Table of Contents

Foreword     xvi
Preface     xviii
Introduction     1
A very brief description of Hindu philosophies     4
Sources of the Teaching     6
Summary     15
Discovering Who We Are Not     16
Not the Body     19
Not the Mind     23
Not the Ego     28
Attachment     30
The "Sheaths" that surround our true essence     33
Negation of all that we think we are     35
Who am I?     39
Summary     41
Action, Karma and Free Will     43
Belief that we are a "doer"     43
Nature of Action     48
prakRRiti and the guNa     49
Karma     52
vAsanA-s     54
Karmaphala - the fruit of action     57
saMskAra     58
Death and reincarnation     60
Free Will     67
Resolution     75
No personal karma or free will     81
Summary     84
Identification     84
Only the guNa act     84
Theory of karma     85
Reincarnation     85
Freewill     86
Meaning, Purpose and Happiness     87
Motivation and Meaning     88
Definition of terms     89
Sources of Meaning     90
Goals of Life     104
Pleasure and Happiness     107
Happiness     108
Happiness and the ego     110
Language     115
Desire     117
Desire for Objects     120
Happiness - the Absence of Desire     123
Mechanism of Desire     125
Ananda     127
Happiness is the Nature of the Self     130
Purpose     132
Review of the model of "layers" of reality     136
Summary     142
Motivation and Meaning     142
Happiness     144
Purpose     145
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