Transpersonal Philosophy

  Mantra means spell. The most basic is Om, Satchitananda. It is the expression of the Cosmos, of Brahman. The spell of the Ananda of the Universe, the enchantment of Beauty. The Japanese writer Yukio Mishima said that whoever has seen Beauty with his eyes is condemned to death. It has been 43 years since I first read Mishima and his phrase continues to resonate like a mantric body. Dying for Beauty is not having to die again, paraphrasing Kabir. Whoever writes with the heart leaves a mantric body that resonates with Om... and remains as long as the Universe remains. Later it will lose itself in Silence, searching for Silence in order to find perfection. Today I want to offer you a fragment of the mantric body of Sankara (788 A.D.) his Nirvana Shatakam . I have sung it countless mornings of my life and it has given me deep joy in moments of pain. Nirvana Shatakam I am not the manas mind (ordinary mind), nor the buddhi mind (higher mind), nor the ego, nor th...

  Mantra significa hechizo. El más básico es Om, Satchitananda. Es la expresión del Cosmos, de Brahmán. El hechizo de la Ananda del Universo, el encantamiento de la Belleza. Decía el escritor japonés Yukio Mishima, que quien ha visto con sus ojos la Belleza, está condenado a muerte. Han pasado 43 años desde que leí por vez primera a Mishima y su frase sigue resonando como un cuerpo mántrico. Morir por la Belleza es no tener que volver a morir, parafraseando a Kabir. Quien escribe con el corazón deja un cuerpo mántrico que resuena con el Om… y permanece mientras el Universo permanezca. Despúes se perderá en el Silencio, buscará el Silencio para encontrar la perfección. Hoy quiero ofreceros un fragmento del cuerpo mántrico de Sankara (788 A.D.) su Nirvana Shatakam . Lo he cantado innumerables mañanas de mi vida y me ha dado profunda alegría en momentos de dolor. Nirvana Shatakam No soy la mente manas (mente común), ni la mente buddhi (mente supe...

  Following Patanjali we have said that Yoga is samadhi. And that the Yoga of Knowledge, the Ñana (Gnana or Jnana) Yoga, would then be “being the Consciousness of Samadhi”, which is a Consciousness of Bliss (Chidananda Rupa). Let's focus our Buddhi mind on samadhi for a moment. Sankaracharia, one of the great teachers of Hindu Advaita Vedanta, speaks of two types of samadhi: savikalpa (subject to differentiation) and nirvikalpa (not subject to differentiation). Savikalpa samadhi is the conscious state of “mind of Bliss” in which the Subject and the objects of knowledge maintain their own identity and difference from one another. With an example. Suppose you contemplate a rose and its beauty intoxicates you so much that your Soul transforms its configuration and you enter a state of absorption in Beauty. In this state of samadhi, you are intermingled with the rose, but the different identities of the rose and you are maintained. As Sankaracharia says, in this stat...

  Siguiendo a Patanjali hemos dicho que Yoga es samadhi. Y que el Yoga del Conocimiento, el Ñana Yoga, sería entonces “estar siendo la Conciencia de Samadhi”, que es una Conciencia de Bienaventuranza (Chidananda Rupa). Enfoquemos nuestra mente Buddhi sobre el samadhi por un instante. Sankaracharia, uno de los grandes maestros del Advaita Vedanta hindú, habla de dos tipos de samadhi: savikalpa (sujeto a diferenciación) y nirvikalpa (no sujeto a diferenciación). Savikalpa samadhi es el estado anímico consciente de Bienaventuranza en el que el Sujeto y los objetos de conocimiento mantienen identidad propia y diferencia de unos con respecto a otros. Con un ejemplo. Supongamos que contemplas una rosa y te embriaga tanto su belleza que tu Alma transforma su configuración y entras en un estado de absorción en la Belleza. En este estado de samadhi, tú te encuentras entremezclada con la rosa, pero se mantienen las identidades diferentes de la rosa y tú. Como dice Sankar...

  The study of Indian religions is a whole school of the Art of Being Human . The mythopoetic stages of humanity coexist and overlap in a way that is as fertile as it is chaotic. It would take at least a three-year course to initiate us into all the subtleties and doctrinal and devotional variants of those religions, a commitment that the vast majority of you would not be able to attend to due to the practical issues of life. I have been giving you some keys learned and matured in the last 40 years of my life, many of them synthesized in the “Path of Beauty”, a book that I intended to make simpler but that I see now, after several months of your reactions in the Blog, how it requires a whole arsenal of prior knowledge for its complete understanding. I would like the most direct and simple proposal of the book to be clear: let yourself be found by Beauty and surrender to It . I would also like it to be clear what the path of non-dual knowledge (Advaita Vedanta) consist...

  El estudio de las religiones de la India es toda una escuela del Arte de Ser Humano. Los estadios mitopoéticos de la humaidad conviven y se solapan de una manera tan fértil como caótica. Se necesitaría como mínimo un curso de tres años para iniciarnos en todas las sutilezas y variantes doctrinales y devocionales, un compromiso que la inmensa mayoría de vosotros no podría atender por las cuestiones prácticas de la vida. Os he ido dando algunas claves aprendidas y maduradas en los últimos 40 años de mi vida, muchas de ellas sintetizadas en el “Sendero de la Belleza”, libro que pretendí hacer más simple pero que veo ahora, tras varios meses de vuestras reacciones en el Blog, cómo exige todo un arsenal de conocimiento previo para su completa comprensión. Me gustaría que la propuesta más directa y simple del libro quedase clara: déjate encontrar por la Belleza y ríndete a Ella . También me gustaría que quedase claro en qué consiste el camino del conocimiento no dual (Ad...

