point, which is that it has to do with letting action come without resistance or fetishization while knowing that one is the eternal witness of all…
• June 20, 2025

  America’s Volksgeist And The Actuality Of Redemption

  In “Is America a Creedal Nation” (First Things June/July 2025, pp. 33-8), David P. Goldman offers a fascinating take on America’s Volksgeist. Just what is that glue, that something, that underlying creed that holds the American people together? Goldman’s answer: “Uniquely among the cultures of the world, it [American culture] is monothematic. It is obsessed…