Anjum Hasan is the author of two novels, The Cosmopolitans and Lunatic in my Head (shortlisted for the Crossword Book Award), a collection of short stories, Difficult Pleasures (shortlisted for the Hindu Literary Prize and the Crossword Book Award), and a book of poetry, Street on the Hill. She lives in Bangalore.

Neti-Neti is one of the oldest meditation techniques in the world. Through this process of intense introspection, we discover that we are not limited to our bodies, emotions, or minds, for our true nature is actually luminous and boundless. Historically, these two simple words, Neti-Neti, have pointed the way for generations of seekers and contemplatives to free themselves from the constriction of the ego and suffering.Fortunately, you no longer have to be an expert meditator to practice or even benefit from the wisdom of Neti-Neti. It is now available for anyone seeking freedom in the knowledge of their true self.Drawing upon his experiences as a Buddhist monk, Zen teacher, and meditation instructor, Andre Doshim Halaw has developed Neti-Neti into a full meditation practice specifically designed to address the human condition in the 21st century.NETI-NETI MEDITATION or TRANSCENDENTAL SELF-INQUIRY is a form of self-investigation that eliminates who we think we are as a limited, separate person, and reveals our true nature as vast, formless Awareness itself, free of all imperfections and suffering. This book walks you step-by-step through the NETI-NETI MEDITATION process.

Contrary to popular opinion, God is not a Supreme Being, but the exact opposite - Absolute Nothingness. In fact, the entire reason that people suffer is because they are attached to 'being', and fail to understand that Non-being is the very basis of existence itself. In the immortal words of the Tao Te Ching, "All things are born of being; being is born of Nothingness." Nothingness is not barren oblivion, nor the opposite of life and 'being'; rather, it is the creative, fertile, and boundless principle that serves as the source and ground of beingness itself. Empty and vast, Nothingness is pregnant with limitless potential and fecundity. In theistic terms, Nothingness is God. Rooted in the teachings of the world's greatest sages, such as Lao Tzu, the Buddha, Adi Shankaracarya, Meister Eckhart, and Nisargadatta Maharaj, "God is Nothingness" explores how Non-being is indeed the root of all existence. Even more valuably, the book reveals how to actually awaken to Nothingness-how to realize God.

The nature of consciouness or human awareness is one of the problems of perennial concern to philosphers and psychologists alike. Here is a systematic critical and comparative study the nature of human awareness according to the most influential school of classical Indian thought. After introducing the Advaita Philosophical system and indicating the place of consciouness in this system the author presents a detailed discussion of the Advaitin`s unique non-dual understanding of man`s basic intelligence. He continues with and analysis of the Advaitin`s hierarchical vision of waking dream and dreamless sleep experience and compares this analysi,

The Ultimate Medicine is not for those who like their spirituality watered down, but for serious students searching for awareness. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981) lived and taught in a small apartment in the slums of Bombay. A realized master of the Tantric Nath lineage, he supported himself and his family by selling cheap goods in a small booth on the streets outside his tenement for many years. His life exemplified the concept of absolute nonduality of being. In this volume, Maharaj shares the highest truth of nonduality in his own unique way. His teaching style is abrupt, provocative, and immensely profound, cutting to the core and wasting little effort on inessentials. His terse but potent sayings are known for their ability to trigger shifts in consciousness, just by hearing or reading them."The point is that man freed from his fetters is morality personified. Such a man therefore does not need any moralistic injunctions in order to live righteously. Free a man from his bondage and thereafter everything else will take care of itself. On the other hand, man in his unredeemed state cannot possibly live morally, no matter what moral teaching he is given. It is an intrinsic impossibility, for his very foundation is immorality. That is, he lives a lie, a basic contradiction: functioning in all his relationships as the separate entity he believes himself to be, whereas in reality no such separation exists. His every action therefore does violence to other 'selves' and other 'creatures,' which are only manifestations of the unitary consciousness. So Society had to invent some restraints in order to protect itself from its own worst excesses and thereby maintain some kind of status quo. The resulting arbitrary rules, which vary with place and time and therefore are purely relative, it calls 'morality,' and by upholding this man-invented 'idea' as the highest good–oftentimes sanctioned by religious 'revelation' and scriptures–society has provided man with one more excuse to disregard the quest for liberation or relegate it to a fairly low priority in his scheme of things."

