Posts Tagged ‘Members’
What Did Descartes Certainly Know?
It is well-known that the philosopher Descartes, while searching for some truth beyond all doubt, observed: Je pense, donc je suis. He restated this idea in various places, once in Latin, as: Cogito, ergo sum. The phrase is widely known as The Cogito and is usually translated into English as ‘I think, therefore I am’.…
Read MoreGiordano Bruno, Friend of Truth
It is precisely among the heretics of every age,’ wrote Albert Einstein, ‘that we find men who were filled with the highest kind of religious feeling, and were in many cases regarded by their contemporaries as atheists.’ These words are well applied to Giordano Bruno, the Italian philosopher and poet, who was burnt at the…
Read MoreEducating the Mind
Men’s natures are alike. It is their habits which carry them far apart. Confucius The Chinese sage, Mencius, was once asked by a disciple how it was that while human nature is common to all men, some are great and some small. Mencius replied that the important point was habit—the habit of following either our…
Read MoreNicholas of Cusa as Scientist
The conclusion of an article on ‘Cusanus’ that was begun in the Summer 2024 issue of this journal Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), known as Cusanus, saw nature as a symbol of the Divinity. But what he asked of a symbol was not so much force and liveliness as clarity and certitude. ‘Nature’, he wrote, ‘is…
Read MoreDirect Experience of Reality
What is the chief concern of the non-dual philosophy? It is to awaken us to a life-experience that brings lasting fulfilment. This greatest gain is not the result of any worldly success or achievement. Rather, it is uncovered in the depth of our own being through developing a particular way of life and of thought.…
Read MoreThe Absolute as the Lord of Maya
From the Shankara Source Book, Volume Two, Shankara on the Creation The usages to which Shankara puts the term ‘Maya’ may be analysed briefly as follows. It is found in certain non-philosophical contexts in the non-technical sense of duplicity or dishonest dealings in the world, but these passages have no relevance to our present enquiry.…
Read MoreSeeing Beyond Differences
The practice of meditation involves both stilling the mind and filling the mind. The two overlap and have the same aim, which is to be free of what seems to separate us from what is most real and fulfilling in ourselves and in all. We find that stilling the mind relieves us of much tension…
Read MoreFinding the Divine Element in Oneself
The ultimate good news for us is to be reminded that we are more than the physical and mental being which we appear to be. If we were to literally dissect the body and the mind of a person, and continue to break it down into its constituent parts, what would we find? The same…
Read MoreThere is a Way to Freedom
The supreme benefit of regular and progressive meditation is that it brings to light an element of perfect freedom in our own being. This has been compared to the forming of an opening in our mind, through which the light and peace which are normally hidden in the depths of our being, may pass into…
Read MoreThe Ascent of the Mind
Notes of a lecture given by Hari Prasad Shastri Our aim is the ascension of the mind from its present state of alternation between turpitude, passion-struggle and equilibrium, into the higher state of illumination. The word ascension has no spatial connotation; it just means lifting the mind from one state to another. It is a…
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