Topic
Ancestral wisdom
Upanishads, Egypt, Tao, Kabbalah, Sufism and indigenous peoples.
Articles
TraditionKatha Upanishad: the young Nachiketas and the question Death tried to dodgeIn the Katha Upanishad, a young man asks Yama, lord of death, to reveal what exists after the end; the answer is the doctrine of ātman, the Self that does not die.TraditionThe ego in Kabbalah: why one teacher says fighting it is a battle already lostFor teacher Marcel Fernandes, the ego is the very structure of the "self"; escaping its labyrinth means not defeating it, but awakening a new kind of desire.AccountSexual transmutation: what Taoism, Tantra, and Alchemy propose about conserving energySeveral esoteric traditions view sexual energy as a resource that can be conserved and refined; science does not confirm the promised benefits.AccountWhy we suffer: Buddhism, Taoism, and karma in Laércio Fonseca's readingLaércio Fonseca joins the Four Noble Truths, Taoism, and karma to argue that suffering educates the spirit and ends through forgiveness and compassion.TraditionFear, envy, anger, and hatred as refusals: a reading inspired by Rumi and SufismA text by Vozes do Silêncio, inspired by Rumi, Mira Bai, and Sufism, defines poison as a lack of measure and sees in love the answer to fear, envy, and hatred.AccountThe Eye of Horus: the documentary linking Egypt to Atlantis, and what Egyptology saysThe film The Eye of Horus claims that priests from Atlantis founded Egypt and created a mystery school; Egyptology does not accept the thesis.TraditionOsiris, Isis, and Horus: the Egyptian myth that explains the harvest, death, and kingshipIn one version of the myth, Geb and Nut are separated so that life can exist, and the death of Osiris founds the cycle of the Nile, the sun, and the pharaoh.TraditionVedānta: texts, schools, and the study method of one of India's six philosophiesVedānta, “the end of the Vedas,” brings together foundational texts, three major schools, and a traditional method of study with a teacher, and can be compared with other mystical traditions.
Based on videos
AccountIndigenous elders from several continents to gather in South Africa for the Origins meetingThe World Tribal Alliance is preparing, on the Cape Peninsula, a week of ceremonies with knowledge keepers from dozens of peoples, including Maori, San and Lakota.TraditionUpanishads: what the 108 texts underlying Indian philosophy are, and what they teachThe Upanishads gather the Vedic sages' experience of reality, the cosmos, and being; ten of them are regarded as the principal ones.TraditionTen lessons from Taoism on living without forcing life's rhythmTaoism proposes acting in harmony with the natural course of things; ten popular lessons help explain wu wei, action without forced effort.TraditionKabbalah in one hour: Gil Sheer's claim that it is a method, not a religionGil Sheer presents Kabbalah as a method for swapping the intention to receive for oneself for receiving in order to give, a reading that departs from the traditional Jewish definition.TraditionKabbalah and the Tree of Life: a mystical map of creation, the soul, and the way backKabbalah describes creation in four worlds and ten sefirot; teacher Yuri de Carvalho reads it as a map for self-knowledge.TraditionThe Hermetic axioms: why the Kybalion closes by demanding practice, not theoryThe Kybalion's final chapter brings no new law: it asks that knowledge become practice, that the mind be treated as a tool, and that the flame be passed on.TraditionHow Many of Your Ideas Are Yours? Mental Gender and the Cuckoo's EggFor the hermetic tradition, every mind has a pole that creates and a pole that develops; without the first, many people only hatch ideas that came from outside.TraditionThe Kybalion, chapter 13: the Principle of Gender and generation as universal lawFor The Kybalion, all generation would arise from the union of two complementary poles, from the atom to the idea; physics describes the atom a different way.TraditionThe Kybalion, chapter 12: the Law of Cause and Effect and the end of chanceFor The Kybalion, chance is just the name for an unrecognized law; Lúcia Helena Galvão's lecture draws from it an ethic of responsibility, and philosophy debates how much fits within freedom.TraditionThe Kybalion, chapter 11: the Principle of Rhythm and not being swept along by the pendulumFor the Kybalion's Principle of Rhythm, everything swings, and motion to one side is compensated by motion to the other; the way out is to watch the pendulum and choose where to fix oneself.TraditionThe Kybalion, chapter 10: the Principle of Polarity and choosing your degreeFor the Kybalion's Principle of Polarity, opposites like good and evil are extremes of one scale; growth means choosing to rise in degree, not erasing the unwanted side.TraditionThe Principle of Vibration: the Hermetic idea that nothing in the universe stands stillFor the Kybalion, everything vibrates, from stone to thought. The idea became an ethical key: each person would answer for what they give off.TraditionThe ALL in all: the Hermetic idea that the divine lives within every part of creationFor Hermeticism, the ALL is present in every part of the universe as essence, and evolving means revealing each one's divine side without dissolving identity.TraditionThe Divine Paradox: an unreal universe Hermeticism tells us to live as realThe Kybalion holds the universe is illusion for the ALL and a school for us, and that the sage honors its laws without attachment, never as an excuse.TraditionThe All is Mind: the universe as a mental creation, according to HermeticismFor the Kybalion, the ALL is mind and the universe is its mental creation: held within its mind, without being confused with it, like Romeo and Shakespeare.TraditionThe ALL: why Hermeticism gives ultimate reality a name that sets no limitsThe Kybalion calls ultimate reality “the ALL,” a name with no limits, grasped only by intuition, and ties the search for God to the search for the self.TraditionMental transmutation: what the Kybalion asks before MentalismThe Kybalion distinguishes transforming appearance from transmuting being, and holds that the mind must be purified before it is used.TraditionThe Kybalion's seven hermetic principles: a map for your own lifeThe Kybalion, from 1908, condenses Hermeticism into seven principles; a Nova Acrópole lecture presents them as inner formation, not magic.TraditionThe Kybalion, chapter 1: a tradition from teacher to student, and what history saysThe Kybalion, from 1908, presents the hermetic philosophy of Hermes Trismegistus as formation, not information; scholars date the hermetic texts to the 1st-3rd centuries.TraditionFrom Nun to Horus: how ancient Egypt told the story of creationFrom the primordial ocean to the first pharaoh, the Egyptian creation myth tells how Atum, Ra, Osiris, and Horus order chaos and found the cycle of light.
Study notes
TraditionGita, lesson 16: belief isn't knowledge, and the Veda as a mirror of the SelfFor Dayananda, believing isn't knowing: Vedānta presents itself as a means of knowledge, and the teaching is said to work as a mirror of the Self.TraditionGita, lesson 13: the four aims of life and what each one can giveThirteenth chapter in the series: artha, kāma, dharma, and mokṣa, the four aims of life in the Vedic tradition, and their limits.TraditionGita, lesson 12: heaven as a promise, and the search to feel at ease with oneselfTwelfth chapter in the series: why heavens and pleasures never resolve the feeling of being insufficient, and what Vedānta proposes instead.TraditionGita, lesson 3: the Mahābhārata as the setting for the teachingThe third lesson places the Gita within the Mahābhārata and distinguishes poetic text, which moves, from revealed text, which teaches.