The ruinous abdication by philosophy of its rightful domain is the consequence of the oblivion of philosophers to a great insight first beheld clearly by Socrates and re-affirmed by Kant as by no other philosopher. Science, concerned solely and exclusively with objective existents, cannot give answers to questions about meanings and values. Only ideas engendered by the mind and to be found nowhere but in the mind (Socrates), only the pure transcendental forms supplied by reason (Kant), can secure the ideals and values and put us in touch with the realities that constitute our moral and spiritual life. Twenty-four centuries after Socrates, two centuries after Kant, we badly need to re-learn the lesson.
~ D. R. Khashaba
[http://khashaba.blogspot.com]
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Seduced by the spectacular theoretical and practical successes of the objective sciences into thinking that the methods and criteria of those sciences were the only means to truth, philosophers sought to apply those same methods and criteria to questions relating to the meaning of life and the values that give meaning to life. Philosophy, especially the Analytical species prevalent in the English-speaking world, was broken up into specialized disciplines and fragmented into particular problems, all swayed and impregnated by scientism, reductionism, and relativism. All questions of meaning and value were consigned to the rubbish heap of 'metaphysical nonsense'.
~ D. R. Khashaba ]
[http://khashaba.blogspot.com]
~ D. R. Khashaba ]
[http://khashaba.blogspot.com]
Unless you make tremendous efforts, you will not be convinced that effort will take you nowhere. The self is so self-confident that unless it is totally discouraged it will not give up. Mere verbal conviction is not enough. Hard facts alone can show the absolute nothingness of the self-image.
~ Sri Nisargadatta
~ Sri Nisargadatta
Thursday, September 8, 2011
To describe the ego as "little" and the personality as "petty" is to look at it from outside, where it is lost among such a multitude of others; but to look at it from within the man himself is to find it vastly important, dominating his consciousness, a giant holding him down. It is there, and after all the verbal analyses which reduce it to nothing, its presence reasserts itself.
~ Paul Brunton
~ Paul Brunton
It is the presence of the physical ego in the wakeful state that paralyses all spiritual awareness therein. It is the absence of the personal and physical ego in the deep sleep state that paralyses all material awareness therein, too. By keeping it out and yet keeping in wakefulness, the transcendental consciousness is able to provide the requisite condition for an unbroken spiritual awareness that is not only superior to the three states but continues its own existence behind theirs.
~ Paul Brunton
~ Paul Brunton
It is only through silent awareness that our physical and mental nature can change. This change is completely spontaneous. If we make an effort to change we do no more than shift our attention from one level, from one thing, to another. We remain in a vicious circle. This only transfers energy from one point to another. It still leaves us oscillating between suffering and pleasure, each leading inevitably back to the other. Only living stillness, stillness without someone trying to be still, is capable of undoing the conditioning our biologoical, emotional and psychological nature has undergone. There is no controller, no selector, no personality making choices. In choiceless living the situation is given the freedom to unfold. You do not grasp one aspect over another for there is nobody to grasp. When you understand something and live it without being stuck to the formulation, what you have understood dissolves in your openness. In this silence change takes place of its own accord, the problem is resolved and duality ends. You are left in your glory where no one has understood and nothing has been understood.
~ Jean Klein "I Am"
~ Jean Klein "I Am"
Although the aspirant has now awakened to his witness-self, found his"soul," and thus lifted himself far above the mass of mankind, he has not yet accomplished the full task set him by life. A further effort still awaits his hand. He has yet to realize that the witness-self is only a part of the All-self. So his next task is to discover that he is not merely the witness of the rest of existence but essentially of one stuff with it. He has, in short, by further meditations to realize his oneness with the entire universe in its real being. He must now meditate on his witness-self as being in its essence the infinite All. Thus the ultramystic exercises are graded into two stages, the second being more advanced than the first. The banishment of thoughts reveals the inner self whereas the reinstatement of thoughts without losing the newly gained consciousness reveals the All-inclusive universal self. The second feat is the harder.
~ Paul Brunton
[Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 6: AdvancedMeditation > # 88]
~ Paul Brunton
[Notebooks Category 23: Advanced Contemplation > Chapter 6: AdvancedMeditation > # 88]
Thursday, August 25, 2011
nāyamātmā pravacanena labhyo
na medhayā na bahunā śrutena
yamevaisha vrņute tena labhyas
tasyaisha ātmā vivrņute tanūm svām
This Self is not attained through much exposition or acquisitive knowledge. Nor by fixing meaning in memory through the power of the mind. Neither through much hearing or repetition alone. Indeed, that Self which the seeker longs for, by that is the Self attained. Then that seeker’s own Self reveals its own nature openly, with greater eloquence than words. This Self excels in describing itself.
~ Kaţha Upanişad 1.2.23
na medhayā na bahunā śrutena
yamevaisha vrņute tena labhyas
tasyaisha ātmā vivrņute tanūm svām
This Self is not attained through much exposition or acquisitive knowledge. Nor by fixing meaning in memory through the power of the mind. Neither through much hearing or repetition alone. Indeed, that Self which the seeker longs for, by that is the Self attained. Then that seeker’s own Self reveals its own nature openly, with greater eloquence than words. This Self excels in describing itself.
~ Kaţha Upanişad 1.2.23
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
A thing becomes an illusion only when its reality becomes inferior to a higher reality that has already been found. Until then, it is still a reality. Only the sage has the strict right to call this world an illusion. If anyone else does so, such talk is mere babble.
~ Paul Brunton
[Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity > Chapter 2: The Cosmosof Change > #43]
~ Paul Brunton
[Notebooks Category 19: The Reign of Relativity > Chapter 2: The Cosmosof Change > #43]
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