In this profound Saanen talk, J. Krishnamurti explores the nature of intelligence born of insight — an awareness that acts instantly and without conflict. He questions the conditioning that makes human beings seek satisfaction through conformity, ideology, or authority, and urges the listener to sustain a “flame of discontent” that leads to true understanding. When all patterns of comparison, imitation, and suppression are dropped, the mind becomes empty — not void, but free and alive. In that emptiness lies insight, and from that insight, spontaneous, unmotivated action arises — pure, immediate, and transformative.
Tag: Consciousness
When East and West Met Matter: Cārvāka and Epicurus on the Joy of Being Human
Long before science made “materialism” fashionable, two ancient traditions—India’s Cārvāka and Greece’s Epicureanism—dared to say that only the material world exists, that pleasure and reason, not gods or rituals, are the keys to human happiness. Yet, though they share a disbelief in the supernatural, they differ in spirit. Cārvāka celebrates life’s sensual immediacy; Epicurus refines pleasure into calm contentment. One urges us to taste life while it lasts; the other, to understand life so we can stop fearing it. Together, they remind us that meaning need not hide behind mysticism.
Where the Streets Have No Name: U2’s Anthem of Transcendence and Freedom
U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name” is more than a rock song — it’s a cry for transcendence. Bono imagines a place where identity, class, and faith no longer divide us; where names and boundaries dissolve into something pure and infinite. Born from the streets of Belfast and the deserts of Ethiopia, it becomes a universal hymn for freedom — spiritual, emotional, and human. The music itself seems to climb toward heaven, mirroring our own yearning to break free from limitation and live in a world, or a state of being, where the streets truly have no name.
The World is in Your Mind – Subjective Idealism
The whole world is in your mind. Ask yourself how and where you know that your body is there? Obviously … More
Spinoza and Shankara: When God Became the Universe and the Self Became God
What if the philosopher Spinoza and the sage Shankara had met?
Both, separated by continents and centuries, spoke of one ultimate Reality—an infinite, self-existent essence that manifests as all things. Spinoza called it God or Nature; Shankara called it Brahman. One reasoned his way to unity, the other realized it through inner awakening. In both visions, the world is not separate from the Divine—it is the Divine, appearing in countless forms. To see this is to be free, to live it is to be blissful. The rest—names, forms, selves—are but waves on the same ocean.
Advaita for Dummies
Is happiness really hiding in the next achievement, possession, or relationship—or is it already within you, waiting for the restless mind to pause? In this article, we explore 16 timeless questions through the lens of Advaita Vedānta and other wisdom traditions—questions like: Is desire poison or medicine? Is the waking world any more real than a dream? What does it mean to be in bondage, or free? Drawing from the insights of Vedānta, Buddhism, Taoism, and Stoicism, this guide simplifies profound truths and shows why “you” are not the doer at all—Consciousness alone is.
Why the Knower Cannot Be “Known”: Advaita Vedanta and the Hard Problem of Consciousness
The Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad asks, “By what can one know the Knower?” Modern neuroscience and philosophy of mind echo the same puzzle in the “hard problem of consciousness.” Instruments and theories can track brain states and behavior, but never Awareness itself—the very light by which all knowing occurs. Advaita Vedānta makes the radical move: the Knower is not an object of study but the Self, svayam-prakāśa, self-luminous. To seek it as an object is like the eye trying to see itself. Liberation lies in abiding as That, not in endless inquiry.
Para Vidya (Higher Learning) Vs. Apara Vidya (Lower Learning)
The Mundaka Upanishad divides knowledge into two streams. Apara Vidya embraces all sciences and arts—the brilliance of mathematics, the sweep of history, the beauty of literature and philosophy. These disciplines teach us about the world of names and forms, yet remain within the realm of duality. Para Vidya, by contrast, points only to the essence—Brahman, Consciousness, the clay beneath all pots. The first refines the intellect, the second liberates the self. To honor both is wisdom: to study the many with care, and to seek the One with devotion.
Layers of Truth – Philosophical Debate between Perspective Mapper & Sam, Mediated by Claude.ai
Is truth layered or singular? In this voice-led dialogue, Ranjit argues for levels of truth—conventional to ultimate—drawing on Vedanta, Buddhism, and lived context. Sam insists on “naked” nonduality: in the absolute, neither love nor compassion can arise because there is no second. Both concede a paradox: ultimate reality must speak through dual words, bodies, and choices. Meeting people where they are (upaya) becomes the bridge. Sartre’s freedom, Shankara’s clarity, and Christ’s command to love surface as touchstones. Finally, they converge: truth may be one, yet when it moves through the relative world, its authentic signature is love and compassion. Naturally.
The Simple Truth of Advaita
Advaita Vedānta insists that Truth is not complex but startlingly simple. It is not an achievement to be won, but the ever-present awareness in which body, mind, and world appear. Yet we miss it: the weak intellect assumes it is too difficult and looks away; the strong intellect insists it cannot be so simple and keeps objectifying it. Like mistaking a rope for a snake, our confusion persists until the obvious shines forth—I am that awareness itself. The simplicity is disarming only because it was never hidden.
Know Thyself 