Yoga of Radiant Presence

 

Yoga of Radiant Presence

 

 

Yoga of Radiant Presence with Peter Brown

https://www.facebook.com/groups/987254385402454/

 

The Texture of Being – Explorations in Peter Brown’s Work

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1714135629525745/?ref=share&_rdr

 

Rob Matthews

https://www.facebook.com/groups/987254385402454/user/679381516/

 

 

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You Are This: The Certainty of Radiant Presence

 

A Talk from the Retreat of March 23, 2020

 

We’re here to explore the yoga of radiant presence.

Radiant presence is reality.

Radiant presence is this immediate actuality – right here, right now.

Comprehensive. It’s what is.

Ordinarily, the presence of your reality may seem very complex.

It may seem to be you. It may seem to be your world, your body, your personality, other people, other things –

a vast array of conditions and things that appear separate from each other.

But in actual fact, there’s only one thing present:

This radiant presence – this reality right here – is the one thing that is.

Its nature is peculiar, because it seems to be all these different things.

It seems so complex, with many implications, many situations, many problems.

But that complexity is only how it’s interpreted by intelligence.

In truth, it is one thing.

One system.

One being.

And this being is you.

This being is God.

This being is the Atman.

This being is reality.

And it is nothing other than this – right here, right now.

So, there is a process of being with this, exploring this, discovering that it is not the complexity we think it is.

It is not the partialization we assume.

You are not the limited being you may be used to imagining.

By exploring the present actuality of experience, right here, right now,

you discover this one condition – this radiant presence –

this is what is present, this is what you are.

And as you discover this, the implications of what’s occurring – of what you are – change drastically.

We’re all familiar with the normal human worldview:

You are a limited person in a vast environment,

in a more or less precarious position,

struggling to survive, to succeed, to be happy, to secure your needs.

Right now, we seem to be in a precarious social situation.

People are uncertain about what’s going to happen,

unsettled by implications and possible problems.

But the implication of radiant presence is one of eternal fullness, richness, completeness, meaningfulness, profundity –

Beyond space and time.

And this is the actuality that is here.

This is what you are.

As you discover this through your own exploration,

you come to appreciate – and enjoy – the lusciousness of this implication,

by contrast with the paltriness of personal identity and consensus reality.

And the beautiful thing is:

you get to have your cake and eat it too.

You don’t lose your human personality.

You don’t lose your life.

You don’t lose your identification.

But you discover that all these are partialized modes

within this transcendental completeness that is actually present –

modes through which it expresses itself.

So –

Feel your being.

You are.

This is – right here, right now.

Feel this.

Notice that you are feeling it.

Notice that you cannot not feel it.

You know this is.

You know you are.

Feel this knowing.

Feel its richness, its certainty.

This is undeniable.

It is self-verifying.

It doesn’t depend on belief.

It doesn’t depend on ideas.

This is certainty.

Notice that you know this.

That you feel this.

That you are this.

That’s the implication:

What does it feel like?

What does being feel like?

What does your presence feel like?

It’s comprehensive.

It includes everything.

It supports everything.

Being supports you.

Being supports your world.

Being supports itself –

and yet, it is supported by nothing.

By nothing.

Being seems simple – we take it for granted.

We know we are, but we don’t attend to it.

It seems boring, hidden, uninteresting.

But in fact, it’s the other way around.

Being is the most important thing.

Being is fullness.

Being is richness.

Being is what everything is,

and where everything comes from.

It’s what you are.

It’s what your intelligence is.

It’s what your power is.

It’s what your functionality is –

just simply this being, right here.

And the way that’s so is known directly:

by feeling it.

By exploring it.

It will show you what it is.

It will show you how it is what it is.

Radiant presence is a very strange condition.

Unlike anything we are used to thinking of.

It is one thing – completely and entirely itself –

yet infinitely differentiated within itself.

But those differentiations don’t depart from it.

They don’t add to it or subtract from it.

They are flavors of apparition,

occurring within it as its expression, as its being.

But in itself, it is unaffected by what appears within it.

This is very difficult to think about.

It’s paradoxical.

It’s unthinkable.

Illogical.

Irrational.

But it doesn’t need to be conceived.

Simply feel it.

And you will have it for yourself –

the way that this is so.

Why It’s Better to Doubt Than to Know

 

Why It’s Better to Doubt Than to Know

 

 

I just graduated with a philosophy degree. Here’s my message to the Class of 2025.

Why it’s better to doubt than to know.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/06/25/graduation-speech-northwestern-doubt/

 

 

June 25, 2025

 

By Clary Doyle

 

Clary Doyle was the undergraduate student speaker at Northwestern University’s 2025 commencement. Her address to classmates has been edited lightly.

