Life Skills for Inner Peace and Freedom
It is sometimes said that every person who comes into this world has their own unique contribution to make. Each of us has a special gift or talent, and, given the right circumstances—the right shaping influences—our gift will develop and flower. This way of thinking—that we all have something we can do that others cannot…
Read MoreStepping Stones
When we cross a stream on stepping stones, we have to watch every step. Each stone has its unique shape and tilt, causing us to vary our tread. Some stones adjoin each other; with others we have a small gap to mind. The stones are a blessing, conferred by our predecessors. They are also a…
Read MoreMeditation Practice: One Ocean of Consciousness Exists
A session led by the Warden at Shanti Sadan If someone discloses to us that they practise meditation, it is likely that the techniques they employ will differ from our own—such is the vast range of meditation options now available to us. But what most forms of meditation have in common is that we are…
Read MoreFinding Safety in Your Deeper Self
One of our main needs is to feel safe. Outer safety cannot be guaranteed, but there is a marked difference between living in a threatening environment, and one in which we are left in peace. A good friend with whom we feel perfectly safe is one of life’s greatest gifts—as long as we make our…
Read MorePrayer and Self-Knowledge
A discourse given at a recent meeting by the Warden of Shanti Sadan That which is unapproachable by the mind and which gives the mind the ability to think, that is to be known as Brahman, and not what people here worship as an object of the mind. Kena Upanishad 1:6 Let us consider the…
Read MoreA Wider View of Meditation: The Bhagavad Gita Chapter Six
The practice of meditation is most effective if we see all of life as a progressive learning experience. Sometimes a life dedicated to the inner enquiry is called ‘being a yogi’, and re-organising our lives to give the inner search first priority is called ‘becoming a renunciate’. This is the subject of the first verse…
Read MoreThe Garden of God
An Original Poem by Hari Prasad Shastri Subscribe or enrol for free guest access to read all of this article and Self-Knowledge online. Already subscribed or enrolled? Log in:
Read MoreSt Augustine and the Interior Light
St Augustine lived from 354-430 CE, the time of the gradual disintegration of the Roman Empire. He was born in north Africa, of parents either of Carthaginian or Berber descent and he lived all his life in north Africa, apart from two years spent in Italy when he was in his early thirties—years of importance…
Read MoreThe Passing and the Permanent
Reality is two-fold. One aspect is passing and the other is permanent. That which is passing is called phenomenal and that which is permanent is called Truth. What is permanent? Truth is permanent; consciousness is permanent; blissfulness is permanent. These are the three permanent states or values of our life which are called the spiritual…
Read MoreRealise Your Centre
Our body and mind function in the world of time, but the roots of our being are in eternity. We seem to be limited, but there is something in us which is not at all limited, and which is at the root of our being. Hari Prasad Shastri The seeming truth about human nature is…
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