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Khadgar
23 August 2007, 11:58 PM
The following is purely what I believe and what I've been brought up to believe. Before I get started, several things:

I do believe Vedic Philosophy [the crux of the science on the nature of Reality] is at least 8000 years old. In fact, I have a belief that it could be far older still... possibly even to the days of early hominids... not quite homosapiens just yet, but still able to migrate out of Africa.

I am a follower of Sanatani, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, to the best of my abilities [yes I draw spiritual inspiration from all four]

I do believe the hereditary quality of 'caste' is nothing to be proud of [notice I refer to caste, not Varna which is completely different]. It is nothing to proud of because A) I believe pride is self defeating in terms of overcoming the ego. B) If one truly needs something to be proud of, then birthright should certainly not be it. It should come from intention and action [which is where Varna comes in].

On to what I believe:

Vedic Philosophy and the four Karmic Spiritualities, as well as several other Oriental Spiritualities.. revolves around the idea that we are all One ; and that there is no distinguishing between Creator and Creation, simply because through Self Realization, one comes to understand the delusion of the self: to understand that there is no Creator nor Creation and that there never was; but rather an absolute Non-duality. Brahman [ what some people crudely call God], is the Sum Total of all Existence and Non-Existence. And so, in the Ultimate Reality, we as our selves, don’t exist, but are a part of said Ultimate Reality all our “souls” are a part of said Reality.

Essentially, God, Brahman, Heaven, Moksha, Nirvana, Ultimate Reality, The One: are all One and the Same thing; and both existent and non-existent. It is the very foundation as far as I'm concerned, of Vedic Philosophy that the absolute is the non-dual sum-total of All. The Ultimate Reality is One, it is Infinite, it is None simultaneously.

Us, this Universe that we live in, this life, these are all Illusions, including us, ourselves, hiding the very Principle of the Ultimate Reality that we are a part of……

Through the process of Meditation/Wisdom, and positive Karma, and focusing our Devotional Energy [the best way to describe the last one would be ‘praying’ and ‘loyalty’ towards the faith in the existence of the Divine Reality, and the One-ness principle], we channel our consciousness begin to achieve Nirvana: a state of Total Enlightenment. Buddha for example reached this…. And I personally believe Krishna for example reached this….. as did many other great preachers of our world: Mahavir, the Gurus of Sikhi, etc.. Through Nirvana, we are able to achieve Moksha—Liberation.

On Karma [cause/effect, action/reaction, deed/consequence]:
Positive Karma: through positive actions, we also begin to become Self aware of the One-ness principle, through various good deeds, whether in this life, or another.
Negative Karma: through selfish actions, we become less aware, and less ‘conscious’ of the One-ness principle. Murder for example—to cause suffering unto others is a selfish [an act to satiate a desire of some sort] act: and in being a ‘selfish’ act it places more importance on our ‘individual selves’ rather than The Oneness.
*Suicide for example—still causes ‘suffering’ to an individual… even if it’s you. [these ideas get much deeper than that… as one considers ‘intent’ which is equally important… and involve various levels of consciousness and Supreme Consciousness which makes things even more complicate and contemplative but these are the basics (I’ll go into greater detail about killing in self defense in some other post)]…*
Essentially, actions which focus on self tendencies will immerse the individual deeper into the delusion of individuality and identity.
Positive Karma opens one to the window of Realization

On Rebirth/Reincarnation: our Soul-Energy [what I believe is crudely call ‘soul’], is eternal, moving from one life to the next through a process of birth, life, death, and rebirth, and so forth through the flow of infinitesimally small fleeting moments of consciousness called Cittas… giving the appearance of ‘individual’ consciousness. These Cittas are of course , vibrating focal points, filtered into individuality, as a function of Membranes, which in turn are a function of the greater [Universal] Consciousness which in turn is a part of the Super Conscious. Our hope is to break free of this cycle…. To be Liberated: achieve Moksha.

