A co-publishing venture with Stillness Speaks, this is a new 3 volume edition of the collection of spiritual discourses by Shri Atmananda (Krishna Menon, 1883-1959), a living representative of the tradition of Advaita Vedanta and one of the great sages of the modern world. The discourses were recorded during the period of 1950 to 1959 by a trusted disciple. They are short and masterful talks on realizing the Truth through a recognition that our nature is always pure Consciousness.
Shri Atmananda taught what he called the “vicara marga” or the “direct method.” This method questions the world, the body, and the seeking mind; it reveals that they are nothing other than the Truth of the knowing Self. His teaching has become well known for being direct, intuitive, and logically connected. He leads the questioner unassailably back through the question to the Truth, to the light ultimate Reality – the Self
Notes on Spiritual Discourses explains in detail many now-familiar tools of self-inquiry, such as the witness, standing as awareness, the use of higher reason, the truth about deep sleep, why happiness is actually the real I, the way memory functions, and more. These tools help to show how the basic error in man is his mistaken identification with body, senses and mind. When this identification is replaced by the right identification with Consciousness, the resulting realization is the “harmonious blending of the head and the heart, in Peace.”
Shri Atmananda was in many ways a bridge between the old and the new. Although trained in some of the traditional ways of devotion and meditation, he recommended the direct method of reflective questioning as particularly suited to the modern world. At the same time, his professional career was devoted to law enforcement in Kerala, South India. He retired in from law enforcement 1939, and continued to teach spiritual disciples for another twenty years.
Volume 3 contains and extensive life sketch of Shri Atmananda as well as a glossary of terms and an index to all three volumes.