Who Am I?
This comes out of an on-line discussion on the Falling Away of Self interview. Someone asks if Rick was referring to the individual soul. Rick responds “It seems to persist from life to life, some …
Category: Philosophy
The Matrix
Awakening can be said to happen through the non-Self being “devoured” by Brahman or through the descent of the divine. It is not something we control or manage. Rather it comes as grace. We can …
True Victory
Recently, a friend sent me a quote from Swami Brahmananda Sarawati, a famous Shankaracharya from the Shankara lineage. He was the teacher of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and some other well-known teachers. I was not able …
The Mahavakya – Updated
When I previously wrote an article on the Mahavakya (great sayings), I used an old understanding, informed by a 70’s talk by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (before he was differentiating the Brahman stage) and common English …
The Three Jewels
In the west, individuality is king. Forging our own path, beating the competition, and success. However, this approach does not serve us as well on a spiritual path. There, we surrender individuality to discover our …
Ways of Knowledge
A comment On Truth lead me to some thoughts on knowledge. The first form of knowledge we have is stories we’re told as children and the feedback we get from others. Those turn into our …
The Sovereign Secret
Chapter 9 of the Bhagavad Gita is known as the Sovereign (Royal, Raja) Knowledge and Sovereign Mystery (Secret). What is this “secret”? Unless one recognizes divinity behind all things, we remain deluded about who we …
Our Fragmentation
Fragmentation is continually being brought about by the almost universal habit of taking the content of our thought for a description of the world as it is… Since our thought is pervaded by differences and …
On Samadhi
Samadhi is a Sanskrit term from the Vedic tradition that describes pure consciousness or pure being. Turiya (the fourth) or transcendental consciousness are other terms used. Samadhi comes from the roots: sama = evenness and …
Death of a Yogi
Recently I was reading a commentary on Chapter 8 of the Bhagavad Gita (Song of God). The chapter is called The Yoga of the Imperishable Absolute. One topic was the nature of death for a …
The Cause – Apparent vs Actual
Recently, I listened to a talk on jyotish (Vedic astrology). They spoke of the way Jain’s view karma. Jainism is an Indian faith based on non-violence and transmigration of souls in an eternal universe. While …
Sannyasa
Shankara was a well know revivalist who brought Vedanta back to the fore and reestablished a monastic tradition in India. But then the pendulum continued to swing and it came to be understood that withdrawal …