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 …
Category: Philosophy
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 …
Qualifying to Understand Vedanta
Vedanta means “End of the Veda” or the end of knowledge. It relates to the Unity through Brahman stages of development. As this places it several stages ahead of the average person, it is not …
What is Veda?
You may think of Veda as the records of an ancient culture of the Indus valley that spread east across the Ganges plain and the rest of modern India. You may think of the Veda …
Asana Is
There were 5 yoga studios within a few minutes walk of my old place. Did any of them teach actual yoga? Nope. Most of them were about fitness rather than union. Fitness is a good …
10 Reasons Why Gandhi Became A Hero
In the first year of this blog, I posted a summary of an article called Gandhi’s Top 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World. It was one of the more popular early posts here because it …
The Caveat
This blog has over 1,500 posts. It is packed with concepts. If you come here looking for concepts, you’ll certainly find them. But if you’re seeking spiritual awakening, it’s good to recognize that our concepts …
Cosmic
The word Cosmic comes from the word Cosmos, a word originated by Pythagoras meaning ‘order’ and ‘adornment’. “The Pythgoreans viewed the visible heavens as an ‘adornment’ of pure principles, the number of visible planets relating …
Forms of Love
I’ve written before on the power of love and the distinction between an identified emotion we call love and the deeper Love that is the flow of life itself. The Greeks classified love as having …
The Layers
Recently, friends have been corresponding about “the mystery”. Can reality be known or is it destined to remain something of a mystery, greater than self-knowledge? My position is that we can know it when we …