Ananda Wood Writings

[Guest guest]

Just a note to say that Ananda Wood has kindly agreed to my hosting his

books and essays at - www.advaita.org.uk/ananda_wood.htm.

 

There are a number of essays relating to:

* language and Bhartrihari's levels of sound

* states of consciousness

* the classic five elements

* OM and the mANDUkya upaniShad

* a comparison of the objective scientific method and the subjective, inward

approach of philosophical enquiry.

 

His two books are also available for download - 'From the Upanishads' and

'Interpreting the Upanishads'. These are modern interpretations yet also

compare old translations, going back to specific Sanskrit words to elicit

explanatory comments. Excerpts have been chosen from a number of the

upaniShad-s and these are provided under categorised headings such as 'Death

and the Unconscious', 'Perception', 'Meditation', 'Self and the Absolute',

'The Knowing Self'. The two books are downloadable as linked PDF files so

that they may be easily cross-referenced on-line. The books are out of print

at present so that this is an excellent opportunity to gain access to them.

Very highly recommended.

 

Ananda writes with tremendous clarity and perception. He has a degree in

Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and a doctorate in Anthropology. He is a

disciple of Sri Atmananda Krishna Menon, whose spiritual Discourses he is

currently editing.

 

Best wishes,

 

Dennis

[Guest guest]

Namaste.

 

Dennisji, as always, has done a great service to us Advaitins by

providing the Ananda Wood Writings together at one place. It is a

deluge of information from which I am struggling to stick my head out

to write this post.

 

The articles on "Levels of Consciousness" and "Nature of

Consciousness" have a lot of connection to what we have to discuss in

September under "Is there light in Enlightenment?". Dennisji's

effort, therefore, has come right in time. I hope I will be able to

traverse the Ananda Wood ocean before we begin our talk about

Enlightenment next month.

 

Ramji, may I recommend that we also take up each Ananda Wood article

for separate discussions on the forum in coming months? I hope we

have the author's permission to do so.

 

Thanks and congrats, Dennisji.

 

PraNAms to all Advaitins.

 

Madathil Nair

[Guest guest]

Namaste Sri Nair:

 

I echo what you have rightly observed - Dennisji's great service to

advaitins. I quickly browsed through those articles and I found them

to a valuable treasure to advaitins. Those interested can access them

by clicking on the following link:

 

URL: http://www.advaita.org.uk/ananda_wood.htm

 

Dennisji has organized the articles and made them available on-line

from the above link. Title of the article, a brief description and

the size of the files for downloading are also indicated in brackets.

>From The Upanishads - Free translation of selected passages from a

number of the Upanishads into blank verse, along with some occasional

prose. Divided up according to clear topic headings. An original

adaptation to make them more accessible to the modern reader. (538k)

Interpreting The Upanishads - This focuses on particular ideas from

the Upanishads, and explains how these ideas can be interpreted. For

each idea, selected passages are translated and placed for comparison

beside much freer retellings that have been taken from the first

book. The Sanskrit is often referenced with explanation of

alternative translations. (463k)

 

(The latest versions of the above two books contain hypertext links

both within and between the two documents so that translations and

interpretations may be viewed together.)

 

Levels of Experience - How a reflection upon the states of

consciousness described by the Mandukya Upanishad may be used to

educate the mind to an understanding of the nature of reality. (40k)

Levels of Language - An essay on the relationship between

Consciousness, mind and the world of appearances, inspired by

Bhartrihari's writings on the levels of sound and the mechanism of

its manifestation. It makes extensive use of the metaphor of maps to

show how a background of knowledge and experience of the whole

underlies our attention to and interaction with a specific thing.

(107k)

Nature and Consciousness - Using the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad as a

starting point, this essay begins with the classic five elements and

moves on to a discussion of nature, life and the underlying non-dual

Consciousness. (100k)

 

OM - Three States and One Reality - An interpretation of the Mandukya

Upanishad's discussion of the OM mantra, with its realitionship to

the three states of consciousness and turiya. (69k)

Where thought turns back - a skeptical approach to truth - A

comparison of the scientific method and philosophical enquiry as

means of discovering the truth. Includes a beautiful and simple

analysis of what we actually mean by happiness and love. (85k)

Dreaming, Sleep and Awakening - The three states of consciousness as

described by the Mandukya Upanishad, and the backround reality of

turiya. (46k)

 

Old Ideas of Language - An essay on linguistics, comparing the ideas

of the Upanishads and Bhartrihari with those of modern physics. Sound

and light are explained as vibrations from the background of

Consciousness. The mechanisms of speech are treated as a microcosm

for the macrocosm of the universe. Covers material from 4 and 6.

