The Kybalion is a short and accessible description of the Hermetic teachings from ancient Egypt, which is being presented here with some commentary and comparison with non dualistic Indian philosophies. We immediately see the emphasis on a teacher-student style of transmission of knowledge and the need to carefully evaluate the readiness of the students.

Shiva is a very popular concept among all kinds of spiritual practitioners. It is pure nothingness, the substratum from which everything arises and to which everything falls back. Why is a yogi trying to become like Shiva? What is the significance of such practices? Why so much mystery? We will informally explore this highly interesting landscape of nothingness, which is Shiva himself.

To be established as the Being-Knowledge-Bliss, the mind needs to be killed. The Master reveals that the mind is only an illusion, movements, thoughts. It is a concept that points to ceaseless activity. To kill the mind, one needs to completely forget it. This statement needs some careful interpretation.

The individual mind is merely a concept, an idea, an assumption. There is no individual, except in the form of a temporary ignorance of the whole. Any mind, is always a group mind. An interconnected whole of potentially many.This realization turns our view of individual minds or a person, upside down.

The knowledge of the unity resides in the mind. But its tendencies are still operative, it still sees itself as separate from the whole. I, the ego, cannot be the oneness. The oneness is the dissolution of the ego. An awakened mind is no mind, or a pure mind, a completely still mind. The Master now imparts the teachings about liberation and how a liberated person is, how he acts, and what is his state of mind, or of no mind.

The Self is seen as the empty, conscious, blissful background of all experience. This is a solid realization. All that is being experienced seems less real now. Thus begins a new and transformed life, which is in light not in the darkness. Now the student is encouraged to cultivate the mind and erase the remaining latent tendencies in it. The fruit of which is the oneness, union or liberation while being in the world.

Renunciation is not about forcing yourself to get rid of everything you own, it is simply a realization that I never owned anything, there is nothing to own, there is no me to possess anything. And the Self is not concerned with owning or disowning, it is forever free, the owner and the owned are illusory ephemeral expressions of the Self.

What are the applications of occult techniques? What can go wrong when they are indiscriminately practiced? Why were they suppressed? Will they remain hidden forever? In spite of their power and effectiveness, such practices remain a double edged sword. However, there are some milder versions, which a seeker can learn and benefit from.

The techniques for manipulating the mind and to empower it, enhance it with various abilities, have been clubbed under the occult, and are generally called the left hand paths. Although they are condemned by great masters or traditions around the world, and were largely suppressed, they still survive, albeit in a corrupted and ruined form. These can be effectively used to bring the mind to a detached and desireless state very quickly, accelerating its evolution, but are ridden with danger and pitfalls.

Listening to the teachings provides the theoretical or conceptual knowledge, or the indirect knowledge. It forms a basis for reflection. We now start reflecting on the teachings about the Self. When all that is insentient, impermanent and illusory is seen as non-Self, the Self is seen as unchanging background of Consciousness. It appears as nothingness, a void, a space in which all experiences are taking place.