So .... not unlike Archimedes, I suppose, I was soaking in a bath last night. (I mean, warm water is warm water, whether appearing in 21st-century Colorado or in ancient Greece, right?) Though rather than pondering ways to measure the volume of irregularly-shaped objects, I was reading Shankara's Crest-Jewel of Discrimination. At least this was the plan. But on this particular evening, for …
Advaita Vedanta
The Tenth Man
There’s a lovely story – known as the parable of the tenth man – used to illustrate our propensity to overlook what’s most obvious. The inimitable Wei Wu Wei has even used it as the title of one of his books: The Tenth Man. The tale is typically attributed to the Upanishads, though I’ve yet to find a specific citation, so perhaps this part of it is apocryphal? In any case, for those who aren’t …
Absolute Certainty & Perpetual Transformation
To begin this essay—the latest in a series exploring certainty—let’s recall some questions lingering from a previous post, having to do with the relationship between phenomenal appearances and Awareness, in terms of their certainty: * Is it actually necessary that appearances are less certain than the Awareness within which they arise and dissolve? Is there no scenario in which they are, say, …
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A Caterpillar’s Thought Experiment
Imagine ... Imagine … that you are a caterpillar. Perhaps a plain green one, or perhaps you’re sporting fancy spots or stripes: green, black, orange, white, red or yellow. Or maybe you’re a furry black and brown one -- or one with colorful spikes -- but in any case, a caterpillar. You’re one of many caterpillars. Your world is filled with caterpillars. What you notice is that the caterpillars …
Only By Courtesy: Sankara’s Definition of Real
As of late, I’ve been enjoying a pair of books, toggling back-and-forth between them in a way that feels quite interesting and enriching. One of them—Insight into Emptiness by Khensur Jampa Tegchok—harkens from the Buddhist Madhamakaya tradition. The other—The Seven Great Untenables by John Grimes—expresses the view of Advaita Vedanta. So, I read a bit from one, then a bit from the other—as …
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Practice Notes: Distinction and Separation
There are so many interesting things to explore! And I’ve explored quite a few, thus far in my life—following the thread of my enthusiasm, what piques my interest, lights my fire. But in comparison to all possible things to explore—all the phenomena past, present, and future, in this universe and all others—clearly the explorations accomplished via this one body-mind are miniscule: an estimate …
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