“What right has a man to say he has a soul if he does not feel it, or that there is a God if he does not see Him? If there is a God we must see Him, if there is a soul we must perceive it; otherwise it is better not to believe.”
Swami Vivekananda
As a child I totally rejected religion. I must admit that a part of me did want to believe in God; I saw the strength and certainty it gave people. But the bigger (better?) part of me thought it all seemed so silly and nonsensical. Continue reading
“The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao” Tao te ching, verse 1
We don’t need to take spiritual concepts too seriously. They are there to guide us, to point us in the right direction only. The reality they point to cannot be described. When we start to take teachings too seriously we miss this point and start to become dogmatic.
“Any interpretations that are set up and established as truth become meaningless phrases” Bankei
I’ve met people who follow Advaita Vedanta who say that consciousness is what we really are, and others who say what we are is beyond consciousness. Both of these are useful teachings, but don’t take them too seriously, either one of them. Both are useful and untrue. If you take a single position as being true, then that is a belief. Your attachment to a conceptual truth indicates the belief in ego/individuality that underlies it. Continue reading
Ahh, the Ribhu Gita. Its words are uncompromising: they leap off the page, smack you in the mouth and leave you speechless (and thoughtless). At first glance the ideas it unfolds are preposterous. But this text is not meant for the mind. It is meant for the heart, it is speaking directly to that Truth that we already are and always have been. Continue reading
Tom Das 