Author: Tom Das

Eckhart Tolle: Your true self

~ Tom Das ~ 5 Comments

Lake sunset

‘You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.’
Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle p. 52

The truth is that you cannot know your true self. You are your true self – already. It’s difficult to put into words, but when you know who you really are, it is not the same as knowing how tall Mount Everest is or knowing what your favourite colour is. These worldly things are known with the mind, with thought, with the intellect. These things are known by ‘you’, the ego who knows, the false non-existent self. Your true self is not known in that way.
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What are the health benefits of yoga really?

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

stretching-498256_1280

As someone who has practiced yoga since being a young child, I would highly recommend it. There are so many benefits – even a relatively superficial physical practice can be transformative.

However I do get tired of reading about the endless benefits of yoga as a cure-all for everything from cancer to haemorrhoids.

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Guru

~ Tom Das ~ 4 Comments

the-scenery-679011_1280

Do you really think a spiritual teacher can teach you anything?
How can the guru really know what is right for you?
Every word of his leads you into further illusion,
Concept upon concept,
A field full of traps
– do not walk there!
– do not listen to him!

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Zen Teachings: The Four Kinds of Spiritual People

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buddha silver

“There are four kinds of people who study.
The highest are those with practice, with understanding, and with realization.
Next are those with understanding, and with realization but without practice.
Next are those with practice and understanding but without realization.
Lowest are those with practice, but without understanding or realization.”

Zen Dawn, J. C. Cleary

Practice, understanding and realisation are all important, but we can deduce from the quote above that of these realisation is the most important. Next in importance is understanding, and least important is practice.

How can this be? How can understanding be more important than practice? Isn’t it often said that an drop of practice is worth an ocean of theory?
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Jesus and non-duality

~ Tom Das ~ 4 Comments
Jesus appears to Mary Magedelene after his resurrection
Jesus appears to Mary Magedelene after his resurrection

Also see:

The Non-Dual Vision of Jesus Christ and the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi

The Sermon on the Mount According to Vedanta (Jesus, Christanity, Advaita and Non-Duality)

In non-dual teachings, the basic teaching is that the sense of self that we presume ourselves to be is a fiction. What remains after this is seen is a mysterious and ordinary sense of ‘divine oneness’. One ramification of this teaching is that we can learn to see that we are not the authors of our own actions even though we appear to be. This is known as non-doership. This teaching is often stated explicitly in non-dual traditions such as Advaita Vedanta, Zen, Dzogchen and Taoism.

In theistic traditions like much of Hinduism and the Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, non-duality is still expressed, but its form often differs. Continue reading →

How to connect with anyone

~ Tom Das ~ Leave a comment

Try this powerful experiment, with a loved one, a friend, a stranger…

“Studies say that 4 minutes of uninterrupted eye contact can increase intimacy. To test this this theory out, we brought in six pairs in different stages of their relationship and had them try it.”

So, how did you get on?

No ego

~ Tom Das ~ 3 Comments

meditation-857916_1280

If you say “spiritual enlightenment does not exist”,
You have denied yourself, and anyone who believes you, a route to end suffering:
“Suffering can end”, thus the wise ones have proclaimed.

If you say “you can be enlightened”, “your suffering can end”
Then by saying ‘you’, you are perpetuating the false concept of self.

Suffering can end, but your suffering cannot end.
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