Categories
Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

Is it possible to end “the structure of me” totally or “the ego”?

Is it possible to end “the structure of me” totally or “the ego”? Why are we asking this question? Is it a business that we are doing? How do we do business? First we want to find out whether there is any possibility of profit in the work we are doing. If we see that […]

Categories
Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

Did you ever try to walk the path of Brahmacharya (sexual abstinence)? How successful were you at it?

Did you ever try to walk the path of Brahmacharya? How successful were you at it? What caused your failure or success? Why should I walk the path of Brahmacharya? Do I want to achieve something? What is it that I want to achieve? Some state of enlightenment? How is trying to achieve enlightenment something […]

Categories
Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

What are the shortcomings that you perceived in yourself, and how did they restrict your strengths?

What are the shortcomings that you perceived about yourself, and how did they restrict your strengths? Both, what you perceive as your shortcomings and your strengths are respective to a certain standard you have in mind. So instead of looking at shortcomings and strengths, let us look at how we come to create such standards […]

Categories
Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

At which stages in your life did you start questioning your own self?

At which stages in your life did you start questioning your own self? Depends upon how you are asking this question. Are you talking about questioning yourself negatively, as someone who is failing in some aspect of life or are you asking this question more as an inquiry into yourself, as to who you actually […]

Categories
Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

What is the best way to get self feedback?

What is the best way to get self-feedback? Your relationships are the best way to get self feedback. By relationships I mean, relationship to your work, to things, to people and to ideas. Your relationships will show conflict in different forms. All your feelings arise in relationship. You feel fear, desire, anger, hurt, pride, failure…..all […]

Categories
Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

How do I keep my intellectual growth constant?

How do I keep my intellectual growth constant? We stop growing in our learning because our brain loses energy. The modern life is very complex and demanding. We have no time for leisure, and without leisure the brain gets exhausted. It gets no time to rejuvenate ourselves. We are constantly running on this treadmill of […]

Categories
Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

What makes you think you have it all figured out?

What makes you think that you have it all figured out? This is an interesting question. Let’s look at the question itself. Let’s try to “figure out” the question itself. The biggest thing that needs clarification in this question is the smallest word “it”. What do you mean by “it”? Is it life, some subject, […]

Categories
Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

How exactly do you avoid fooling yourself?

How exactly do you avoid fooling yourself? Fooling oneself happens whenever we follow anyone. This anyone could be your parents, your teachers, your friends, a political system, a nation or a religion. Because whenever you follow someone you give that person authority to decide what is life for you. But as you can see, to […]

Categories
Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

A Dialogue on Love

What is love? Can love be defined as “it is this”? Can there be love when there is hurt, possessiveness, anger, jealousy, competition etc? A look at some of these questions in a dialogue

Categories
Advaitic Inquiry Pre-Witness Stage

Self inquiry: Have you questioned Death?

Self inquiry has its root in solving the riddle of death. Though most of us live in denial of this fact, it has the secret to the truth. No wonder this was a question which not only set me on my path of self-inquiry but also Buddha and Nachiketa in the Katha Upanishad, and every other inquirer across space and time. In this article, I describe my journey of self-inquiry with this question, interwoven with the other historical characters I have mentioned.

Categories
Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

The “Disturbing” Teachers on my Path of self inquiry – Part 1 (The Rationalist, Mathematician and Reader)

An article describing how my father was my first teacher who laid an impregnable foundation for self inquiry in me through his emphasis on rationalism, logical thinking and love for reading.

Categories
Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

If or When my Text Disturbs You? self inquiry

This was a breakthrough article for me. It starts out with where I left in my previous article, “The Play of Identities between the Reader and Writer : Rise of self knowledge. In exploring my relationship with my reader, in this article I discover that if I have any view-point, my whole writing is based on that viewpoint. I got an insight while writing this article that self inquiry cannot have a viewpoint to begin with.

Categories
Advaitic Inquiry Pre-Witness Stage Psycho-Philosophical Inquiries

The Play of Identities between the Reader and Writer: and the Rise of Self Knowledge

This article explores how a very subtle, complex and unconscious relationship comes into action between a reader and writer, in a seemingly simple act of reading. It further explores how being aware of this relationship can lead to understanding oneself deeply.

Categories
Advaitic Inquiry Pre-Witness Stage

A Life Lived in Entirety : Four Aims, Four Stages and Four Classes of Human Life – Part 1

An article which starts off with describing the various classifications of the ancient Hindu way of living and their relevance for the modern world. But I run into a self dialogue with myself about what is my viewpoint while I am writing this article. For the rest of the article I spend time exploring how my viewpoints are not fixed but fluid.

Categories
Advaitic Inquiry Pre-Witness Stage

Donning my new identity as a Philosopher – A Discussion on Evolution of Consciousness and Personal Identities

An article explaining how consciousness evolves in individuals through different stages as a change in self identity. I examine my own evolution and show that it is a universal model which was present in ancient Hindu culture as well as present in modern writers of the west such as Anodea Judith.