Non-Duality—Preparation and Achievement
The greatest achievements are usually hard-won. The achievement that surpasses all others is the awakening to the higher self-knowledge. This is to realise, as a matter of direct experience, that one’s innermost Self is not different from the Reality which underlies the whole cosmos. Through sustained efforts and an ever-deepening interest in the goal, we…
Read MoreEndeavour to be a Sant
Whose bodies, minds and words overflow with goodness; Whose chief delight and satisfaction is benevolence to all beings; Who swell the merits of others to mountains when they are like atoms, And are ever fully pleased by the inner vision— Such sants are indeed rare. Bhartrihari A Sant* is not distinguished by any external signs.…
Read MoreResponding to Crisis
A recent talk by the Warden of Shanti Sadan At times of conflict and crisis, when we are faced with tragic and disturbing news, we ask, what can I do, how should I respond? There may be something practical we can do. If we know someone who is personally affected, we can contact them, to…
Read MoreThe Realisation of Brahman through Love and Knowledge
Knowledge in the sense in which Shri Shankara uses the term, means the highest knowledge, a supra-mental knowledge through a spontaneous experience of the Self as the highest good and supreme Reality. The otherness of the absolute Reality passes away like a dream, and the individual self (jiva) realises its essence in identity with the…
Read MoreThe Secret of Action
Action is held to be one of the traditional paths which lead to freedom, as are also meditation and knowledge, but you may need greater courage to start on either of the inner paths than you will to embark on the outer path of action. Action seems all too easy at first, especially to those…
Read MoreDance Away Your Limitations
The Skanda Purana is one of the great epic poems in the Vedic tradition. It includes the following story about the asura (demon) Bhasma, and hints at how to lead the mind from limitations to eternal freedom. This version formed part of a presentation given by the Warden of Shanti Sadan. The mind’s powers of…
Read MoreThe Perceptual World of the Individual
In one of Bishop Berkeley’s dialogues, two philosophers are looking at a distant castle, only a tiny speck on the horizon. They agree that they can both see it, but are unable to make out its doors, windows and battlements. From where they are, it looks like a small round tower pointing upwards on the…
Read MoreMeditation—Keeping the Mind on Track
A talk by the Warden of Shanti Sadan leading into a meditation session Those who meditate are well aware of the challenge posed by distraction, when our thoughts stray from the practice and turn to other things felt to be more interesting or pressing. This is not a conscious turning on our part; it just…
Read MoreOur Inner Philosopher
Reflections on The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius Boethius was a scholarly and respected Roman citizen who lived from about 475 to 525 AD. At that time, the Roman Empire was in decline, no longer able to control its far-flung provinces, and vulnerable to attacks from Gothic or Hun tribes, either combining forces or pursuing…
Read MoreFinding Joy
Ultimate joy depends on self-realisation, but the Self to be realised is not a phase of the body or mind, but rather the central pivot which makes all experience possible. At this level of centrality and depth, thought is transcended, and what subsists is the illumined sameness, referred to in the Gospel of St John…
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