On Consciousness/Soul-Energy: These are essentially one and the same. Soul-Energy is a function of Consciousness, as observed from an individualistic sense: The Causal Ocean of Universes, in the 11th dimension, itself part and parcel of higher causal realities, the infinity of which is a result of Consciousness, contains many universes which themselves become active, undergoing birth, death, and rebirth due to the vibrations of Consciousness. The Membrane of the active universe itself vibrates and ripples due to vibrations of Consciousness. As the Membrane vibrates and ripples and the SuperStrings of the Membrane vibrate along with it, our concept of matter, space, time, energy, and the four forces come into our perception of existence. More importantly, as the Membrane vibrates, it creates the ‘filtered’ form of Consciousness, which in flows in streams of Cittas. The universe is in fact the exact same stream of Cittas which go on to make up each “individual”. The more complex the result of the vibration; the more consciousness goes in to make IT what it is. When something is complex enough, and can be a focal point for enough consciousness, it becomes ‘living’. Only from the individualistic, deluded perspective, this individual stream resonates with a particular greater Conscious frequency or ‘signature’: the Soul Energy. Soul Energy gives the [deluded] appearance of identity over one lifetime to the next, but essentially refers to the same concept, and makes it easier for the everyday person to understand. To look at it more closely, especially in the context of Rebirth:

It is a belief that nearly all Eastern traditions have [and many Native Americans as well as some Celtic traditions] that every lifeform goes through the cycle of Birth, Life, Death, and Birth again. But that's just the simple explanation, and doesn't do much to really get to the heart of what the process is about.

To start, let's first define ‘life’, as we mean it, in the context of Rebirth. What you call ‘Soul’, we refer to as ‘Soul-Energy’, which is very essentially a function of ‘Consciousness’.

First we will talk about the individual ‘consciousness’. Notice I didn’t capitalize it here, because the individual consciousness is different from the Universal Consciousness, which in turn is a function of the Super-Conscious.

“life” is actually composed of and entire series of infinitesimally small moments of consciousness called ‘Cittas’. Each ‘Citta’ maps its impressions—its memories, personality, emotions, onto the next Citta. The [I]seemingly flowing stream of Cittas forms the appearance of the ‘individual consciousness’. Each fleeting moment of consciousness flows, beginning from your birth all the way to your death. And this gives the ‘appearance’ of life. It gives the appearance of the individual self. At death, the FINAL Citta that occurs is called the Death Citta, Right after the Death Citta, the Birth Citta immediately occurs in another body, in a new ‘life’. But your memories and personalities and thoughts and emotions can’t transfer over from a ‘Death Citta’ to a ‘Birth Citta’, because remember that the memories and such are contained ONLY as a function of the individual Cittas, they are a function of the streams of consciousness just like your body is. And so, your mind, your memory, personality and such, would ‘die’ along with your old ‘life’—information of your old ‘life’ still exists in the Cosmos, but they wouldn’t be readily recoverable by the new body, at least not in the everyday individualistic sense].

That’s essentially the processes of Rebirth… a seemingly endless flowing stream of Cittas, and the flow of one ‘life’ to the next is just a function of this Flow.

But this is still just a very basic analysis of the process. We need to go deeper. We talked about this before, but let’s go more in-depth by analyzing our Universe:

There are things which we can readily identify in THIS Universe: [B]Matter, Space, Time, Energy, Gravity, Electromagnetism, Weak Nuclear Force, Strong Nuclear Force. Matter as we know can be further broken down into Protons, Neutrons, Electrons, which in turn are further broken down into Quarks…. This is the Quantum Realm. Quarks/Bosoms are essentially the building blocks of the ‘things’ in this universe. Force Particles for example make up the four Forces, and there are other Quarks dedicated to the formation of Matter/Energy, etc. Basically it is at this point that the lines between what ‘Matter’ is or what ‘Time’ is blurs…

But these themselves can simplified even further. They are broken down into ‘Strings’ and the ‘Membrane’…. I’m simplifying this A LOT. But essentially we’re talking about ‘Superstring Theory and Membrane Theory’. And these are essentially ‘extra dimensions’ of this Universe.

These ‘dimensions’ make up everything that you experience around you. Your mind is part and parcel of your body which in turn is a function of ‘things’ in this Universe, and therefore a function of ‘strings’. Now, when we say that ‘strings’ and the Membrane make up everything… we don’t mean that the are all ‘pieced together’ to form an atom. What we’re talking about is that these strings, and the Membrane vibrates. And it’s from these vibrations that matter/energy/etc. emanates. …. They FLOW from the Membrane. There is enough Physics there to mathematically show this. Most of which I don’t understand, I really only have a rudimentary knowledge of.

What Eastern traditions: Vedic Philosophy, Buddhism, Sanatani/Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Taoism, etc. teaches is that Consciousness—and now we’re talking about Universal Consciousness—is the reason that the Membrane vibrates. In fact, the Membrane is a FUNCTION of Consciousness. And each individual Citta is actually part and parcel of this Membrane, and in fact Flow as One with this Membrane. The individual consciousness is just as much a part of this Universe [this Membrane], and as such a function of the Universal Consciousness.

