New Members Introduction

[Guest guest]

Greetings to All,

The Welcome message for this group suggests that new members post a brief

introduction for the list which I now offer to you all. I am in my fifth decade,

married for

32 years now, with one son, two step-sons, and four step-grandchildren. In 2003

my son

graduated high school in the US and entered university. I decided to go with

him. Being

tired of working for thirty years designing and developing software for large

businesses, a

career in which I am still engaged in order to support my family, and having

come to a

certain realization about the nature of this world and our presence here, I

focused the

majority of my time on studying philosophy. I had never been a good school

student

before and had dropped out of university in my second year back in the

Seventies. Since

returning, I have completed an undergraduate degree in Philosophy and I am now

in my

third year of doctoral studies. I will be teaching a course starting in

September on

Metaphysics and I intend to ignore these phony distinctions between " East " and

" West " , and

will cover the broad range of human understandings about reality, including that

of

Samkara. Thus I have an interest in becoming more conversant with Advaitan

thought.

Along the way, I have always been active beyond family and career. I have, at

various

times, been very involved in the Animal Rights movement in the US, where I

served on the

Board of The Fund for Animals, was a consultant to People for the Ethical

Treatment of

Animals, and Treasurer of the New England Anti-Vivisection Society. I also was

involved

with environmental campaigns locally and nationally in the US and I took part in

1997 as a

member of the NGO delegations lobbying for more realistic targets in the

pre-Kyoto

conferences in New York at the UN. In 1998 I was the 17th elected Green in the

US,

serving as the deputy mayor and police commissioner for a community of 8,000 in

New

York. At the end of my term in 2002 I had finally come to the firm conclusion

that I can

only change myself and was misusing my time trying to change others. It remains

to be

seen how successful I will be dealing with only one subject.

My spiritual background might be considered sparse by the standard of having

studied specific traditions, but I have been blessed (and in a way cursed) by

what can only

be described as smacks in the head, or perhaps interventions, that kept me along

a

certain path. I recognize this and am thankful for it. After thirty years of

coming to this

understanding that I have today, I spent a long time trying to find the words to

express it

and finally succeeded (although some say I still haven't found the right words

;-). I now

find myself able to better understand the teachings of others, because I

understand first-

hand, the difficulties that are inherent in attempting to use language and

pre-existing

tropes of a cultural tradition to convey that which is at best only poetically

expressible.

My interest is focused on nondual philosophy and the anathematization of the

idea of

Mechanism as an explanation for Reality. Both are Sisyphusian tasks when

attempted in

mainstream culture, in my opinion, but I can no longer comprehend how I could

have ever

seen it any other way.

 

James

http://www.anintroductiontoawareness.com

[Guest guest]

--- On Thu, 6/26/08, jamesmcorrigan <james.m.corrigan wrote:

 

 

Greetings to All,

The Welcome message for this group suggests that new members post a brief

introduction for the list which I now offer to you all. I am in my fifth decade,

married for

32 years now, with one son, two step-sons, and four step-grandchildren.

 

Shree James Corrigan - PraNAms.

 

Welcome to the list serve. You have provided very detailed account of yourself.

I saw your website and the book Ad.

 

Can you provide the glimps of your book?.

 

We had some discussion on the mind in the past. There is web site our

co-moderator Shree Dennis Waite maintains - www.advaita.org.uk you may be albe

glimps some articles there on the mind as well intro to Vedanta.

 

Hari Om!

Sadananda

[Guest guest]

Hello Sadananda, Thank you for your welcoming message and for the pointer to Dennis Waite's website. I know his website well and he has kindly hosted a chapter of my book there under Western philosophy I believe. James Corrigan On Jun 26, 2008, at 1:59 PM, kuntimaddi sadananda wrote:--- On Thu, 6/26/08, jamesmcorrigan <james.m.corrigan > wrote:Greetings to All,The Welcome message for this group suggests that new members post a brief introduction for the list which I now offer to you all. I am in my fifth decade, married for 32 years now, with one son, two step-sons, and four step-grandchildren. Shree James Corrigan - PraNAms.Welcome to the list serve. You have provided very detailed account of yourself. I saw your website and the book Ad. Can you provide the glimps of your book?.We had some discussion on the mind in the past. There is web site our co-moderator Shree Dennis Waite maintains - www.advaita.org.uk you may be albe glimps some articles there on the mind as well intro to Vedanta. Hari Om!Sadananda

[Guest guest]

Allow me to join with Sri Sadananda in welcoming James to the

list. I recently finished reading his book ‘An Introduction to Awareness’

and it really is an amazing, Western philosophical approach to non-dualism.

Warning – it makes difficult reading, because James is so precise with

his use of words, coining new usages to match his ideas in much the same way as

we use Sanskrit terms because there are no English equivalents. But it is also

very worthwhile, tackling a wide range of issues, using rigorous logical

argument and comes to conclusions not at all dissimilar from those of advaita.

A chapter from his book may be read at http://www.advaita.org.uk/discourses/teachers/surjectivity_corrigan.htm

and my recommendation of his book at http://www.advaita.org.uk/reading/western.htm#corrigan.

 

 

Best wishes,

Dennis

 

 

 

 

advaitin [advaitin ] On Behalf Of jamesmcorrigan

Thursday, June 26, 2008 6:05 PM

advaitin

New Members Introduction

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greetings to All,

The Welcome message for this group suggests that new members post a brief

introduction for the list which I now offer to you all. I am in my fifth

decade, married for

32 years now, with one son, two step-sons, and four step-grandchildren.