Dear Advaita Friends,

When Stanley Sobottka organized Advaita Friends, he wrote, “This group is open to all who are interested in the teaching of Advaita, which is the teaching that the only Reality is Awareness.” This ancient teaching is always new in each moment, and we can realize it merely by turning our attention to the root of our awareness. This remains the focus of Advaita Friends, and I invite you to join us, if you share this interest.

Alongside the social activities in Advaita Friends, the group focuses on our common quest: awakening to what we already are—pure, nondual awareness. For me, this quest is grounded in many years of meditative practice, yoga, and personal and academic study of the mystical writings of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Western contemplatives like Meister Eckhart and Thomas Merton. My own practice is guided by the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, the Buddha, Swami Sivananda, Bhante Gunaratana, Neem Karoli Baba, and the Dalai Lama. Helped by these teachers, the journey for me has been a gradual movement from a belief in a separate, isolated self toward the realization that there is only one Self and each one of us is it. Or, in the words of the great Hindu teacher, Shankara, “the personal Self of each knower is Brahman.”

Cordially,

Ken