Can Meditation Wake You Up? What the Upanishads Really Say | What Is Real? Ep 4

Millions of people meditate every morning to get somewhere. Twelve centuries ago, Shankara showed why no action, not even meditation, can produce freedom, and why he still told everyone to practise. Practice cleans the lens. Only knowledge shows what was always there. A Zen master polishes a tile, a lost prince hears who he is, ten travellers forget to count themselves, and the Upanishads give three steps: hear it, question it, live with it. Four questions: 1. Can any action produce freedom? 2. Isn't meditation different? 3. How can words change what you see? 4. So what do I actually do? What Is Real? is a five-part documentary series. The ideas come from the Upanishads, India's oldest writings on the self, as Shankara taught them. Previous: Do You Actually Choose Anything? Next: What Survives When You Die? Start here if you're new: Who Am I?    • Who Are You, Really? Hume, the Buddha and ...   Chapters 0:00 Can you choose not to see the chair? 1:10 The question behind the question 2:23 Q1: Can any action produce freedom? 4:42 Q2: Isn't meditation different? 12:31 Q3: How can words change what you see? 16:12 Q4: So what do I actually do? 20:45 What changes on Monday morning 22:50 Next: What survives when you die? Sources quoted on screen: Shankara's commentaries on the Brahma Sutras (1.1.2, 1.1.4), the Bhagavad Gita (4.18) and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (2.1.20); Kena Upanishad 1.5; Katha Upanishad 1.2.5 and 1.2.7; Mundaka Upanishad 1.2.12; Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.2, 2.3.6, 2.4.3 and 2.4.5; Chandogya Upanishad 6.14.2; Bhagavad Gita 9.2; Nanyue Huairang and Mazu, Transmission of the Lamp; Meister Eckhart; Simone Weil; Goyal et al., JAMA Internal Medicine (2014); Britton lab, PLOS ONE (2017). How this was made: script researched and reviewed by us. Visuals are AI-generated reconstructions and illustrations. Narration uses synthetic voices. What is your practice for? Tell us in the comments. The questions follow the book Not Two, based on the teachings of Yellamraju Srinivasa Rao. #Philosophy #Meditation #WhatIsReal