Philosophy of Vedanta

What has informed my understanding of life and pretty much everything for all of my adult existence has been the philosophy of Vedanta.

This obviously finds its way into my work with others.

It is a philosophy put forth in Hinduism, although it embraces so much understanding and covers so much ground that it aligns itself well with other traditions, even atheism.

In trying to formulate it, I will attempt to connect it to my counseling practice.

We are all hiding from ourselves and wanting to realize who we are, thus says Vedanta, or my paraphrasing of one of its basic concepts.

This goes along well with the ideas of psychologist Carl Rogers, who spoke of naturally going towards being who we are, saying that wholeness comes from aligning with ourselves, stemming from our natural tendency for healing and being ourselves wholly.

Vedanta says we are already at our destination, of self-realization, but we are working through any obstacles or obstructions on our path so we can remember this.

I believe this classically has been described as the veils of our mind preventing us from such realization.

Counseling helps us to uncover this, our true nature, helping us to align with our path more, helping us to remove any conditioning or self-limiting ideas which obstruct us.

What I hesitate to share and communicate, which even when I do, reality or the reality of this world might have a built-in mechanism for limiting--we are all at this destination already, one of great peace, one of great love, one of great understanding, which surpasses all we can ever enunciate or articulate.

Meditation helps us to realize this, which I like to describe as a place underneath each moment, one of peace and well-being, which we can learn to access more easily and more frequently as we practice our meditation regularly.

Christianity may refer to this as heaven, as in the kingdom of God (or heaven) is among you (or within you).  Buddhism may call this the realization of truth or the Dharma.

Hinduism calls this simply the Self, the ultimate version of who we are, just waiting for us to uncover, remember, and realize.