Three Must-Read Ramana Maharshi Texts

April 26, 2017
Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) was India’s greatest twentieth-century guru, and his spiritual teachings are must-reading for all serious students of Self-Awakening. But which texts should those interested in his teachings read?

I have read numerous texts that contain sayings of and/or conversations with Ramana Maharshi. And I have read many texts that elaborate on Ramana’s teachings. But, in my opinion, if one reads three books – “Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi” (avoid the dumbed-down Inner Directions version), “Sri Ramana Gita,” and “Sat-Darshana Bhashya and Talks with Maharshi” – there is no need to read any other Ramana books, because they won’t add anything substantive to the material in these three. I welcome anyone who has read these three books to point me to a Ramana Maharshi text that provides unique and profound teachings not found in them.

Herewith, in order, are my five-star Amazon reviews of “Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi,” “Sri Ramana Gita,” and Sat- Darshana Bhashya”:

Must-Reading for Students of Self-Awakening

As an esoteric eclectic, I have devoted the past four decades to both the study and practice of the foremost spiritual traditions—Theravada, Zen, and Tibetan Buddhism, Hindu Raja Yoga, Advaita Vedanta, and Kashmir Shaivism, Daism (the teachings of Adi Da), and Christian Hermeticism; and in this time, I have never encountered a spiritual book better than “Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi.”
… Read the full article

The Papaji Lineage

April 10, 2017

A number of people, over the years, have asked my opinion of the late H.W. L. Poonja (1910-1997), commonly referred to as Papaji. In my opinion, Papaji, unlike his guru Ramana Maharshi, was not an Enlightened Heart Master. Moreover, none of Papaji’s disciples who became big-name gurus (Andrew Cohen, Gangaji, Mooji) impresses me.

Herewith, in order, are my Amazon reviews of Papaji’s “The Truth Is” (two stars), Andrew Cohen’s “Evolutionary Enlightenment” (two stars), Gangaji’s ‘Freedom and Resolve” two stars), and Mooji’s “Breath of the Absolute –Dialogues with Mooji” (two stars).

Adyashanti-Level Advaita Vedanta

I first read this book about ten years ago, and I recently received my copy, which had been in storage since before Barack Obama took office. Unlike the first time I read it--when I quickly motored through it because I thought it was mediocre--I decided this time I would really read it.… Read the full article

A Tower of Bentinho Babble

March 18, 2017
[This is my just-posted at Amazon one-star review of Bentinho Massaro's text "Super Accelerated Living."]

In my 45 years of spiritual study and practice, I have read more than 3000 texts on Awakening -- and Bentinho Massaro’s “Super Accelerated Living” might be the worst of these. I have, in my Amazon reviews, categorized some of these texts as “bottom of the barrel,” but Bentinho deserves his own category, which I’ll now designate as “beneath the bottom of the barrel.” I have umpteen pages of notes from my read of this text, but because this is just a review, I’ll focus on just a few of the innumerable notes that make clear just how out of touch from reality Bentinho really is.

Bentinho says, “There is no external reality. There has never been a reality “out there.” There has never been another person you have interacted with. There has never been an actual physical world that you have been a part of. You are not a part of anything. You are the Creator of the entirety of the Universe, of All-That-Is… Are you ready to leave behind the thought that you are the receiver of reality and realize fully that you are a God —the creator of reality?...… Read the full article

Light on the Lankavatara Sutra

March 8, 2017
The Lankavatara Sutra (LS) is a profound and important Mahayana Buddhist sutra. It propounds the doctrine of Cittamatra, a sub-system of Yogacara which asserts that a single universal Mind (or Consciousness) has become everything. As such, the LS is akin to Hindu Kashmir Shaivism and Tibetan Dzogchen, which likewise assert that a single omnipresent Consciousness or Awareness (Siva or Dharmakaya), has manifested as all existents.

Unfortunately, if an impressive LS text has been penned since D.T. Suzuki’s “Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra” in 1930, I haven’t encountered it. And I would be much obliged if someone can point me to worthwhile LS work I might have missed.

Below, in order, are my four-star Amazon.com reviews of D.T. Suzuki’s translation/commentary of “The Lankavatara Sutra” (The Invasion of Buddhism by Samkhya) and “Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra” (One-of-a Kind Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra”), and my two-star reviews of Florin Giripescu Sutton’s “Existence and Enlightenment in the Lankavatara Sutra” (The Jungianization of Yogacara) and Red Pine’s “Lankavatara Sutra” (the Work of a Butcher with Large Thumbs).… Read the full article

The Exoteric Perennial Philosophy, Part 2

February 23, 2017

[Part 1 of this article (available at electricalspirituality.com) focused on Aldous Huxley and Frithjof Schuon’s explications of the Perennial Philosophy. Part 2 will focus on Rudolf Otto and Rene Guenon’s explications. Julius Evola is another Perennial Philosophy exponent worthy of consideration, but because I have already considered Evola’s writings (see my November 2016 Electrical Spirituality article Reviews of the writings of the Traditionalist Julius Evola), I will skip on them here.]

Why have I titled this article “The Exoteric Perennial Philosophy”? Because, in my opinion, none of these Perennial Philosophy exponents does the “Esoteric Perennial Philosophy” justice. In other words, to this point in time, not a single Perennial Philosophy expositor has tied together the common deeper, or esoteric, aspects of the Great Spiritual Traditions. Sans an Esoteric Perennial Philosophy, it is not possible to synthesize into an integral whole the various descriptions of the “higher” dimensions of the En-Light-enment project found in the Great Traditions.… Read the full article

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →