Seeking Perfection Where It is to be Found
There is a river of knowledge That has no banks, no source and no mouth! It is light, pure light, and is hidden in every human heart. Swami Nirbhayananda The teachings on non-duality are concerned with our innate desire for ultimate and lasting fulfilment. They provide a way of practice which leads to peace of…
Read MoreSo how are things?
Throughout our life we are in contact with things, living or inanimate, many of which have qualities that help us to survive, and contribute to our pleasure and comfort. There are also things revealed by science which are too minute to be seen by the naked eye and do not have a form in the…
Read MoreMeditation—Success, Special Powers and Non-Duality
A recent online presentation by the Warden of Shanti Sadan Does non-duality offer potential benefits such as prosperity, success and special powers? According to these teachings, our true substance, our innermost Self, is not separate from the ultimate source of all—the supreme intelligence that underlies and pervades the entire world appearance. The path to inner…
Read MoreThe Inverted Tree
In the fifteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, empirical life is likened to an inverted tree, its roots above and its branches spreading out below. From the context it is clear that the tree is not being used here simply as an example of a living thing, but is meant to represent the way in…
Read MoreMore Light from Meister Eckhart
Meister Eckhart lived from 1260 to 1327 or 1328. He was a Christian spiritual teacher whose insights have much in common with those of the non-dual philosophy. People started writing down and preserving his advice probably when he was in his early 40s around 1300. Eckhart was born near Erfurt, in central Germany. He joined…
Read MoreA Verse by Shri Shankara
With a commentary by Hari Prasad Shastri That Brahman (the Absolute) who, though unborn, yet applying the Yoga of His divine power has taken birth; who has inactivity and motionlessness as his chief characteristics and yet who makes Himself appear endowed with motion and action; who is One-without-a-second, and who, to those labouring under the…
Read MoreShankara’s Response to Buddhist Philosophers
The Buddha came, about 500 BC, to formulate a simple path, the Noble Eightfold Path, to effect that final release from suffering that had also been taught by the seers of the Upanishads. In both traditions such release comes through transcendence—transcendence of the ignorance which binds us to the suffering inherent in bodily existence. The…
Read MoreThe Universal Form: Chapter 11 of the Bhagavad Gita
In the Bhagavad Gita the pupil is taught in many ways that the mind cannot grasp the supreme being, ultimate reality, as the mind is a detail within that reality, and the supreme being transcends all the qualities that the mind can understand. And yet, it is taught further that it is possible to uncover…
Read MoreThe Spirit of Zen
An autumn eve She comes and asks Shall I light the lamp? (Etsujin) The verse is full of deep spiritual meaning. The poet sits looking out at the fast-dying day, the last of all days, that so quickly, yet so slowly is passing. The autumn evening darkens and the poet’s wife comes to ask him…
Read MoreAids to the Inner Enquiry
The inner enquiry begins when we start to ask fundamental questions about the meaning and purpose of life, and, in particular, of one’s own life. There is a poem by Guru Nanak, and in every verse come the words: ‘Pause and consider’. First, pause: that is, consciously stand back from our activities, and then consider…
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