I started a Substack blog today. You’re welcome to take a look. I’ll still post here. The content will be different over there.
Author: Freddie
Luckily it only seems that way
This picture popped up in my Facebook feed. A good illustration, I think, of the fundamental attitude of many spiritual seekers. “I want to be free — I have to escape from the prison of my mind — I need to crack this damn lock.” The room, the door, the lock — they are the […]
Something younger Freddie got wrong
Last week I reprinted something I wrote almost 20 years ago about Shiva Rudra Bala Yogi who I knew at that time. I noticed when I reread it last week that I got several things wrong. Here’s my most important misunderstanding. I was bothered at that time because SRBY calls himself a yogi and Ramana […]
Why people misunderstand Ramana: reason #2
Other articles in this series: Reason #1 Note: “enquiry” and “inquiry” are the same word. It can be spelled either way. The term “Self-enquiry” is the second reason why people misunderstand Ramana. This term is a misleading English translation of a Sanskrit phrase used by Ramana, atma-vichara. “Self-enquiry” is a bad translation because it seems […]
A guest post from a younger Freddie
Yesterday while searching Google for articles about Ramana I stumbled across something I wrote about Shiva Rudra Bala Yogi almost twenty years ago. I have no memory of it. I apparently posted it to the “Ramana Maharshi mail list” (whatever that was) and somebody at indiadivine.org preserved a copy. Here it is. July 7, 2005 […]
A reader’s response to Tether and Magnet
Some of you may remember Tether and Magnet, a post written five years ago by a friend of mine. Last week a reader posted an unusual comment on it. This happened on realization.org where “Tether and Magnet” has been reprinted, not on this blog, so I’m copying the comment here for blog readers. Before I […]
Why people misunderstand Ramana: reason #1
Other articles in this series: Reason #2 It’s hard to pick the number one reason why people misunderstand Ramana because the top two reasons are very similar and they reinforce each other. But a choice must be made, so here goes: The question “who am I?” is the number one reason. Ramana used this phrase […]
Stars are visible only after sunset, and attention is a trap
I rewrote this article extensively on May 28, 2024, so some of the comments may no longer apply to it. People sometimes summarize Ramana’s method as, “Keep your attention incessantly on yourself.” This is a pretty good summary except for one big problem. Normally when we pay attention to something, we target or select it. […]
An argument that supports the idea that consciousness existed before animal nervous systems
I’ve decided to publish a few articles on intellectual topics. I’m not changing the main focus of the blog; it will continue to emphasize experience and information that’s useful and interesting to spiritual seekers. I’m going to describe an idea that first occurred to me several decades ago. It’s a weak argument and a vague […]
How I was brought to Ramana
A friend asked me recently to write about how I came to Ramana. I was brought to him by a chain of events that started with my father’s death and culminated in a visit to Meenakshi Amman Temple in southern India. I’ve written about some of those events on this blog in individual posts but […]