Tag: Spirituality
-
Who Is Disappointed?
Let’s suppose that you feel disappointed with someone. Who hasn’t? If you’re generally reflective, then the first question you’ll ask will likely be: “Why do I feel disappointed in this person?” For a while, your considerations will have to do with what he or she did or did not do and with what sorts of…
-
The Mystery Of The Sense Of Being Myself
Let’s consider “Verse 23” from Sri Ramana Maharshi’s seminal Ulladu Narpadu or “Verses on What Is” (trans. Michael James): This body does not say ‘I’. No one says ‘In sleep I do not exist’. After one thing, ‘I’, rises, everything rises. Contemplate by a subtle mind where this ‘I’ rises. Undeniably, you have a sense…
-
What Is An I-thought In Ramana Maharshi’s Teaching?
The I-thought (aham vritti) is not at all easy to understand experientially–until you get it. To come to this experiential understanding, let’s move in a stepwise fashion: 1.) To begin with, a thought appears. That thought, which is indeed an arising, could be: “I am sitting here” or “I don’t like John” or “What a fine…
-
Externalized Attention Vs. The Inward-facing Path
Attention Let’s say, for now, that attention can be either “externalized” or “internalized.” By “attention,” I mean awareness in the mode of witnessing. Then “externalized attention” will refer to witnessing objects while being engrossed by and therefore “lost in” them. By contrast, “internalized attention” will, in actuality, refer to the dissolution of witnessing as it…
-
The Illusory Appearance Of Ignorance
The direct path teaching of Advaita Vedanta states very clearly that only awareness exists and thus that you are, and have never been anything other than, awareness. For most, the statement above doesn’t “ring true,” and so the teaching also needs to provide an account of the illusory appearance of ignorance, of “not getting it.”…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 