Posts Tagged ‘Members’
The Way to Soul-Satisfaction
A storm rages outside. Snow, driven by furious wind, is falling on the earth. Probably in a day or two the storm may be followed by a sunny day. There is an inner storm raging in our being. The rain of desires incessantly invades our heart. In the event of acceptance of a desire, the…
Read MoreThe Supreme Spirit: Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15
Life presents us with a mystery and our deepest desire is to solve it. Sometimes the mystery presses on us as a question demanding an answer, at others as a vague feeling of incompleteness. The world proceeds in space and time according to the laws of cause and effect. The origin of all this is…
Read MoreThe Self as Bliss
Shankaracharya (c.700), the foremost authority on the non-dual teachings, had a contemporary called Mandana Mishra whose work called the Brahma Siddhi later became influential in Shankara’s own school. One of the aims of Mandana’s teaching is to defend the Upanishadic doctrine of liberation as the realisation of one’s true nature as infinitude and bliss. It…
Read MoreThe Alchemy of Happiness
The Muslim philosopher and sage, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-1111), begins his short book, The Alchemy of Happiness, with the words: ‘Know, O beloved, that humankind was not created in jest or at random, but marvellously made and for some great end.’ The book shows how this goal transcends the limitations of our life in the…
Read MoreThe Way to the Goal of Life
Part of a lecture given by Hari Prasad Shastri I offer you some practical teachings that, if applied in daily life, will enable you to discover the highest Good in the mind itself. There are two worlds: the external world extended and divided by time and space, and the inner world of thoughts, emotions, ideals,…
Read MoreFreeing the Will
It was fashionable, at one time, to divide the mind into a number of distinct faculties, like the will, reason and emotions. Immanuel Kant, for instance, speaks of the mind in this way. But since William James, Western psychology has come much nearer to the yogic teaching, which is that these different parts of the…
Read MoreContentment: How Much is Enough?
The practice of contentment is widely recommended on the paths to inner illumination. The Buddha taught that the way to freedom from suffering is freedom from craving. And according to the gospel, Christ told his followers that whatever happens, the best prayer is: ‘Thy will be done’. Contentment, or Santosha, as it is called in…
Read MoreGolden Opportunities
The human mind is the real wonder of the world, but its normal processes, however erudite and versatile, fail to yield lasting satisfaction, nor do they shed light on life’s ultimate meaning and purpose. The self-training prescribed by the yoga of self-knowledge rectifies this omission. Through the practices and way of life revealed by this…
Read MoreGerard Manley Hopkins
GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS (1844-1889) is generally considered to be a difficult poet, owing to the strangeness of his style and condensation of thought which obscures his meaning. But close study reveals the thought of a profound religious poet with the power to kindle the heart and uplift the mind of the reader. Hopkins was born…
Read MoreThe Inner Path to Fulfilment
A man once consulted a fortune-teller seeking to know the time and place of his death. He explained that such information would help him plan the rest of his life more effectively. The fortune-teller replied that none was granted that knowledge, for it was withheld by the Creator. The man pleaded: ‘Can’t you give me…
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