Advaita enquiry and educating disciplines

Advaita enquiry and educating disciplines

In what we take for knowledge, how far do we know truly? And how far is our so-called 'knowing' mistaken? How far is it a confusing pretence, where knowledge is mixed up with mistakes that we have made, through errors of perception and belief? These are questions that we sometimes ask, a little bit, so as to be a little clearer in our seeing and our thinking.

These questions are asked in an enquiry that's called 'advaita' or 'non-dual'. But, in this enquiry, the questions are not asked just 'a little bit'. They are meant to be asked so thoroughly that nothing else but truth remains. The aim is to find a truth which is completely uncompromised, by any mixture with untruth or falsity.

Advaita questioning thus starts in duality, by carefully distinguishing between what seem to be two different things. But the investigation is not meant to maintain some compromised mixture of opposites. Instead, it's meant to be pursued so thoroughly that it reflects within itself, back down towards an unmixed truth where no opposition or duality remains.

In the modern world, this kind of questioning has now become more open. The questions are now asked more directly, in ordinary language that is closer to our everyday lives. There's less appeal to the traditional authority of old religions. And there is more questioning of ordinary words and ideas that we use today, as we apply them to our common experience.

This is the approach of some writings that are presented below, about advaita questioning and its relationship to educating disciplines that we have currently inherited.

The writings may be downloaded for viewing and printing. (It should be noted that their content often overlaps.)

The files are in 'pdf' format, which will require the Adobe Acrobat reader.

In order to download, please click on the title in italics.
(For Windows, best to right click and then select 'Save Target As...'.)

Shri Atmananda

Shri Atmananda was a modern advaita philosopher who lived in Kerala State, India, 1983-1959. The writings in this website are inspired by his teachings. The following collection of notes on his discourses was published by a disciple, Shri Nitya Tripta:

Notes on Spiritual Discourses of Shri Atmananda
- with hyperlinks added to index and statements (518 pages, 2223k)

An e-mail discussion of Shri Atmananda's approach is reported in the following document:
Some teachings from Shri Atmananda (64 pages, 251k)

Some further information on Shri Atmananda may be found at:
http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/atmananda/atmananda1.htm

The Upanishads

From the Upanishads (279 pages, 518k)

Interpreting the Upanishads (219 pages, 464k)

Om - from the Mandukya Upanishad (11 pages, 66k)

The Upanishads - An introduction (20 pages, 75k)

The Upanishads - Asking for simplicity (15 pages, 71k)

Nature and consciousness
- Gargi questions Yajnyavalkya (26 pages, 100k)

Tradition and its modernization

Knowledge before printing and after
- a view of the Advaita tradition (16 pages, 79k)

Ways to Truth - A View of Hindu tradition (169 pages, 634k)
This book is published in paperback and hard-bound versions by D.K. Printworld (P) Ltd.,
http://www.dkprintworld.com

Knowledge before printing and after -
The Indian tradition in changing Kerala (138 pages, 573k)

Language

Language and science - Bhartrihari’s questioning (9 pages, 85k)

Bhartrihari’s Vakyapadiya - some excerpts (37 pages, 211k)

Old ideas of language (42 pages, 175k)

Levels of language - from an old philosophy (18 pages, 102k)

Old and new sciences

Old sciences in India - An introduction (82 pages, 427k)

Old sciences in India - summarizing
questions, figures and diagrams (20 pages, 289k)

New physics and old sciences (9 pages, 68k)

Space, time and cause (6 pages, 49k)

Educating sciences of life and mind (14 pages, 79k)