The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

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The Brihadaranyaka is the longest of the Upanishads and provides an in-depth account of how one’s innermost Self is identical with the Absolute as the one and only reality. Overarching the whole text with its three hundred-plus verses is the question: What is the nature of that knowledge which replaces our sense of individuality with…

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Nicholas of Cusa

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Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) was born in Kues (Cusa) in south-western Germany, and rose as an administrator, bishop and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as being a prolific writer, whose turn of thought and philosophical speculations remain of relevance to students of the non-dual teachings. The present article will focus on some…

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The Non-Duality of Shri Shankara

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Concluding our series of extracts from H P Shastri’s essay on the Outline of the Advaita of Shri Shankara Release (Moksha) According to the Advaita Vedanta of Shri Shankara, release (Moksha) is eternally true. By spiritual practices it is realised in our practical experience. Before an aspirant treads the path of Yoga he must cultivate…

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Lift Yourself by Yourself

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Most people value experiences that uplift the mind and make it feel better. To feel better is a vague and relative expression, so let us briefly identify some of its more worthwhile manifestations. These might include a feeling of lightness, where we are uplifted out of our worries. We may enjoy a sense of expansion…

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Who Are You My Dear One?

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The Thousand Teachings of Shankara, Part One, Section One Some of us come to the non-dual teachings with an outlook shaped by the belief that there exists a Supreme Being who commands our deepest respect and gratitude, in which case we may be unsettled if the non-dual teachings seem to question the validity of the…

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Totality of Experience is Vedanta

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Our life embraces the waking, dreaming and dreamless sleep states. There is something beyond these three states of consciousness. It is called Turiya, or the fourth, on which the three come and go, like waves and bubbles on water. It is known as the witness of the three. In Western philosophy the waking state is…

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Seek and You Shall Find

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One of the most significant aspects of the teachings of non-duality is that they insist on the active investigation of the highest truth. The message of all the great wisdom traditions may be the same, but it is not sufficient to rest content with blind faith in the greatness of the teaching or the spiritual…

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The Highest Refuge and Knowledge

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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…

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The Introduction to Shankara’s Brahma Sutra Commentary

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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,…

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Winning Over Your Mind

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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…

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