Site Guide
The aim of In the Spirit is to try to ‘demystify’ the spiritual experience (if that is possible!), or at least purge it of unnecessary jargon and new age absurdities. In so doing, I have perforce simplified many subjects which are not simple in any way. As an academic by training and profession, it has ever been my custom to read widely, to check sources, to think everything that I read through carefully before committing myself to making statements. But the generality of folk reading this would simply be alienated if I approached these pages as though they were academic treatises.
I have focused here mainly upon the Eastern Yogic and Hindu traditions which are ancient, complex and mystical. The tendency to simplify and homogenise, more especially in recent years, has meant that these highly eclectic systems of belief with their complex metaphysics have often and unhelpfully been confused, in many instances also simplified to the point of being trivialised. For example, many commentators, including modern gurus, tend to present Eastern Yogic traditions as though they are one system, yet there were many and these were in a state of evolution down through many centuries, with different rishis (sages) offering new interpretations to the prolific corpora of texts. There is no ‘one’ system, nor one unified way of understanding them. Clearly, however, I must try to offer some coherence in order that readers who have little or no understanding of Eastern (or any) religion have a chance to comprehend what I am saying.
If anything that you read here takes your interest, I would simply suggest that you look for further information. The much despised though commonly used Wikipedia is actually a very useful portal into many of these subjects. Across the long summer of the Indian lockdown, I spent much of my time improving my knowledge of ancient Indian philosophies and Wikipedia was usually my starting point, before progressing to more formal literature.Therefore most of what I have written here concerning concepts such as Brahman, Paramatman, Shivaism and so on, can be easily checked online in this way.
Keep an open mind if possible and aim to expand your horizons in what constitutes ‘religion’, faith, and most of all ‘God’.
Resources for the Journey (Alt Sidebar)
1. Introductory sections offering brief explanations of the principal themes associated with spirituality, theology and Eastern concepts of Divinity:
- Of God and Self
- Self and Self Realisation
- Gurus, Guides or Do It Yourself
- New Age Gurus and Selling the Sacred
- Eastern Theologies and Western Mysticism
- Dvaita or Advaita? The Dual-Non Dual Debate
- Dualism and the Bhakti movement
2. Pages of information in more depth about the principal Eastern Yogic traditions compared with Western Mystical traditions. A discussion upon New Age trends, including the use of psychoactive substances for the induction of Mystical states of experience is included.
- Mysticism
- Experiencing Divinity: Advaita and Mysticism Revisited
- Mysticism Revisited. A Personal View
- To Be A Mystic. Concluding Remarks
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- Use (and abuse) of Psychoactive Substances
3. Journey Guide offering advice drawn from personal experience of the Journey.
- Guidance for Seekers. Approach and Practice
- Doing the Work, or Looking the Part?
- Seeking Enlightenment. How to look and whether to pay
- The Age of Recreational Spirituality
- Finding Your Grail
- Self Realisation Simply Put
- The Well Within
- Being Human in the Present Day. A Cautionary Note
- Conclusion: Your Journey, Your Life
4. Personal Views and Observations
- Postscript. Final Thoughts from Rishikesh
- To Be a Pilgrim
- My Parting Word
A Note on Translation
Explanatory Notes: images used and references/recommended reading
Home page image
For those interested in understanding more of the different Hindu belief systems, I highly recommend the website hinduwebsite.com
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