Philosophy

Scholars of religion, it turns out, often have profound religious experiences reading and interpreting the texts they critically study, and these events have consequences for the methods and models they develop, the conclusions they come to, and even for the traditions they study.

Tias is a popular yoga and meditation teacher.

Swami Swatmananda is an acharya of Chinmaya Mission of South Mumbai.

Mirabai Starr is an award-winning author of creative non-fiction and contemporary translations of sacred literature.

Jeffrey is the Associate Dean of the Faculty and Graduate Programs in the School of the Humanities and the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University.

Jagar comes from the Sanskrit root, jāgṛ, which means “to go on burning, to be awake, to be watchful and to awaken.” It refers to the first state of consciousness described in the Māṇḍukya Upaniṣad—waking (jāgrat). It’s distinguished from the two other states of the conscious mind—dreaming and deep sleep—by the quality of consciousness experienced.

Māyā: the very name conveys a sense of mystery. Cognate with the English word magic, māyā does, indeed, refer to something magical. Like magic, māyā involves the diversion of our attention from the real to the unreal, or from reality to the appearance of reality.

Virtual reality (VR) is a term generally used to describe three-dimensional computer-generated environments that can be explored and are interactive. There is a perceptible relationship between VR experiences and Eastern philosophies, which lies in the involvement of visualization, simulation, and illusion.