The Highest Refuge and Knowledge
The Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18: Part Two In the search for inner illumination, the Bhagavad Gita advises us against withdrawal from the world. The Gita teaching is not to give up active life, but to let go of attachment to our actions and their results. Giving up attachment to action means not dwelling on thoughts…
Read MoreSelf-Knowledge Journal – Spring 2024
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Read MoreThe Introduction to Shankara’s Brahma Sutra Commentary
The Brahma Sutras (also entitled the Vedanta Sutras), are a group of 550 aphorisms, divided into four books of four chapters each, but totalling only about six pages. The brevity is intentional, allowing the text to be easily memorized. Some of the sutras deal with certain specific Upanishadic texts and claim, against other earlier interpretations,…
Read MoreWinning Over Your Mind
Life expresses itself through the body and the mind. Yet there is something more—an invisible principle which is the ultimate source of the body’s energy and the mind’s awareness. Itself motionless, it seems to play no part in human affairs. It is therefore ignored, either unconsciously through ignorance of its presence, or consciously through disbelief…
Read MoreThe Non-Duality of Shri Shankara
Further extracts from H P Shastri’s essay on the Outline of the Advaita of Shri Shankara Moral virtues Let us consider the position of moral virtues in the non-dual teachings. In our practice, the inner life is considered more important than the outer life. Ethical living according to dharma makes the higher experience easier. A…
Read MoreMeditation – More than a Science or Art
For practical purposes, meditation may be regarded as both an art and a science. Like science, meditation is an expression of our desire for knowledge. In the case of science, our faculty of understanding is directed outwards, to the world. With meditation, our enquiry turns inwards, in order to discover a sure path to ultimate…
Read MoreThe Taittiriya Upanishad
Joy and fear have their play in every human life, and our natural tendency is to seek and increase that which makes us happy, and free ourselves from that which causes fear. The Taittiriya Upanishad is like a manual of the means to banish fear and secure the joy of lasting fulfilment. Its three sections…
Read MoreStandard of Morality
A spiritual person must be moral; it is both normal and natural. What conduct, then, is moral and what immoral? Or what constitutes morality and what immorality? Thousands of pages have been written on this difficult question, yet no two scholars specializing in ethics and philosophy agree. Love and reverence for Truth seem to me…
Read MoreThe Way to Lasting Fulfilment
How do we get the best out of life? Is lasting fulfilment possible in this uncertain world, where the only certainty is our limited life span and our eventual separation from all we know and love? The good news is that from time immemorial there have been teachings that show us how to transcend life’s…
Read MoreJust Two Words
‘Yes’ and ‘No’ are arguably the most important words in the vocabulary of any language. Like the power of the ocean, their range and application are limitless. Sometimes they slide across our conversations imperceptibly; or they may surprise and shock, vanquishing hope, or igniting new possibilities. Subscribe or enrol for free guest access to read…
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