First of all, this body turns sixty-two next week — and for more than three decades I’ve been studying, researching, contemplating, teaching and living an ancient philosophy called Vedanta.

Vedanta is the most profound philosophy. It literally means “the end of knowledge.” Because once you know Vedanta, there is nothing more to be known. You have reached the ultimate realisation of your essential nature.

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But before you reach the ultimate, you live in a world where everything changes. I’ve been a child, a teenager, a young woman, a mature woman, and now I’m entering the later stage of life. In the blink of an eye, I’ll be seventy-two!

That is why I called this publication The Elder Sage.

Everything I write here comes from sincere study, reflection, contemplation, and personal experience. I’m not here to tell you what to believe. Quite the opposite. I encourage you to question. To apply your own intellect and ask, Is this true? Does this stand up to reason? Does it correspond with my own experience?

If it does, keep it. If it doesn’t, leave it.

If you like what you see here, then feel free to share the wisdom of The Elder Sage!

Much of what I’ll be writing about in the near future centres on one distinction that has the power to transform our lives — the difference between the mind and the intellect: manas and buddhi in Sanskrit.

The mind is the seat of our desires, impulses, feelings, emotions, and personal preferences, our likes and dislikes. The intellect is our faculty of clarity, critical thinking, reason, and discernment — and, most importantly, our capacity to observe and manage our mind.

The mind is constantly rambling: moving, like water in a river. The intellect is like the riverbanks. When the banks are strong, the river flows smoothly and safely towards its destination — the ocean. But when the banks are weak, the river floods its surroundings, destroying everything in its path.

Our lives work much the same way.

When our intellect is weak, the mind runs everywhere — wherever it wants. It lives in the past and future, worrying and replaying regrets and anxiously creating unnecessary emotional turmoil.

When the intellect is strong, it guides the mind back to the present. It is like a loving parent caring for a child — not suppressing it, but guiding it with wisdom.

Hope you enjoyed watching my first video here on Substack. Along with the writing, this is the direction I'm taking The Elder Sage.

Thank you for being here.

Till next time, Be Well, Meredith ♾️ The Elder Sage