Methods of Contemplation

Aparokshanubhuti means the Direct Knowledge of the Self.

As opposed to paroksha, or indirect knowledge, aparoksha jñana is the self-revealing nature of the Self.

You know, the one you always and already have.

But through this riff on yogic practices, Adi Śankara (the attributed writer) leads us through the true meaning of the self-liberation of our nature - beyond cause and effect.

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The Yoga Vasishta is an epic text comprising of the discourse between the wise Vasishta (known as one of the first sages of Vedanta) and the prince Rama.

In this section, Vasishta instructs on the nature of the root of suffering as ignorance of the true nature of Reality. This ignorance itself is the cause of the appearance of the world as the source of our joy, and of our misery.

But when inattention is withdrawn from that which never arises, attention is held in that which has never subsided.

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It is said that if one could only study one Upanishad, it should be the Mandukya.

Even though it is the shortest of all, it contains the most concentrated essence of the Upanishads. If one truly hears, truly understands, and truly meditates on that which is contained in this one text - a fit student can be freed from suffering completely.

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The Upanishads comprise the knowledge portion of the Vedas, the oldest extant religious texts on earth. As such, they represent the richest distillation of the larger corpus.

The word Upanishad itself can be roughly approximated to mean "sitting near the truth" - evoking an image of listening to the oral transmission of teachings at the feet of a person of steady wisdom. And Isha is a term here used not liturgically, but philosophically: having a dual meaning of both Lord, and Self.

These texts are meant to rouse us from slumber and into the wakeful radiance of what's really going on here. To recognize "The Self in all beings, and all beings in the Self." and allowing sorrow itself to melt away.

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Hello, and welcome to Methods of Contemplation.

In the first turning of the wheel of Dharma, the Buddha lets us in on a secret:

Life, as most of us live it - sucks.

Or put more eloquently, the nature of existence is inextricably intertwined with suffering. Really, he's not telling us something we don't already know. But he does tell us how to get out of it.

And the first step, is to take refuge.

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Hello, and welcome to Methods of Contemplation

"Flourishing as they do, each of them will return to it's root."

In this excerpt of the Tao Te Ching, the master poetically and succinctly gives us the concentrated essence of the Tao - fearlessness, compassion, peace, and the shaking off of death.

The Tao is a perfect handbook for daily prompts for contemplation, but like many ancient text is usually most effective when read under the guidance of a teacher in the tradition.

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Hello, and welcome to Methods of Contemplation

A text lost and forgotten for over a thousand years, 'Thunder, Perfect Mind' was rediscovered in the early 20th century in the collection known as the Nag Hammadi Codices.

An unapologetic lance to the heart of dualism, Thunder speaks in the neuter and masculine. But overwhelmingly it speaks with the feminine voice to express the peak of non-dual wisdom, mirroring the deepest layers of the Rig Veda and the thundering speech of Vak.

Such a rarity makes this text a gem close to my heart.

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Plotinus is a figure much ignored outside the halls of academic philosophy, but was integral to the birth of non-dual wisdom in the West. In a western framework, he elucidates the core philosophy underlying Neoplatonism, a school that deeply informed early Christianity, and that has much in common with Paramadvaita.

In this passage, Plotinus perfectly threads together the beads of action, will, and knowledge into a telos for the direct intimacy of contemplation. He describes the essential unity of the perceptual triad of knower, knowing, and known - a realization that reflects consummate bliss.

In his words, "Everything is Contemplation."

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A Course in Miracles is a channeled text of non-dual wisdom that adopts the Christian lexicon to instruct all seekers of wisdom in the way of forgiveness.

In seeing every being as completely innocent, and thereby solidifying our own forgiveness.

For this lesson, the focus is concerning the ability of the Holy Spirit to reciprocate the small gift of our own self surrender to bestow on us healing, wholeness, forgiveness, and creativity.

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Often decried as a "heretical" Quietest, Marguerite Porete was a woman that dared to speak of her own direct intuitive experience of the Divine in a time when women were often held as incapable of genuine beatitude.

And beyond this - her beatific vision in many ways proved higher and subtler still than her male peers. For that she was sentenced to death by burning at the stake.

But her legacy lives on in these words that serve to guide us through the higher realms of spiritual pursuit, to the infinite wellspring of God itself.

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