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Learning to Meditate (1.5 hrs, with Andrew)
The approach I take stands upon three pillars: Cleaning Up our psychological baggage (what other, premodern traditions would call “purification”); studying sacred texts with the aim of coming to intellectual understanding of the metaphysical doctrine (this is called manana–“pondering,” “reflecting,” or “contemplating” in Advaita Vedanta); and diving deep into meditation in order to arrive at clear experiential understanding.
1. Cleaning Up
The latter term, borrowed from Ken Wilber, can be said to refer to skillfully opening to all the ego-selves inside with a view to disentangling your true nature from each appearance while also allowing each appearance to be slowly integrated into your essential being. Certain Western-style modalities like Focusing and Internal Family Systems can help to shed light on this process. I’ve developed a line of inquiry called “samskaric investigation” that seems to me to fast track our understanding.
2. Intellectual Study And Contemplation
Many Western spiritual seekers, in my experience, don’t have a deep enough grasp of the metaphysical doctrine upon which the nondual teaching rests. “Everything is oneness” or “All is consciousness,” while not incorrect, is nevertheless too vague. This is why Advaita Vedanta in particular invites us to study sacred texts, to listen to each with an open heart, and to use our intellect (buddhi) to contemplate what has been said. Does the teaching, as presented, make sense? Does it hang together? Does it answer the doubts thrown up by the mind?
3. Inquiry-based Practices
Inquiry-based styles of meditation are centered on the experience of wonderment, not on the strenuous efforts of the will. One is like a child standing, without knowing, before the first dawn.
There are two complementary styles of the Direct Path approach that I teach: one, elucidated by Sri Ramana Maharshi, is Self-inquiry (atma vichara); the other, spelled out by Sri Atmananda, is termed “the Direct Method.” Ramana Maharshi entreats you to investigate the nature of the I to find out, essentially, what you are while Atmananda encourages you to carefully inspect the world, the body, and the mind so that you can, through a clear understanding of direct experience, discover that each is made only of consciousness–that is, of your essential being.
The approach I take stands upon three pillars: Cleaning Up our psychological baggage (what other, premodern traditions would call “purification”); studying sacred texts with the aim of coming to intellectual understanding of the metaphysical doctrine (this is called manana–“pondering,” “reflecting,” or “contemplating” in Advaita Vedanta); and diving deep into meditation in order to arrive at clear experiential understanding.
1. Cleaning Up
The latter term, borrowed from Ken Wilber, can be said to refer to skillfully opening to all the ego-selves inside with a view to disentangling your true nature from each appearance while also allowing each appearance to be slowly integrated into your essential being. Certain Western-style modalities like Focusing and Internal Family Systems can help to shed light on this process. I’ve developed a line of inquiry called “samskaric investigation” that seems to me to fast track our understanding.
2. Intellectual Study And Contemplation
Many Western spiritual seekers, in my experience, don’t have a deep enough grasp of the metaphysical doctrine upon which the nondual teaching rests. “Everything is oneness” or “All is consciousness,” while not incorrect, is nevertheless too vague. This is why Advaita Vedanta in particular invites us to study sacred texts, to listen to each with an open heart, and to use our intellect (buddhi) to contemplate what has been said. Does the teaching, as presented, make sense? Does it hang together? Does it answer the doubts thrown up by the mind?
3. Inquiry-based Practices
Inquiry-based styles of meditation are centered on the experience of wonderment, not on the strenuous efforts of the will. One is like a child standing, without knowing, before the first dawn.
There are two complementary styles of the Direct Path approach that I teach: one, elucidated by Sri Ramana Maharshi, is Self-inquiry (atma vichara); the other, spelled out by Sri Atmananda, is termed “the Direct Method.” Ramana Maharshi entreats you to investigate the nature of the I to find out, essentially, what you are while Atmananda encourages you to carefully inspect the world, the body, and the mind so that you can, through a clear understanding of direct experience, discover that each is made only of consciousness–that is, of your essential being.