Philosophy
Although what we call spirituality may have something to do with nonduality, it is obvious that nonduality has nothing to do with spirituality. It’s not even an experience, and cannot be an experience, nor item of experience. Nothing can be known about it. And yet, people go to spiritual teachers, as if something can be…
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Is the world real? Why is it said by non-dualist teachers and sages of Advaita vedanta that the fact that the world of phenomena, of the senses and perception, is constantly changing, shows that it is illusory, whereas reality is unchanging, permanent? I asked this of Francis Lucille once. I said, “A candle flame is…
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“Pathological” – Francis Lucille, quoting his teacher Jean Klein, regarding U. G. Krishnamurti “The teaching mainly concerns the dying of the “I”, the “me”; then you are free from the psychological memory. Can this shift happen without crisis, or is crisis an element of it? In principle, there are no crises. But practically speaking there…
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“…a non-mental [material] world is inevitably abstract.” – Bernardo Kastrup “No question can be there regarding the time, place and cause of the origin of this world, for these themselves are part of the world, for these themselves form parts of the world. The question seeks to have an explanation of the whole in terms…
Read MoreMost of us have been asked at some point in our lives if we believe in God. We also at some point may have been put in a category of either an atheist, an agnostic, or a theist (in common culture more likely something like a “believer”). The definitions of these terms are (dictionary and…
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Let’s consider this scenario: It’s all or nothing: because there is no partial Self, and self-realization is not for persons (egos) or separate entities. Since there is no one anyway. No bodies. And “Mind” with a small “m” is synonymous with movement, as in “a movement and a rest” (Gospel of Thomas, 50). We could…
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For a most of the time when I was at university, I fantasized about being a philosopher, an esteemed future professor, with new grand theories of existence, and some massive book I’d author that shook the world (what an ego!). I was obsessed with questions about the nature of intelligence, the conceptual issues in psychology…
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Nor is it materialism…. But is it so obvious it’s not materialism? It will be obvious they are two sides of a mistaken coin, once you see it. First, some definitions. By “Idealism” here we won’t be meaning ethical or socio-political idealism (such as “living up to the ideals of a Judeo Christian ethically-based law”).…
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I make fun of birthdays (my “birthday” is today – this calendar date – when I’m writing this), calling them “Unborn Days”. To distill the logic to its essence (what philosophers like to do, though I wouldn’t pretend to be one, and certainly not a professional one) it’s like this: The theory, or the assumption…
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In practical mechanical affairs, cause and effect thinking can have utility. For example, your car suddenly loses power on the freeway. Using reason and your senses in a troubleshooting capacity, you can trace down the cause. Does the starter turn? Yes. That means there’s juice in the battery. The cause is not a dead battery.…
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