Knowledge and Levels of Consciousness – SAND19 US

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Do we have free will? Is there even a “we” or is there no personal self? Is everything perfect just as it is or is or are there problems to be solved? Or is the solution to all problems the realization that there are no problems? Are we all already enlightened or do we have to “attain” enlightenment through years of practice? And how about practice? Does it reinforce the sense of a practicer—a personal self—or can it lead to liberation from the confinement by that sense? Are gurus passé, or should they still play a role in contemporary spirituality? Does non-duality—Oneness—imply that there are no degrees of spiritual evolution? Are all forms of life equally valuable?

All of these questions have been raised in interviews I’ve conducted, and usually not as questions. Popular spiritual teachers have asserted one or another position to the exclusion of its alternatives. I have usually responded with “yes but”. Nisargadatta Maharaj and others have emphasized the importance of culturing the ability to appreciate paradox—to accommodate contradictory viewpoints within a broader perspective. After all, Nature does this. Water can be a solid, a liquid, or a gas. Its components, hydrogen and oxygen, are both completely unlike H2O. They, in turn, bear no resemblance to their subatomic components. And so on. More fundamental levels of nature do not invalidate the more manifest forms and properties to which they give rise. Reality is different at different levels of Nature’s functioning, and likewise, knowledge is different in different levels of consciousness.

Brahman or God are said to be all-consuming—the repository of all relative realities, no matter how dissimilar. If we aspire to Brahman Consciousness or God Realization, should our perspective evolve to follow suit?

#118 Mythic Dharma

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A discussion on the story of the Buddha’s awakening and the dharma through a mythic lens.

Remembering Mark Dyczkowski

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It is with deep sadness we have learned of the passing Dr. Mark Dyczkowski, one of the world’s foremost scholars on Tantra and Kashmiri Trika Shaivism.

The Two Birds Within You

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This timeless tale, inspired by the Mundaka Upanishad and Shvetashvatara Upanishad, offers profound insights into the nature of our existence.

What Is Nonduality?

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There is diversity in appearance, but no actual separation

#66 Silent Light

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An anthology episode for Winter Solstice with talks, conversations, poems, and songs from SAND's past

The Disabled God

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The only thing more impressive than an all-powerful being creating the universe, is the lack of an all-powerful being creating the universe

Beyond Light

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The light which is beyond the light even in the darkness of the dark

#57 The Alchemy of Love

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A captivating conversation into divine and personal love with two modern-day mystics

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