In a short Video of 8:19 min conversation with Dr. R.L. Kuhn, Cognitive Scientist Dr. Donald Hoffman explains his approach to the Science of Consciousness and developing a mathematical model for precisely formulating equations with predictive power.
Link: Click here
I off and on referred in these columns to the exciting new Theory of Integrated Information developed by Porf. Giulio Tononi of Wisconsin to explain Consciousness (For example here and here). We have Dr. Tononi explaining the basic concepts behind the theory in simple words in the short Videos at the following links:
A few other very interesting topics related to Consciousness are also discussed in this series of Videos hosted by Dr. R.L. Kuhn.
Below is a compilation of two dozen + one of the Mantra-s/shloka-s from various shruti /smriti sources which form the Basic Foundation for the Concepts of Advaita. The selection is arbitrary and purely based on what appealed to me to be significant. Other learned seekers may like to add to or delete from or suitably emend this list in order to make it comprehensive and authentic. If any authoritative lists are already available in public domain (preferably online), a reference and a link to them will be appreciated. Continue reading
Dr. Subhanu Saxena posted the following message at one of the online fora. It has a link to a 1:30:41 duration Video where one can watch a demo of Vedic recitation and the meaning of the mantras.
Message from Subhanu:
“We recently gave the inaugural memorial lecture for our dear departed Dr Satyanarayana Shastri, a great Sanskrit and Veda scholar who did much to promote the study of Sanskrit, Veda and Vedanta. The event was organized at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan London last Sunday and together with my Gurus from Mattur we gave a very brief overview of the Vedas to provoke interest and inspire people to take up the study of our ancient traditions. The lecture is given below and the Q&A will be posted shortly. We hope you enjoy the talk. Please feel free to share it with anybody who you believe can benefit from it
Thanks and regards
Subhanu ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
[ Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti or more popularly known as UG was a “philosopher, a Non-guru, guru.” Though he used to claim “that the demand for enlightenment was the only thing standing in the way of enlightenment itself,” his close followers consider him to be a jIvanmukta. Krishnamurti himself often “referred to his state of being as the ‘natural state’.” Anon who is a frequent Commentator at this site contributes the following write up about UG’s natural state — ramesam.]
Anon writes:
For me to do a commentary on what U.G. has described as ‘The Natural State’, would be a very difficult thing as I would only be playing with ideas and concepts about what someone else has said, much like doing a commentary about what the Upanishads described. The closest thing would be to paraphrase some of the descriptions from what U.G. had said about it. Here is my feeble attempt:
UG makes a clear distinction between ‘states of mind’ and what happened to him. He refers to the totality of mind and all its maneuvering as having nothing to do with the ‘Natural State’. He made it clear that if anything had to be done, it was the stopping, not volitionally, of all attempts to gaining ‘understanding’, Continue reading
Q: “How to stop thinking?”
I do not know what this struggle about “stopping thought” is.
Everyone from the most intelligent to the dullest does it several times each night in deep sleep without any effort whatsoever!
It happens all the time when you are stunned by something sudden — a surprise, a life-threatening or life-enhancing situation, a beautiful object (person, scene, painting, art), in love.
Secondly, the world itself is a mentation (thought) — remember, the world includes your body-mind, mental thought etc.
Also, have you not observed that breath is closely related to thought — slow down breath, thoughts slow down; end breathing totally and thought ends – but that is called ‘death’ often. 🙂
Q: “Thought is more or less running my life, instead of me just being…”
There is a subtle but a great mis-understanding in that statement. Continue reading
Several times in the past we have had detailed discussions in these columns on the question whether a jnAni needed to continue the observation of some or other ‘practices’ after gaining jnAna (Self-Knowledge). We had also seen that there is a divergence of opinion on ‘ekajIva vAda’ both in the theoretics of the doctrine and also its relevance as a ‘prakriya‘ (a process system) for an earnest seeker.
At one of the popular traditionally oriented Advaita fora, I found a very significant Post that simultaneously touches on both the issues of (i) The ‘need’ of practices in the post-jnAna phase and (ii) ekajIva vAda as a prakriya. Without further ado, I reproduce below the authentic words of the Poster: Continue reading
[One of our esteemed Readers, Shri V. Madhava, has been kind to send an off-line message to me a few days ago saying “I enjoy reading your writings and just finished reading the article “Living in the moment eternally Part 2”. Wondering if there is a Part 3 as there seems to be a broken link…” Reason enough, I guess, to continue on with my chatter — ramesam.]
Let us recall that living in the Now is an important trait of a jIvanmukta. J. Krishnamurti wondered if we could have an experience but not record it in our brain as a memory so that all our experiencing will be ever in the Present, in the innocent Now, afresh and always anew from moment to moment. Continue reading
Man seeks refuge in philosophy usually when things are not working for him/her in the world. When s/he is desperate and exhausts all the means at his/her command, he searches for succor elsewhere, anywhere. Mind becomes palpably uncertain, agitated, and anxious in those times. The misery and sorrow that spring from having to helplessly watch the unsatiated hunger of their children, the endless destitution, disease and penury of their own, the daily grind of laboring in hot Sun for a pittance of a wage, the constant stress from the hawkish creditors who compound their struggles, make the parents desperately want someone who could tell them the purpose of their life and provide at least a ray of hope. Continue reading
dhyAna and samAdhi are quite fascinating, pretty alluring and romantically inspiring terms for an aspirant on the spiritual path. They are almost always spoken in a tone that creates an awe. They sound mysterious, other worldly and ethereal. Many stories are told in the Purana-s about highly revered Sages lost in deep meditation or samAdhi to the extent that they were unaware of their own body being buried in heaps of sand or eaten away by critters and crawlers. Hair-rising narratives too are often reeled out about the powers that dhyAna and samAdhi lead one to – clairvoyance, multiple accomplishments (aNimAdi siddhi-s), infinite longevity (ciranjIvatva), visitations to subtler worlds inaccessible to normal human beings and so on. There is hardly a spiritual Guru who does not harangue about the glories a seeker will be bestowed through practicing dhyAna and samAdhi. Some teachers would even make these as a pre-requisite before any true ‘knowledge’ is imparted. As a result, the words dhyAna and samAdhi acquired varying meaning. Teachers too historically used or interpreted them in different ways. We shall attempt to take a synoptic view particularly from a Non-dual perspective what these terms connote and their role and relevance for a seeker who has adopted the jnAna mArga (The Knowledge Path) in his/her pursuit of liberation.
The write up is structured as a Power Point Presentation downloadable as a pdf file at: http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/downloads/dhyAna_samAdhi.pdf. Continue reading