The whole of Advaita reduces to a series of very simple and testable assertions: Consciousness is the prior condition of every experience; the self or ego is an illusory appearance within it; look closely for what you are calling “I,” and the feeling of being a separate self will disappear; what remains, as a matter of experience, is a field of con

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Our usual understanding of life is dualistic: you and I, this and that, good and bad. But actually these discriminations are themselves the awareness of the universal existence. “You” means to be aware of the universe in the form of you, and “I” means to be aware of it in the form of I. You and I are just swinging doors. This kind of understanding

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Reality is not, therefore, an objective "out there," but a subjective "in here," and is different for everyone. So what does that make you? Are you explicit flesh and bone anchored in a solid world, or are you an implicit blur of holographic patterns playing in a vast swirl of larger patterns? And what is the role of consciousne

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This is repeatedly taught in the Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad (e.g., in 4.2.4): “About this self, one can only say, ‘Not this, not this.’ It is ungraspable, for it cannot be grasped.” This maxim, based on the Sanskrit neti neti, is a “rule of substitution,” negating any words that might follow. Brahman is therefore “not this” and “not that,” eliminati

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