And as we analyze this in the context of Membrane Theory: And more important are the implications: There is only ONE Membrane… and Mathematically speaking there are simultaneously an infinite number of strings AND only One string AND no string at all! In fact there is simultaneously One Membrane and None at all. Which again is part and parcel of Eastern teachings: Everything that you see around you is just a ‘delusion’. Everything BOTH exists and doesn’t exist simultaneously… but we only ‘experience’ an individualistic sense of the Universe, when in Reality, there’s no difference between Existence and Non-Existence. You see the only way TRUE Existence can be Realized would be to fully Realize the Membrane and Beyond. But at such a point, one would also Realize Non-Existence as well. But the implications are clear: the individual self DOESN’T really exist! And since the Membrane itself is a function of the Universal Consciousness, the ONLY thing that really both Exists and ‘Doesn’t Exist’.

On ‘life’: Life involves SUFFERING…… that’s what we’re doing here, we’re suffering. And there’s plenty of it in the world. Through good Karma, we can alleviate suffering, as the ‘cause and effect’ principle dictates. Do good and good will happen for you…. [this is very simplistic, but you get the idea]. Through good deeds [positive Karma], we realize our “Selfless-ness” and are able to achieve Moksha.
---On Happiness: We believe… as this ties in with Nirvana, Enlightenment would dictate, that to be truly HAPPY in life, one must reduce/give up worldly desires; one must reduce self tendencies so as to not be caught up in the delusion of the individual self. It is because we are caught up in self tendencies that we will continue to be trapped in the cycle of Rebirth. We will be forced to live again and suffer the trials of life: becoming a slave to our desires and the frailty of the delusional individualistic identity that comes with it: getting sick, getting old, getting hurt, dying. Happiness is inversely proportional to desires.

On Moksha: Upon achieving Nirvana [whether in mid life, through meditation, or at the end of one’s life, through good Karma], we are Enlightened to the simultaneous Existence and Non-Existence of Brahman, the Ultimate Reality…. And we REALIZE the full extent of what It truly entails. In life we are at peace with ourselves, and our surroundings, and others, and the Universe [and beyond] in general. This Self Realization brings us the understanding that there is no ‘us’. We ‘see’ the delusion of everyday rigors for what it is, and we understand, through the realization of greater levels of Consciousness, the infinity of Consciousness, and then come to see it as the infinity of Everything-ness and Nothingness. Upon death we shed the mortal coil indefinitely, and cease to exist as individuals [which, of course, we never really were.. and never really existed as such, according to Vedic Philosophy]. From the individualistic perspective we flow back unto the Ultimate Reality and Exist/Non-Exist solely as The One. We can also see this as no longer being a function of the Cittas, as our individual Cittas have stopped flowing, and as such we Exist/Non-Exist in one infinitesimally small moment, unto eternity, such that there is no ‘Cittas’, but rather, pure Consciousness: Beyond Univeral Consciousness, we are at the Super-Conscious. We ARE Super-Consciousness: We exist, we exist not. We are infinite, we are nothing, we are Non-dually One.



Again, yes this is what I believe, I know many might disagree with me.

satay
24 August 2007, 11:12 AM
Namaskar!

Thank you for sharing this with hDfpuri dewllers. I enjoyed reading it.

Khadgar
24 August 2007, 12:16 PM
Namaskar!

Thank you for sharing this with hDfpuri dewllers. I enjoyed reading it.


Thank you. Now do you see where I'm coming from?

satay
24 August 2007, 01:46 PM
Now do you see where I'm coming from?

In what way?

I am unable to understand why your explanation of your belief here justifies you saying that



Yajur was not a spiritual book by any means

Khadgar
24 August 2007, 06:15 PM
In what way?

I am unable to understand why your explanation of your belief here justifies you saying that

I'll recant that for now. But in reality, why should a 'book' be spiritual? Spirituality is within you, the book might give you guidance [some better than others], but in the end it's all you.

To me, as one who is looking for something that can open that door, it seems the Rig Ved and the Upanishads and the Gita does the best job.

satay
24 August 2007, 11:18 PM
I'll recant that for now. But in reality, why should a 'book' be spiritual? Spirituality is within you, the book might give you guidance [some better than others], but in the end it's all you.

To me, as one who is looking for something that can open that door, it seems the Rig Ved and the Upanishads and the Gita does the best job.

In other words Rig and Upanishads and Gita give you more guidance than the Yajur.

Khadgar
25 August 2007, 09:39 PM
In other words Rig and Upanishads and Gita give you more guidance than the Yajur.


True.