(185k)

 

Educating Sciences of Life and Mind - Compares the objective, outward

approach of science with the reflective, inward method of subjective

enquiry as a means for obtaining knowledge. The five traditional

elements are used as metaphors to explain the levels of experience.

(87k)

 

I would very much love to have the above topics taken up someone for

monthlong discussions for the year 2004. Sri Nair and Sri Dennis can

team up and take this worthwhile venture.

 

Warmest regards,

 

Ram Chandran

 

advaitin, "Madathil Rajendran Nair"

<madathilnair> wrote:

> Namaste.

>

> Dennisji, as always, has done a great service to us Advaitins by

> providing the Ananda Wood Writings together at one place. .

[Guest guest]

Namaste.

 

I have experienced a small problem with the Ananda Wood link. Since

I peeped in there this morning, I am getting this repeated warning in

my system:

 

"Sychost. exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows.

You will need to restart the program.".

 

Also, once while I was on the Kathopanishad interpretation, there was

a virus alert. I missed to note the name of the virus.

 

Our IT people are still working on the problem to ascertain whether

it relates to the web link browsed or with our system. They have not

been able to give a definite answer. The warning keeps repating even

after I exited the Ananda Wood link.

 

In the meanwhile, this is, therefore, to request Dennisji to check

out on this and advise Members not to download the material until

further advice by Dennisji or our IT guys.

 

Pranams.

 

Madathil Nair

[Guest guest]

Namaste Sri Nair:

 

I don't believe that the link has any problem nor there is any

problem in downloading the pdf files. Downloading a pdf file will not

likely infect a machine with a virus.

 

According to our technical expert, the sychost.exe file comes with

the Windows XP Professional system to facilitate blocking access to

internet site (firewall protection). It is also possible that your

computer is infected with a Trojen virus which can create errors

mentioned by you.

 

Most of the largescale servers that facilitate Webhosting have

builtin firewalls to protect against virus infection.

 

regards,

 

Ram Chandran

 

advaitin, "Madathil Rajendran Nair"

<madathilnair> wrote:

> Namaste.

>

> I have experienced a small problem with the Ananda Wood link.

Since

> I peeped in there this morning, I am getting this repeated warning

in

> my system:

[Guest guest]

I can reassure members that none of the files that were uploaded to the

advaita site contain viruses. My own machine is always kept up to date with

the most recent Symantec virus checking data and has a rigorous firewall

(that causes me pain every time I send an email!). It is extremely unlikely

that the server has problems, being maintained by Virgin, who are most

unlikely to operate without high security checking for this sort of thing.

 

I am about to upload two more files to the site:

 

a) on a variety of topics relating to basic questions asked in Advaita, from

articles published over 1996 - 2000 in Times of India and elsewhere.

 

b) on the topic of 'consciousness going out towards objects' and the five

sheaths or kosha-s.

 

The idea of taking one or more of the papers for monthly discussion sounds

good. If Sri Nair is currently reading them, it would be appropriate for him

to identify the best to use (or combination) since there is certainly some

overlap. It is conceivable that Ananda Wood himself might be persuaded to

take part on such a basis.

 

Best wishes,

 

Dennis

[Guest guest]

Namaste:

 

My sincere thanks to Dennisji for posting the important reassuring

message. According to computer experts in my office, the PDF files

created using adobe can't pose any virus problems while downloading

them into your computer.

 

As suggested by Sri Nair and Dennisji, several of the articles in

Dennisji's site (http://www.advaita.org.uk/ananda_wood.htm) can be

taken up for our monthly discussions. This is a great opportunity

for youngsters who want to contribute to the understanding of vedanta

to explore these articles and share them through discussions.

 

warmest regards,

 

Ram Chandran

 

advaitin, "Dennis Waite" <dwaite@a...> wrote:

> I can reassure members that none of the files that were uploaded to

the

> advaita site contain viruses. My own machine is always kept up to

date with

> the most recent Symantec virus checking data and has a rigorous

firewall

> (that causes me pain every time I send an email!).

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

I had the same problem as Nairji. I don't know if this site was the problem or

something else. I was told that this is not a virus and it was a 'worm' , not

that I understand the difference. Anyways, the harm is very minimal. It shuts

down the PC!!

This bug has exposed a hole in the windows operating system. Microsoft has

provided a 'patch' which can be downloaded from this site :

http://microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/virus/al\

erts/msblaster.asp

 

www.symantec.com has a program called fixblast which removes this program from

your machine if you are already infected.

Regards

Guruprasad

 

I

 

Ram Chandran <rchandran wrote:

created using adobe can't pose any virus problems while downloading

them into your computer.