The Idea of Man The concept of the Idea of Man, 'Primal Adam' or 'Heavenly Man' in Hebrew, Christian and Theosophical traditions, and the teachings of Paul Brunton and Daskalos, 'the Magus of Strovolos'. By Peter Holleran. Why We Need a New Vision? Problems with traditional models of spiritual realization. By Peter Holleran. "Plotinus even delivers a warning, and he says [in The Enneads] that we must TEACH OUR SOULS....So right there he's warning us that we must have the correct doctrine, or we will misunderstand the experiences that we have...If you can ask an intelligent question, that shows that you already understand. To formulate a question precisely is already quite a feat of knowledge." - Anthony Damiani The Great Uniqueness The sage merges into and works for the World-Idea. From ego-I to "I Am." By Peter Holleran “The ego to which he is so attached turns out on enquiry to be none other than the presence of the World-Mind within his own heart. If identification is then shifted by constant practice from one to the other, he has achieved the purpose of life.” - Paul Brunton Not A 'One-Shot' 'Awakenings' are steps to Enlightenment. 'Enlightenments' are stages to liberation. By Peter Holleran "The sage is the flower, the blossoming of intelligence, throughout eons of time...It is the product of nature's strivings to bring about such blossoms. It takes a long time to produce a sage." - Anthony Damiani Ennui The passage through the wilderness. By Peter Holleran. “But first the disciple must pass through the complexity in order to exhaust the various possibilities until the awakening of the consciousness which leads toward simplicity: would he be able to bear the intermediate phase between his dream and reality.” - de Lubicz    The Greater Kingdom Appreciating the river of Intelligence that runs through all life. By Peter Holleran "Nothing I say can explain to you Divine Love, Yet all of creation cannot seem to stop talking about it." ~ Rumi Two Sprites Some seed-thoughts on worry and hurry. By Peter Holleran "In every life we have some trouble; when you worry you make it double." - Bobby Mc Ferrin Shraddha Faith is our True Nature. By Peter Holleran    “A thought of faith once awakened is the basis of the way forever.” The Primordial Ground: Part One Can man attain union with the One, or only with his Divine Soul? And, is there anything beyond Consciousness? By Peter Holleran "A fella ain't got a soul of his own, just one great big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody." ~  Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck The Primordial Ground: Part Two 'Relative polarities' mistaken for Reality; 'Emptiness'; and Non-dual enlightenment actualizing within relativity. By Peter Holleran. "Truth can be reached only through the knowledge of opposites." - Tenshin Sant Mat: A Comparative Analysis: Part One An exhaustive consideration in three parts: Traditional models of the path; psycho-physical anatomy; comparisons with yoga: Sivananda, Yukteswar, Yogananda, Ramakrishna; Radiant Form; Vedanta; Ramana Maharshi; Nirvikalpa; Sach Khand; Anami; Philosophy. By Peter Holleran. Sant Mat: A Comparative Analysis: Part Two NEW. A discriminating look at: Planes and Bodies; Sant Mat versus Buddhism; Sant Mat and Non-Dualism; Shabd Yoga as a Jnana Path; Simran, Spiritual Intuition, Inner Hierarchies; After Death: What Happens. By Peter Holleran. Sant Mat: A Comparative Analysis: Part Three Topics: Zen; Perfect Master; Omniscience; Advaita; Sahaj Samadhi; Liberation from the inner realms; Advantages of a Lineage; Elimination of Karmas; Kabir's Anurag Sagar; Kal; Relative and Absolute Teachings; Divya Chakshu vs. Jnana Chakshu; Conclusions. By Peter Holleran. Consciousness After Death? The ins and outs of the existence of consciousness after death. NDE's, mystical experiences, and the arguments of the sages, pro and con. By Peter Holleran. "Why worry about consciousness after death?  What matters is to be conscious when you are alive. If you are not alive now, you will not live after death either." - anadi The Purpose of Spiritual Training The wisdom of Jack Nicholson. "You can't handle the truth!" Neti, Neti vs. Wohi, Wohi The theory of the five sheaths in advaita vedanta: epistemic methodology versus ontological realism, or analyzing an onion versus pealing an onion. Its method of truth: affirmation and negation, or neti and itti. By Peter Holleran. "Emptiness Is Empty" A discussion of the shunyavada or emptiness teachings of Madhyamika Buddhism and their traditional conclusion about realization. By Peter Holleran.    "Believers in emptiness are hopelessly incurable." - Nagarjuna The People of the Book A major work. The common ancestry of the Middle Eastern faiths: Why can't we be friends? Primal Adam and earthly Adam; 'Hu-man'; 'Man-hosh' and 'behosh.' The Idea of Man. By Peter Holleran. "I dwell neither high nor low, neither in the sky nor on earth,    nor even in paradise, O beloved, believe me,    strange as it may seem, I dwell in the heart of the    faithful and it is there    that I may be found.”    - Rumi The People of the Tradition The "Custodians of Wisdom." Esoteric origin of the world's religions. By Peter Holleran. "The soul emanates from an unchangeable and higher spiritual order as well as from a former material evolution, from an extinct solar system,” and has inhabited many other such solar systems. A visitor on this earth for evolutionary purposes, it is humanity’s destiny to evolve beyond it, beyond the moon, beyond the orbits of the outermost planets and beyond the Sun, and so return to the true home-world lying far from this solar system in the depths of the universe.” - Pythagoras Doubt As A Doorway To The Divine Doubt as a form of grace. By Peter Holleran. "The greater the doubt, the greater the awakening; the smaller the doubt, the smaller the awakening; no doubt, no awakening.” - Zen saying Why Did Sankara Speak (and Think) So Much? **Revised** 1-16-12. On the paths of experience and the path of Identity. The role of the mind in spiritual practise. By Peter Holleran "If I am experiencing awareness all the time because it is me, then I have a knowledge problem, not an experience problem. If you do not realize that you have a knowledge problem, then unfortunately you will have to keep groping around in the experiential wilderness until you do realize it."    - James Swartz Bedtime Stories: Are They Real? Karma and reincarnation versus "nothing ever happened"; let the non-dual wars begin! By Peter Holleran “My realization is higher than the sky, But my observance of karma is finer than a grain of barley flour.”    - Padmasambhava After Awakening, What Next? Awakening and evolution. A comparison of the teachings of Paul Brunton, Sri Aurobindo, anadi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, contemporary non-dualists, and more. By Peter Holleran. "How can a man fully express himself unless he fully develops himself? The spiritual evolution which requires him to abandon the ego runs parallel to the mental evolution which requires him to perfect it."    -    Paul Brunton Spiritual Implications of Brain Research - 2011 Revised and Expanded Brain-wave studies on TM and Buddhist meditators, Carmelite nuns, Primal Therapy patients, neurosurgical volunteers - and what it all means. Can enlightenment be proven in the laboratory? By Peter Holleran. "There is no machine that can measure a person’s realization." - Tsoknyi Rinpoche Dying in the Master's Company The graceful passing of Ramana Maharshi's mother and Sant Kirpal Singh's wife. The influence of a saint or jnani at the time of death. Different views on dying. By Peter Holleran. " At the time of death the initiate will be as happy as a bride on her day of marriage!"   - Sant Kirpal Singh The Dark Night of the Soul ****Revised 3-20-10**** Spiritual crises and breakthroughs in the Christian and Buddhist traditions. By Peter Holleran. "Therefore, O spiritual soul, when thy seest thy desire obscured, thy affections arid and constrained, and thy faculties bereft of their capacity for any interior exercise, be not afflicted by this, but rather consider it a great happiness, since God is freeing thee from thyself and taking the matter from thy hands."    - St. John of the Cross St Teresa of Avila - to Hell and Back A second look at the Dark Night phenomena and the mystics of the Church. By Peter Holleran. Dual Non-Dualism: Part One "Consciousness Is Not All." A comparative overview of the teachings of anadi. By Peter Holleran.    “This vision is beyond duality and non-duality, embracing the paradoxical existence of the individual soul and her evolution within the ocean of universal intelligence." Dual Non-Dualism: Part Two "Distinctions of Oneness." A continued look into truth 'beyond the mind.' By Peter Holleran. "We should not forget that often awakening is brought by the power of grace. In many traditions, students are supported from the esoteric dimension. That's why, even when one is doing the practice without having the full understanding but one is sincere and genuine - transformation simply does take place...Grace is the ultimate source of awakening." - anadi Dual Non-Dualism: Part Three "I am Not THAT" - or am I? Are Atman and Brahman the same? Is there not a Soul? Is Advaita the last word? Part three of a series. By Peter Holleran "You must find your own way. Unless you find it yourself, it will not be your own way and will take you nowhere." - Sri Nisargadatta Dual Non-Dualism: Part Four "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." The nature of wholeness vs. the negation of body and soul. Philosophical and intimate. Part four of a series. By Peter Holleran. "It is not only awareness of mind and body which creates a conscious human being, but participation in them too!"     - anadi Teachers, or Masters, of the One? Discriminative links on contemporary teachers and teachings. Edited by Theremusst B. Moore. "So what if you have dropped illusion? You didn't drop your pride. Pride has fooled the best sages, Pride devours all."   - Kabir, Bijak  "Without virtue, God is only a word.”       - Plotinus THE INTEGRATIONALISTS AND THE NON-DUALISTS -1: "The Opening Gambits." An imaginary conversation between contrasting points of view at Wisdom's Goldenrod Center for Philosophic Studies on the relationship between realization and transformation. By Peter Holleran. "A truth's initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed. It wasn't the world being round that agitated people, but that the world wasn't flat.When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic.”      - Dresden James The INTEGRATIONALISTS AND THE NON-DUALISTS - 2 "The Reply of Plotinus" The debate continues......... "The gradation of the One, the One-Many [Nous], and the One and Many [Soul] is eternally fixed, and is an expression of reality."     - Plotinus THE INTEGRATIONALISTS AND THE NON-DUALISTS - 3: "The Fall from Grace" "If there is no soul, does Buddhism then teach that death is the termination of all conscious existence? This question cannot be answered by a simple “yes” or “no”. The INTEGRATIONALISTS AND THE NON-DUALISTS- 4: "Last Gasp of the Puppet People" "None of us is thrown into this world against his will. All of us are here because we want to be here...Some are eager to descend into a body again, but others are reluctant and are half-dragged down."     - Paul Brunton What Is Intelligence? A look at the dynamic aspect of enlightenment. By Peter Holleran. "For this very Intelligence, which runs through human consciousness, there is no end to its expansion into the mystery of the Universal Light, the I AM or the Supreme Presence of God." - anadi Dredging the Depths of Cyclic Existence The grace of the masters on a journey through the Bardos. By Peter Holleran. The Divine Path of Growing Old The evolutionary impulse built into the World-Idea, according to astrology and the words of sages. By Peter Holleran. "Whereas the spiritual evolution would be implemented through the [transits of the] outer three planets - which require abandoning the ego - the rational souls from Saturn inward are demanding that the ego gets fulfilled." - Anthony Damiani Goo-Goo Eyes "Tests" on the quest: humorous, painful, and informative, depending on point of view. Some adult content. Edited by Peter Holleran. [Note: References to the masculine gender were left unchanged so as not to interrupt the flow of the text; they should, however, be read as gender neutral. Also, while the humorous links appeal most directly to the male mind, with a little imagination they can apply equally well to that of the female.] Ignorance Compiled by Peter Holleran "A dog has the soul of the philosopher."    - Plato Don't Expect To Know On the nature of awakening. Compiled by Peter Holleran. "Unless one becomes a six-month old baby, there is no hope for one in the realm of Self-knowledge." - Ramana Maharshi Caught on the Path - the Master Trap Select quotes on reaching a spiritual state of helplessness and hopelessness. Compiled by Peter Holleran. "Dear heart, where do you find the courage to seek the Beloved when you know He has annihilated so many like you before? I do not care, said my heart, my only wish is to become one with the Beloved."    - Rumi Patience, Perseverance, and Good News Words from the wise on important virtues. Compiled by Peter Holleran. "Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you." - Jesus The Enigmatic Kabir The poet-saint Kabir, his Anurag Sagar, commentary on the throne room of God, and non-duality. By Peter Holleran. The Heart of the Lankavatara Sutra The Lanka in a nutshell. By Peter Holleran. "But, if they only realised it, they are already in the Tathagata's Nirvana for, in Noble Wisdom, all things are in Nirvana from the beginning." PB and Plotinus: The Fallacy of Divine Identity Is sahaj samadhi realization of the Soul, or the One? By Peter Holleran. The Best of J.P. deCaussade Words of wisdom on classic purgation from an often overlooked master of the interior life. Edited by Peter Holleran BE AS YOU ARE: The Core Direct Teaching of Ramana A selection from Talks with Ramana Maharshi. Compiled by Peter Holleran. "You are always in the Heart. You are never away from it in order that you should reach it." Elvis Was Not a Mentalist Thoughts on the "I-thought". By Peter Holleran. ”His first mental act is to think himself into being. He is the maker of his own “I.” This does not mean that the ego is his own personal invention alone. The whole world-process brings everything about, including the ego and the ego’s own self-making.”   - Paul Brunton The "Lost Years" of Ramana Maharshi His two death experiences and their meaning in regards to self-realization, spiritual practice, the heart, jnana, bhakti, the World-Mind, and astrology. By Peter Holleran. " All that you can say of the Heart is that it is the very Core of your being." Kundalini: Up, Down, or ? By Peter Holleran "During my days I lay in the prison of Tihran...I felt as if something flowed from the crown of my head over my breast, even as a mighty torrent that precipitated itself upon the earth from the summit of a lofty mountain. Every limb of my body would, as a result, be set afire."   - Baha u'llah The Long and the Short of It A representative sampling of quotes on the "Long Path" and the "Short Path", from The Notebooks of Paul Brunton. By Peter Holleran. The Dance of Dharma Scintillating rays from a diamond-like source open the door of freedom. By Peter Holleran. "In whatever place you find truth, with whatever name it may be labelled, take it."    - Paul Brunton Casablanca A contemplation. The Grandeur of A Sage A Plotinian view of the Godman. By Peter Holleran. Those Amazing Christians A potpourri of interestings, colorful characters. By Peter Holleran. Religion Is A Disease Beware of being medicalized! By Peter Holleran. "Jnana is a form of madness."    - Ramana Maharshi Have You Ever Been 'Experienced'? On the issue of drugs and spirituality. By Peter Holleran A Brief Summary of Creation Views: Five creation views, from God created the world ex nihilo to the ajata (non-causality) view of Vedanta. By Peter Holleran. Greek Views on the Soul On the nature of the body-mind-soul relationship. By Peter Holleran. St. Augustine to Gandhi: The Sexual Dilemma The battle with the flesh, as exemplified by St. Augustine and Mohandas K. Gandhi, and thoughts on the role of psychotherapy in spiritual practice. By Peter Holleran. Paramhansa Yogananda and Kriya Yoga An appreciation and comparative analysis. Kriya yoga as contrasted with both shabd yoga and the path of jnana. Includes link to complete on-line version of Autobiography of a Yogi. By Peter Holleran. "The moment when Divine Mother beats you the hardest is the time you should cling tenaciously to Her skirt."    - Paramhansa Yogananda Sri Aurobindo and the Integral Yoga "The Ultimate Construction Project." By Peter Holleran "At the very first sight I could realise he had been seeking for the Soul and had gained it, and through this long process of realisation had accumulated within him a silent power of inspiration. His face was radiant with an inner light."    - Rabindranath Tagore The Two Krishnamurtis Paradox and contradiction in two modern iconoclasts, J. Krishnamurti and U.G. Krishnamurti. By Peter Holleran. "Don't Worry, Be Happy" Meher Baba and the Concept of the Avatar. By Peter Holleran. A Plutonian Septet Essays on Patience, Perseverance, Pressure, Trials, Tribulations, and Moxie. "The other-power is all-important, but this all-importantness is known only to those who have striven, by means of self-power, to attempt the impossible."     - D.T. Suzuki A P B ! The sands of time. Four short pieces on aging. "The unexamined life is not worth living."   - Socrates (470-399 BC) "The unlived life is not worth examining."     - Socrates (b. 1949) Backdraft The fire of grace creates and fills a vacuum. By Peter Holleran. "One does not begin to know and to feel one’s spiritual miseries until they begin to be cured.” - Fenelon The Path of Wrath Samrambha Yoga - the way of the Asuras.   By Peter Holleran "You can meditate for fifteen years and get one inch closer to God; or you can be really angry and be with Him instantly."    - Sufi proverb Scare Tactics Traditional practice motivators. By Peter Holleran. “The experience one has at the time of death is as if a thorny bush were placed inside the rectum and extracted through the mouth." - Quran "When the soul leaves the body one feels pain as if bitten by a million scorpions at once.” - Bhagwad Purana The Neo-Vedantic Origins of Christian Science Its influence on New-Age thinking, and fundamental misunderstanding. By Peter Holleran. "They are Vedantins; I mean they have picked up a few doctrines of the Advaita and grafted them upon the Bible."      - Swami Vivekananda Maybe THIS Time It Is Different Spiritual Revolution: the Mayan Calendar, 2012, Energy Shift, Golden Age, Brunler Scale, Morphogenic Fields, Planetary Ascension, Ashtar Command, Photon Belt, Kalki Avatar, Holographic Universe, Binary Sun, The Great Year, "Global Warming", and "Solar System Warming". Get ready, it's happening! ["For entertainment purposes only"]. Edited with commentary by Sirius. Hellenic Buddhism and Buddhist Christianity Theravada Buddhist and other Indian Influences on Greek Philosophy and early Christianity, and subsequent Hellenic and Christian Influence on the Rise of Mahayana Buddhism, as well as ancient esoteric streams running throughout.   By Peter Holleran. The Secret Doctrine Companion piece to the above. All you wanted to know about man's esoteric evolution but were afraid to ask. This article should help exhaust your seeking and also save you two thousand pages of reading or more. By Peter Holleran. "Nor is it, after all, necessary that anyone should believe in the Occult Sciences and the old teachings, before one knows anything or even believes in his own soul....Your experience is limited to a few thousand years, to less than a day in the whole age of humanity and to the present types of the actual continents and isles of our Fifth Race. How can you tell what will or will not be?"      - H.P. Blavatsky Saga of the Disillusioned Seeker On how a noble soul was entranced by an enigmatic cult, struggled with the still, small voice within, was liberated from false authority, escaped the pod people, and found his way back home. Humorous and irreverant. Rated: PG-17 (some language). By "Morpheus". Mt. Tamalpais, the Sacred Mountain Take a spirit walk on a San Francisco Bay area treasure, visted by numerous saints and sages. By Peter Holleran.