 

 

Today, I receive a degree in philosophy. Which, as many of my relatives have pointed out, means it may be a long time before I pay off my loans. So, I am both literally and figuratively indebted to Northwestern because I got to spend the past four years trying to answer questions like: What is the meaning of life? How should I live? And what is the right thing to do?

 

But I’ll let you in on a secret in my field: Philosophers are less concerned with finding the right answers and more concerned with asking the right questions. No one is quite as famous for this as Socrates. When the Oracle of Delphi supposedly prophesied that he was the wisest man in Athens, Socrates was shocked because he was sure that he knew nothing. He then went around all of Athens, meeting with those who called themselves wise, and asked them questions to find out what they knew. And what he discovered was that they, too, knew nothing. So, indeed, he was the wisest man, because at least he knew that he knew nothing.

 

I know it may seem ironic to focus on Socrates now, considering we are here receiving diplomas that signify that we know at least something. But I think the story of Socrates resonates profoundly with us today because there’s a lot we don’t know.

 

We don’t know what our lives will be like out in the real world, if it will be as easy to make friends with co-workers as it was with the people in our dorms, or if we will manage to land our dream jobs as doctors, actors, musicians, politicians and entrepreneurs. And even larger uncertainties loom on the horizon: Will our generation overcome climate change or will it overcome us? How will AI alter the fabric of society? Will institutions like Northwestern remain strong for years to come?

 

I won’t stand up here and pretend to know the answers. But I want to say something about uncertainty and about doubt, and suggest that it’s not quite as bad a thing as we make it out to be.

 

I grew up in a religious town, to a religious family. My entire life everyone around me championed faith — belief in the unknown and a steadfast trust that things would work out. They urged me to set my doubts aside, but I remember, even back then, my dissatisfaction with blind faith. I pestered our parish priest with questions about why we ought to do what God said, why women couldn’t be priests, and how we could know if God was real.

 

I came to Northwestern to find answers to the questions I felt like I wasn’t answering back home, and the first place I looked was in a small pub in Evanston, Ill. called the Celtic Knot. Every Thursday, Northwestern’s best and nerdiest would gather to debate questions like: What is the ideal political system? Is it wrong to not be vegan? Should Truman have dropped the bomb? Every week, I would come in confident with an answer, only to have that answer tested and critiqued, and I left each meeting, without fail, with more questions and more doubts.

 

What I learned at Northwestern was not what I expected, but essential nonetheless. I learned how to accept academic setbacks and rejections, to forgive others and myself, and I certainly learned to never underestimate the weather. But the most important thing I learned was to doubt.

 

At Northwestern, I did not find faith in my ideas. Instead, I was challenged by my peers, pushed to reconsider my views about morality and, importantly, I learned to be comfortable with doubt. And this is crucial because it is only if we consider that we may be wrong about some things that we could ever change our minds.

 

We are now in an unprecedented moment in history in which universities like ours are under attack. And why? Because some people believe that in universities we are being inculcated into the cult of science and liberal ideology. But, in fact, the real reason is because we are not being taught faith. We are not learning to blindly believe. We are learning to doubt and to question and to criticize. And, make no mistake, it is precisely this skill that is powerful and is being attacked.

 

Not dissimilarly, the Athenians sentenced Socrates to death for quote “corrupting the youth” because he taught his students to question and doubt. And, while they did succeed in killing Socrates, they could not keep his wisdom from spreading. Thousands of years later, we still read the Socratic dialogues, and we still believe that there is wisdom in not knowing, power in questioning and hope in the ability to change our minds.

 

So as you all go on to accomplish great things, remember this: None of us came to Northwestern because we already knew things. We came because we had questions. And the reason we are standing here with diplomas, leaving Northwestern, is not because we have clear answers, but because we have deep doubts.

 

And while the world we live in is frightening, my wish is that we embrace this aspect of our education and continue to ask questions. Graduation speeches usually end with a call to change the world, but the truth is, the world will change whether you do anything about it or not. So instead, I encourage you to do something much harder, something more important, and that is to change your minds.

Walter Russell

 

Walter Russell

 

 

Wikipedia: Walter Russell

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Russell

 

Goodreads Quotes: Walter Russell

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/78945.Walter_Russell

 

Wikiquote: Walter Russell

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Russell

 

AZ Quotes: Walter Russell

https://www.azquotes.com/author/22931-Walter_Russell

 

Youtube: The Universal One

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc9ZEJ0RVbo

 

Amazon: Walter Russell Books

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=walter+russell+books&i=stripbooks&crid=QG9SRDRTYP7N&sprefix=Walter+Russe%2Cstripbooks%2C180&ref=nb_sb_ss_p13n-pd-dpltr-ranker_3_12

 

 

What did Walter Russell believe?

