The word philosophy comes from the Greek word Filosofia (Φιλοσοφία) and means love for wisdom. Unfortunately, the term philosophy has become quite devalued. Nowadays, people might talk about a company’s philosophy referring to its guiding principles, or you might hear someone say ‘my philosophy on this is’ when they actually mean their viewpoint or opinion. There’s also frequent mention of the philosophy behind political decisions. Interestingly, sometimes wisdom seems hard to find in these political decisions.
Additionally, we have the philosophical or academic philosophy. This consists of bookshelves filled with various thoughts, conceived and written by numerous philosophers over the centuries. Especially the last century has produced a lot of philosophy and many philosophers. Studying all this wisdom at an academic level sometimes feels like a comparative product review. There are many intriguing ideas to be found. Some have been deeply thought out about how we as humans should or could relate to ourselves and the world. But often something is missing. What’s usually absent is the essence of philosophy: self-inquiry.
The essence of practical philosophy
The core of practicing philosophy is investigating our own humanity (our own ‘I-being’), and our own self in relation to the world (the cosmos, or the All). It’s about the conscious understanding of the world (cosmos) by studying myself within that world.
Know yourself
Studying ourselves is crucial as all conscious knowledge originates from ourSelf. Studying the world (cosmos) without studying mySelf is like examining the external while ignoring the internal. Philosophically speaking, this might even be pointless. Scientifically, it could be quite interesting. But then that’s science, not philosophy. Even the ancient Greeks knew that Know Thyself (Gnothi Seauton) should be at the heart of any philosophical investigation. It was inscribed in stone at the Apollo temple in Delphi. For how can we develop awareness of ‘myself in the world’ if we exclude ourselves, our own inner being, from the investigation? Therefore, we need to start by acquiring self-knowledge by observing ourselves very carefully, and also by examining our way of observing. The knower should know himself before he can know anything outside himself with reasonable certainty.
Consciousness
We can know ourselves through our reflective consciousness. In fact, We are absolute Consciousness, and we recognize our individual consciousness as our greatest asset. But does consciousness belong to us? Or do we belong to Consciousness? If we belong to Consciousness, then everything is and belongs to Consciousness. Then we, and everything else, exist in Consciousness, just as matter exists in space. This implies that there is essentially no difference between myself and everything else. And if there’s fundamentally no difference, then everything must be, in essence, the same.
Only forms of appearance differ; and with them, the capabilities and tools of these forms in physical, subtle, and causal terms (body, mind, nature). This is the essence of the philosophy of non-duality, of a-dvaita.
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What is philosophy?
The word philosophy comes from the Greek word Filosofia (Φιλοσοφία) and means love for wisdom. Unfortunately, the term philosophy has become quite devalued. Nowadays, people might talk about a company’s philosophy referring to its guiding principles, or you might hear someone say ‘my philosophy on this is’ when they actually mean their viewpoint or opinion. There’s also frequent mention of the philosophy behind political decisions. Interestingly, sometimes wisdom seems hard to find in these political decisions.
Additionally, we have the philosophical or academic philosophy. This consists of bookshelves filled with various thoughts, conceived and written by numerous philosophers over the centuries. Especially the last century has produced a lot of philosophy and many philosophers. Studying all this wisdom at an academic level sometimes feels like a comparative product review. There are many intriguing ideas to be found. Some have been deeply thought out about how we as humans should or could relate to ourselves and the world. But often something is missing. What’s usually absent is the essence of philosophy: self-inquiry.
The core of practicing philosophy is investigating our own humanity (our own ‘I-being’), and our own self in relation to the world (the cosmos, or the All). It’s about the conscious understanding of the world (cosmos) by studying myself within that world.
Know yourself
Studying ourselves is crucial as all conscious knowledge originates from ourSelf. Studying the world (cosmos) without studying mySelf is like examining the external while ignoring the internal. Philosophically speaking, this might even be pointless. Scientifically, it could be quite interesting. But then that’s science, not philosophy. Even the ancient Greeks knew that Know Thyself (Gnothi Seauton) should be at the heart of any philosophical investigation. It was inscribed in stone at the Apollo temple in Delphi. For how can we develop awareness of ‘myself in the world’ if we exclude ourselves, our own inner being, from the investigation? Therefore, we need to start by acquiring self-knowledge by observing ourselves very carefully, and also by examining our way of observing. The knower should know himself before he can know anything outside himself with reasonable certainty.
Consciousness
We can know ourselves through our reflective consciousness. In fact, We are absolute Consciousness, and we recognize our individual consciousness as our greatest asset. But does consciousness belong to us? Or do we belong to Consciousness? If we belong to Consciousness, then everything is and belongs to Consciousness. Then we, and everything else, exist in Consciousness, just as matter exists in space. This implies that there is essentially no difference between myself and everything else. And if there’s fundamentally no difference, then everything must be, in essence, the same.
Only forms of appearance differ; and with them, the capabilities and tools of these forms in physical, subtle, and causal terms (body, mind, nature). This is the essence of the philosophy of non-duality, of a-dvaita.