Inner Life, Talks and Thoughts Ramana Maharshi in the West and Transcendence Revisited. A conversation with Clare Carlisle
Jan 15, 2026
Clare Carlisle, philosopher at King’s College London and author of Transcendence for Beginners, reflects on death, spiritual pilgrimage to Arunachala, Ramana Maharshi’s awakening, and why Western thinkers were drawn to Indian spirituality. Short, probing takes on mystical testimony, miracles, incarnation debates, Spinoza, and the risks of chasing ecstatic experience.
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Philosophy Rooted In Life Experience
- Clare Carlisle argues philosophy is always done from a lived perspective and cannot be purely objective.
- Her mourning of her mother shaped her philosophical inquiry and approach to writing about loss and meaning.
Meeting A Cave-Dweller On Arunachala
- Clare recounts meeting a young man living in a cave during a trip to India as a touristial encounter with Ramana's world.
- She frames her role as a non-expert spiritual tourist who learns through curiosity rather than scholarship.
Awakening As Grace, Not Just Experience
- Clare questions the idea that a single mystical 'experience' is the transformative core of spiritual life.
- She explains Ramana saw awakening as grace drawing him, not as an experiencer achieving an experience.