 

Walter Russell (1871-1963) was a polymath known for his unique cosmological and philosophical theories. He believed that everything in the universe is a manifestation of one universal light, a white, undivided, and motionless magnetic light of mind. He saw this light as the source of all creation, vibrating into wave forms and following natural law to form the physical universe.   Here's a more detailed look at his beliefs:

 

The Universe is Light:

Russell's central idea was that all of reality is a manifestation of the Universal One, a singular, undivided light.

 

Creation as Vibration:

He believed that the Universal Light vibrates, creating wave forms that give rise to the physical world.

 

Natural Law as the Art of Creation:

Russell's theories emphasized that creation follows natural laws, which he viewed as the "art of God's universe of Light".

 

Truth as Simple and Balanced:

He believed that true understanding of the universe is simple and that balance is essential in all aspects of existence.

 

The Importance of Inner Mind:

Russell stressed the importance of the inner mind, or spirit, and the power it holds for creating and understanding the universe.

 

Balancing Opposites:

His philosophy often highlighted the need to understand and balance opposing forces within the universe, such as light and shadow, positive and negative, and cause and effect.

 

Rejection of Conventional Science:

Russell challenged some aspects of mainstream science, particularly in areas like atomic and quantum theory.

 

Alchemy and the Transmutation of Elements:

Russell's work sometimes included connections to alchemy and the concept of transmuting elements, suggesting a spiritual or transformative aspect to the universe.

 

The Importance of Free Energy:

He explored the possibility of harnessing free energy, echoing the ideas of Nikola Tesla.

 

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Walter Russell, a polymath known as an author, artist, philosopher, and scientist, developed a philosophy focused on a unified, universal principle of rhythmic balanced interchange. His core idea was that the universe is founded on a single, unchanging cause that manifests as a multiplicity of changing effects. He believed that understanding this fundamental principle could lead to a more complete understanding of ourselves and the universe.

 

Key aspects of Walter Russell's philosophy:

 

The Science of Being and Expressed Being:

Russell posited a unified continuum between the invisible world of cause (consciousness, energy, intuition) and the visible world of effect (light, matter, life).

 

Truth is Simple:

Russell believed that the fundamental truths of the universe are simple and that complexity arises from our perception of them.

 

Balance is Simple:

He emphasized the importance of balanced, rhythmic interchange as the foundation of creation.

 

The Universal One:

Russell's concept of the "Universal One" is a single, indivisible force that underlies all existence.

 

Rhythmic Balanced Interchange:

Russell saw the universe as a dynamic process of constant creation and destruction through rhythmic balanced interchange of opposing forces.

 

Light as a Foundation:

He viewed light as a fundamental aspect of the universe, connecting cause and effect, consciousness and creation.

 

Major Works:

The Secret of Light: Outlines Russell's philosophy of the unified continuum between cause and effect.

The Universal One: Explores the concept of the single, unifying force of the universe.

A New Concept of the Universe: Presents Russell's cosmogony and his critique of modern science.

 

Influence and Legacy:

Russell's ideas have resonated with many seeking a deeper understanding of the universe and their place within it. His work has been influential in various fields, including art, science, and philosophy. Despite not being widely accepted by mainstream science during his time, his ideas continue to be explored and debated. 

 

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Walter Russell was a multifaceted figure, including an artist, architect, and philosopher, whose writings explore the nature of the universe, consciousness, and the human spirit. Here are a few of his notable quotes:

 

The genius remains an ever-flowing fountain of creative achievement until the very last breath he draws.

 

Each man is thus empowered to uplift all men as each drop of water uplifts the entire ocean.

 

Mediation transports one from the transient world of matter to the real world of dreamings.

 

The world needed to suffer in order to understand the simplest of universal principles, the unity of man with man and with God.

 

All dimension is an illusion, an appearance, due to rising potential, which must disappear into its inevitable sequence of lowering potential, and again appear in endless cycles of appearance, disappearance and reappearance.

 

I believe that there is but ONE THINKER in the universe; that my thinking is His thinking, and that every man's thinking is an extension, through God, of every other man's thinking.

 

The time has come in the history of man's journey from his material jungle to his spiritual mountain top when it is imperative that he must live more and more in the cosmic Light universe of knowing, and less in the electric wave universe of sensing.