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...