What is Advaita Meditation?

Advaita Meditation takes us directly to the experience of what we really are, our authentic nature, Awareness. It is also called the Direct Path.

Advaita comes from India, from the Upanishads, very ancient texts of wisdom: the Vedanta, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita. It was a Hindu sage, Shankara, of the 8th century who is credited with the beginning of Advaita Meditation.

In the last century, masters such as Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj, transmitted the teachings of Advaita Vedanta in a simple and direct way, without the intermediation of knowledge or philosophical theories, applying the self-inquiry “Who Am I?” / “I Am That”.

“Advaita” is a Sanskrit word that means non-duality, “not-two”. as opposed to the dual mode of how we perceive our usual world where our mind makes us believe that we are separate beings (“dual”: self and world) and that it is not real.

Advaita is not another religion, it is rather the background of all transcendental, spiritual or religious experiences. Non-Duality points to the essential nature of our Self which is perceived as Peace, Love and Beauty.

Non-Duality leads us to the direct experience of what we really Are, of our authentic nature, which we call Consciousness (it is also called God, Presence, Being, Love, Universe, Brahman…) It is called the Direct Path because nothing is needed to experience and practice it. It is about discovering – removing the veil of – That which we already Are.

Advaita is the way of being and being in Life once we have dis-identified from our mind. We HAVE a body, we HAVE a mind and we HAVE thoughts, beliefs and emotions. Instead, we ARE that which is aware of everything, the eternal witness of all that happens, that which I AM when I no longer have anything.

Advaita is about deep understanding – it is not about acquiring intellectual knowledge or seeking mental understanding. The challenge is just that it is about non-mental understanding, it is about rediscovering that space within us that is before and beyond our mind.

Non-Duality means living from the Self, from Beingness, seeing how life parades before us, experiencing the Peace and Stillness that we are, free from the conditioning of the mind.

Versus the usual meditation practices, which are usually aimed at calming and reducing mental activity, Advaita Meditation picks us up from here, with a calm mind. They are an ideal preparation to then start with Non-Duality: going beyond our mind to (re-)identify myself with what I really AM.