Advaita, step by step
The self, the mind
and everyday life.
These teachings begin with ordinary experience: noticing, thinking, choosing and living with other people. Follow the ideas one at a time.
Start with the chariot →One connected enquiry
Begin with what you notice.
Each topic opens five simple cards. The diagrams follow Back and Next. The connections below each explanation take you to related ideas.
The mind as a chariot
Body, senses, attention and judgement work together.
Read the cards →02How understanding takes root
Hear the teaching, examine it, return to it in life.
Read the cards →03Understanding in meditation
What contemplation aims to make clear.
Read the cards →04The roles we live
Explore a role, a reaction and the awareness of both.
Read the cards →05Five layers of experience
A traditional map of body, mind and enquiry.
Read the cards →06“I am Brahman”
Unpack a central statement of Advaita.
Read the cards →07Dreams, waking and reality
Different ways of speaking about what is real.
Read the cards →08Four aims of a human life
Ethics, security, enjoyment and liberation.
Read the cards →09The teacher and tradition
Swami Paramarthananda and the texts behind these ideas.
Read the cards →Where the ideas come from
These original explanations draw on supplied Ātmavid study notes for Swami Paramarthananda’s Katha Upanishad lecture 24 and Vivekacudamani lectures 111 and 117. The notes are compilations; their exact wording has not been checked against the original recordings.
Each card credits public teaching texts used to check the ideas. Advaita’s accounts of awareness, liberation and ultimate reality are presented as philosophical positions. Everyday examples are original illustrations.
Teacher and recording archive ↗Advaita and nonduality →Explore other philosophical perspectives →