 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 all be downloaded for viewing and nearly all for printing. (It should be noted that their content often overlaps.) The files are mostly in 'pdf' format, which will require the Adobe Acrobat reader. In order to download, please click on the title. For Windows Internet Explorer, best to right click and then select 'Save Target As...' Similarly, for FireFox, best to right click and then select 'Save Link As...' Shri AtmanandaShri 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 - alternative version, The Nature of Man according to the Vedanta Immediate Knowledge and Happiness An e-mail discussion of Shri Atmananda's approach is reported in the following document: Some further information on Shri Atmananda may be found at: The Upanishads and the VedasFrom the Upanishads (279 pages, 537 k) The Upanishads - Asking for simplicity (15 pages, 73 k) The Upanishads - An introduction (14 pages, 142 k) Tradition and its modernizationWays to Truth - A View of Hindu tradition (183 pages, 751 k) Knowledge before printing and after - a view of the Advaita tradition (16 pages, 157 k) New science, old tradition (19 pages, 99 k) Knowledge before printing and after - LanguageLearning and language - Some classical ideas (13 pages 110 k) Levels of language - from an old philosophy (18 pages, 112 k) Language and science - Bhartrihari's questioning (9 pages, 69k) Old and new sciencesObjective science and impersonal knowing (7 pages, 53 k) Scientific questioning (2 pages, 49 k) New physics and old sciences (9 pages, 71 k) Physics and psychology (8 pages, 78 k) Scientific Disciplines (25 pages, 141 k) Old sciences in India - An introduction - 8.5 x 5.5" page size (124 pages, 420 k) Old sciences in India - An introduction - A4 page size (82 pages, 334 k) Space, time and cause - 8.5 x 5.5" size (15 pages, 131 k) Philosophy of a Biologist by J.S. Haldane (72 pages, 351 k) Advaita philosophyThree states and one reality - from the Mandukya Upanishad (8 pages, 58 k) Living nature (8 pages, 61 k) Where thought turns back . . . A skeptical approach to truth (15 pages, 119 k) Deep sleep: Causality and Consciousness (6 pages, 126 k) Ashtavakra-samhita (110 pages, 378 k) Short articles and verseQuestioning back in - some articles (72 pages, 236 k) |