The Dynamics of Self
On a recent retreat, Lorne Hoff briefly mentioned the correspondence of individual and cosmic. It’s a useful note to make. As is described in philosophies like the Indian Samkhya, our personhood has a three-fold structure …
Category: Philosophy
The Upanishads
While I don’t generally talk about books I have not seen yet, I wanted to share about an upcoming book. In my last post I spoke of the 3 primary books of Vedanta: The Brahma …
Why Is There Pain?
This one requires a bit of an introduction. In the ’60’s and early 70’s, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi worked on translations and commentary on the Bhagavad Gita and Brahma Sutra. While he was urged to continue …
Awake – The Story of Yogananda
Last month, I attempted to see the film Awake – The Story of Yogananda but the show turned out to have been sold out for 2 weeks. Happily, they brought it back for a few …
How Important Is Your Spiritual Life?
This came as a message today from a local Unity church. Rabbi Ram Shapiro says “a growing number of people are not affiliated with any religious tradition and a third of adults under thirty are …
The Stages of Unity
In an online discussion, the subject of the stages of Unity came up. I thought I’d share the summary here, edited for context. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi compared the 10 mandalas (books) of the Rig Veda …
On Vedic Astrology
This came in a newsletter from jyotishi David Goldstein Ph.D.. As I mention jyotish occasionally, I thought it worth sharing. Every year, I try to set the record straight in my newsletter, in regard to …
Yoga in the Schools
India has recently announced they intend to teach Yoga in schools to celebrate their heritage. That is a beautiful thing. Yoga is one of the 6 darshanas or systems of knowledge. Broadly, they can each …
The Prison of Knowledge
Any teaching can be a prison – for the teacher or the student. Teachings are meant to be pointers, ways to guide the attention so that what it lands on flowers. A teacher may use …
The Common Enemies
Recently, there was a death in the family and a friend and Jyotishi, Phyllis Chubb, did a punya or death chart for her. This brought the unexpected realization that my relationship with the departed had …
Shankara – Before and After
Adi Shankara was a renowned Indian sage who consolidated Advaita Vedanta or non-dualism. He lived from roughly 788 to 820, travelling throughout India and re-establishing non-dualism and the value of monasticism. He wrote extensive commentary …
Karma and the Awake
A few weeks ago, I posted an article on Karma Post-Enlightenment. Since then, it’s become a very popular article but also the subject has come up several times in life events. I thought it worth …