This book explores the thought of Jacques Derrida as it relates to the tradition of apophatic thought--negative theology and philosophy--in both Western and Eastern traditions. Following the Introduction by Toby Foshay, two of Derrida's essays on negative theology, Of an Apocalyptic Tone Newly Adopted in Philosophy and How to Avoid Speaking: Denials, are reprinted here. These are followed by essays from a Western perspective by Mark C. Taylor and Michel Despland, and essays from an Eastern perspective by David Loy, a Buddhist, and Harold Coward, a Hindu. In the Conclusion, Jacques Derrida responds to these discussions.

Explores the relationship between the philosophical underpinnings of Advaita Vedanta, Zen Buddhism And The experiential journey of spiritual practitioners.

So many people are searching for the answer-the answer to life, love, health, happiness, success, and freedom. People search for the answer to life's questions in money, in relationships, in experiences, in places and material things. We have searched for it everywhere in the world outside of ourselves, completely unaware of the fact that real freedom, and real happiness, can never come to us from something else, but can only be found within the truth of our being. The answers you seek lie within YOU, the true you, and by awakening to your true nature, you can see clearly that your experience of the world is ultimately dependent upon the world within your consciousness. You are not the separate and isolated individual that many people feel themselves to be. You are a divine expression of the whole of existence, an essential part of the Universe, connected to it on every level. In truth, all things are one, and we are all a part of this oneness. Realizing this ancient truth liberates us from the prison of ego, and allows us to express ourselves authentically-without fear, without doubt, and without limitations. It enables us to find true freedom: the freedom to be ourselves, to live naturally, and to allow the Universe to express itself through us effortlessly, without resistance. This book investigates the subject of who we are at our deepest level, why we have forgotten who we are, and how remembering our true nature is the key to finding real freedom, happiness, and peace in our lives. Blending together the wisdom of ancient spiritual traditions as well as new discoveries in quantum physics and modern science, this book takes the reader on an inward journey to the very core of their being. The message in this book is clear: our pain, our misery, our suffering, arises from our ignorance of our true nature, and if only we are willing to see beyond the illusions of our culture, and wake up to the reality of who we really are, we can be free of this suffering, and live lives filled with peace, with love, and with happiness.

‘A mantra is a mystical energy encased in a sound structure . . . It steadies the mind and leads to the stillness of meditation.’ The modern lifestyle with its excesses and worldly desires, the constant need to be connected, and the rapid development in technology, has made stress and lifestyle-related diseases the norm. The need for meditation thus is more acute. Meditation calms the mind, brings focus and enhances the senses, resulting in a better quality of life and work. And with the right mantras, meditation becomes a highly effective tool in unleashing the immense potential within oneself. This book from the Sivananda Ashram explains what meditation and mantras are and how they can be effectively used to recharge oneself with divine energy, so that the tension of body and mind are gradually reduced.

The seers and sages of Ancient India revealed fundamental principles of perennial philosophy. The Upanishads contain the essential principles of this perennial-this ageless philosophy. They contain a large number of inspiring and instructive passages and verses. It has not been possible to include all of them in this book. For the purposes of this book the author has taken those verses and passages that have a bearing on the mystical teaching of the Upanishads. It is mysticism which is the very core of the Upanishads-and so in understanding its mysticism one comes to the heart of the sublime and magnificent teaching of the Upanishads. In this age, where science and technology may lead us into a world devoid of meaning and significance. Modern man needs today a meaningful philosophy if the achievements of science are not to lead him to greater and greater destruction-but to sublime and majestic heights of creative living. It is in the Vision of Life given by the Upanishads that man can find the fundamental philosophy of Creative Living-a philosophy that can serve as a Beacon Light even in the midst of surrounding darkness, a philosophy that can lead him from the unreal to the Real, from darkness to Light, from death to Immortality.