  M usic is not just sound, in fact, sound is not really the foundation of music . Can a ballerina dance without sound? Of course, and it's still a musical experience. According to Leibniz , music is a n experience of the soul in relation to the order of time, performed by counting, albeit an unconscious counting process . Can we count unconsciously? Leibniz seems to suggest that arithmetic, or more precisely, the action of counting natural numbers, i s a fundamental mental process that occur s out of the focus of our attention. Therefore, unconscious counting , or better, our experience of the unfolding of order and harmony in the course of time, would be a full liminal action. It is an action in the limit, sub-limen action, and sublime action. It happens in the threshold of conscious formation, and therefore with a transforming potential for individual identity as no other art form has. There is a basic intuition of the experience of time that music and mat...

  What you had to hear you have already heard many times: you yourself are what you lack, you are That. You come to this Blog and other similar places seeking understanding, in the same way you seek sustenance or shelter. You are searching, because existence is Encounter and you have to say your verse. If you could see yourself with my eyes you would see that you are looking for the glasses you are wearing. Awakening is extraordinarily simple, in the long run it is inevitable: the Tripartite Soul falls in love with Beauty and surrenders. Your need for Ananda makes you seek infinite ecstasy. That ecstasy has already occurred, and continues to occur, it will not stop occurring, it is called the Universe. The Great Samadhi is not the dissolution of that form of the Volitive Soul which we call the body. Maha Samadhi is the continuity of Life and Death in a single ecstasy, exactly what is happening to you at this moment, this feeling of yours that you insist on veiling in y...

  Lo que tenías que escuchar ya lo has escuchado cientos de veces: tú mismo eres lo que te falta, tú eres Eso. Vienes a este Blog y a otros lugares parecidos buscando entendimiento, de la misma manera que buscas sustento o cobijo. Eres búsqueda, pues la existencia es Encuentro y a ti te corresponde decir tu verso. Si pudieras verte con mis ojos verías que buscas las gafas que llevas puestas. Despertar es extraordinariamente sencillo, a la larga es inevitable: el Alma Tripartita se enamora de la Belleza y se entrega. Tu necesidad de Ananda te hace buscar un éxtasis infinito. Ese éxtasis ya ha ocurrido, y sigue ocurriendo, no parará de ocurrir, se llama Universo. El Gran Samadhi no es la disolución de esa forma del Alma Volitiva que llamamos cuerpo. Maha Samadhi es la continuidad de la Vida y la Muerte en un único éxtasis, exactamente lo que te está pasando en este instante, este sentir tuyo que que te empeñas en velar en tu juego de máscaras. Deja caer la máscara, simpl...

  Where does our idea of Infinity come from? Certainly not from experience, which is all limitation, narrowness and bond. Is it then the result of a mere denial of the finite? A denial of the finite is still something finite. Only a continued and endless denial of the finite would qualify as a denial of Infinity, that is, the denial would have to become infinite. Therefore, Infinity is not the opposite of Finitude, since contrary things are understood one from the other, and Infinity is understood – when rarely it is understood - from its own nature. If it is neither an experience nor the result of a mere logical denial of the finite, Infinity must be a pure intuition. Kant spoke of space and time as pure intuitions, as conditions of possibility for any of our experiences. But if Infinity is not an experience, it cannot be associated with either space or time, since neither space nor time are conditions of something that is not in experience. Neither space nor time ar...

  ¿De dónde procede nuestra idea de Infinitud? Ciertamente no de la experiencia, que es todo limitación, angostura y lazo. ¿Es entonces el resultado de una mera negación de lo finito? Una negación de lo finito sigue siendo algo finito. Solo una negación continuada y sin término de lo finito calificaría como negación de la Infinitud, es decir, la negación tendría que hacerse infinita. Por lo tanto, la Infinitud no es lo contrario de la Finitud, pues las cosas contrarias se comprenden una a partir de la otra, y la Infinitud se comprende -cuando raramente se comprende- desde su propia naturaleza. S i no es una experiencia ni el resultado de una mera negación lógica de lo finito, la Infinitud tiene que ser una intuición pura. Kant hablaba del espacio y el tiempo como intuiciones puras, como condiciones de posibilidad para cualquiera de nuestras experiencias. Pero si la Infinitud no es una experiencia, no puede estar asociada ni al espacio ni al tiempo, pues ni espacio ni ...

  Open door, threshold, the limen is what is in between, neither one thing nor the other, the place of fuzzy psychological identities. We continually cross thresholds in our life experience: when we go to sleep and when we wake up, in interpersonal relationships and in our jobs. Some of these thresholds, especially those related to transitions from one period of life to another (from childhood to adolescence, from adolescence to early maturity, etc.) have a special psychological intensity, these are moments of profound transformation that occur to us spontaneously, and do not depend on our conscious desire to change. We find ourselves in full change, driven by the volition that directs our physical and physiological organism, and we then realize that the change is happening to us, and we think that it is an egoic act, the one directing it, we think that it is my will to personal power the one who wants the change, but that is a reactive thought, an af...