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, …
[Read more...] about Absolute Certainty & Perpetual Transformation
There’s this thing called the serenity prayer, which you may already be familiar with. It was penned, originally, by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, and goes like this: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Eckhart & The Dalai Lama, too There’s something about this that I’ve always liked. …
Neither Inside nor Outside An exploration of the relationship between existence, Consciousness and Reality—compliments of Atmananda Krishna Menon ... 52. What Are Name and Form? And How to Transcend Them? Being attracted by the existence aspect of the Absolute everywhere, we start to examine what it is and immediately utilize our senses to do the job. The senses at once project their own …
[Read more...] about All Names Are the Names of Consciousness
This Q & A compliments of Atmananda Krishna Menon: What is the nature and object of perception? A Jnyanin [Sage] perceives the Absolute, diversified as objects. Ignorant men, identifying themselves with the gross body, perceive gross objects. Others, standing as mind, perceive only subtle objects. Jnyanins, standing as Consciousness, perceive only Consciousness. * …
Imagine a single snowflake, with its delicate crystalline structure—utterly unique from any other snowflake. As it drifts through the air, this single snowflake displays its uniqueness—drifting this way and that: serenely, beautifully, playfully. Now imagine this snowflake landing on the surface of a river, lake or ocean. The moment it touches the water, it melts. Its crystalline structure …
Skate On a sunny winter morning several years ago, I was riding with a friend through some winding mountain roads. Coming around a hairpin turn, we hit a patch of black ice, went into a tailspin, slid across the opposite lane, and took out a half-dozen or so fence posts before the trunk of a towering pine tree brought our wild skate to a thudding halt. The good news is that—though the car was …
[Read more...] about Perception, Reality, Fitness: Practice Notes
