I AM
Bayazid Al Bistami c. 800–848 or 875 CE The Universal I AM: The Perennial Philosophy of Non-Duality Musicians orchestrate with their instruments, painters with their brush strokes, and writers with their words. These fine artists possess the remarkable power to stimulate the intellect, stir the emotions, and evoke deep sentimentality. Yet, impressive as their artistry may be; it often lacks a definitive endpoint. It creates a beautiful loop within the human experience but frequently leads nowhere beyond the realm of feeling. In contrast, the ultimate fine "art" of the Advaita Vedanta philosopher is the orchestration of pointers toward a single, unchanging reality. It is an artistry that seeks not to stimulate the mind, but to still it - revealing a path that is not a path, leading to the ultimate realization of existence. The great philosophical irony of our world is that while nations, c...