Themes for Reflection Archives

The Identity of Self and the Supreme

Let us consider the question: ‘What am I?’ In the collection of Shankara’s writings called The Thousand Teachings, we find the answer to this question presented in direct and uncompromising terms. For example: I am the Lord, ever one and the same in all beings, beyond the destructible and indestructible principles, hence the supreme Spirit.…

How Appearance Arises from Reality

One of the gifts this Yoga can give to those who follow it, is the knowledge that all human beings are in essence divine, and this implies that they have always been divine and will never cease to be so. The picture man usually presents of varying degrees of domination or inefficiency is the result…

Conceptions of Consciousness

What is the conception of consciousness in the West? Awareness—awareness of something, awareness which lies inherent in the mind but which needs the co-operation of the mind and the sense-organs before it can function. Consciousness is thus perception, either mental or sensory, and is a distinctive characteristic of the mind. The idea that Consciousness could…

Seeing More: Appearance and Reality

The central teaching of Adhyatma Yoga is that if we calm and purify our mind through a spiritual way of life, we will arrive at a deeper understanding of the nature of ultimate reality. This principle is expressed in a response given by the Indian holy man, Shri Dada of Aligarh, to a questioner who…

On the Life of Higher Love

All human beings are born with an innate need to love and to be loved. Love is one of the two most precious urges of human nature— the other being the urge to know. Love means expansion. We do not like to have our experience confined to a fraction of the finite world. Nor are…

On Discovering Our Infinite Nature

Cover of Self-Knowledge Journal Autumn Issue

The chief purpose of the Yoga of Self-Knowledge is to awaken us to the truth of our essential nature. This truth is that our innermost Self is identical with the supreme reality that underlies and makes possible the universe. Our fundamental nature is infinite, imperishable, and transcends the conditions that apply to our physical and…