Philosophy, Spirituality, and Mysticism
Praise be to Sri Ramakrishna for his teachings which have inspired so many to deepen their spiritual lives in this great age of materialism and spiritual decline. His teachings are desperately needed in the Christian West, which has lost a living, breathing tradition of mysticism straight from the wellspring of Incarnation. Let Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s … Read more
This essay is a meditation on Advaita Vedanta, Thomas Merton’s conception of Grace, and the future of rational religion in the Modern West, which is currently experiencing a tremendous crisis of meaning as we face the disastrous spiritual, ethical, and environmental implications of materialism and its logical entailment of nihilism. As always, I am indebted … Read more
In this short meditation on Vedantic Christianity, I will make the case that the Future of Christianity is Advaita Vedanta through and through. As always, I am indebted to Swami Sarvapriyananda for awakening my spiritual fire and teaching me the true lessons of Advaita Vedanta, which I am by no means qualified to teach but … Read more
This short essay is a meditation on Vedantic Christianity, which is a recognition of the essential, mystical truth of Christianity and its perfect parallel in the spiritual system of Advaita Vedanta, inspired by the Great Swami Vivekananda and his masterwork of spiritual philosophy Jnana Yoga. In all my writings, I do not consider myself a … Read more
This essay is a meditation on Christianity and Advaita Vedanta, specifically Jesus’s mystical insight that the kingdom of God is “within” and its perfect parallel with the concept of Self as understood in Advaita Vedanta. As always, I owe all my understanding of Advaita Vedanta to the wise and erudite fountain of Vedantic knowledge that … Read more
This essay is a partly autobiographical story of how I discovered the beautiful combination of Advaita Vedanta and Christianity, along with an attempt to work out a Cosmopolitan Christian-Vedantic Spirituality inspired by the wonderful wisdom of Swami Vivekananda and his still-unrealized vision for a religion of the future. I believe any modern spirituality worth its … Read more
I humbly dedicate this post to Swami Sarvapriyananda, who has graciously shared so many masterful lectures on Advaita Vedanta on the Vedanta Society of NY’s YouTube channel. If I am successful even a smidgeon in articulating the wisdom of Advaita Vedanta, it is due to him. “Only the hand that erases can write the true … Read more
I continue to have doubts about any complete disavowal of Christianity. As soon as I discard the institutional or metaphysical trappings of Christianity, I begin to feel drawn to Jesus the human as an awakened being, just as the Buddha was also just an ordinary human being who came to be enlightened. Both were extraordinary … Read more
Can one be a Christian and also be a Zen Buddhist? One might think insofar as “Buddhism” and “Christianity” share a different set of doctrines and traditions that Christianity and Zen are mutually exclusive conceptual systems. However, Christianity and Zen actually have a lot in common which you strip Christianity of its doctrinal and liturgical … Read more
Philosophers and theologians often describe God as a kind of ultimate necessary being that undergirds the contingency of the world. And not a “being” as a kind of “entity.” God is not an entity. God is not an agent in the ordinary sense. If God is anything, they are beyond the limitations of that distinction. … Read more