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Desires, Moksha, Atman-Brahman, Personality Types, Yogas, Gods, Stages, Karma, Samsara, Maya

Desires, Moksha, Atman-Brahman, Personality Types, Yogas, Gods, Stages, Karma, Samsara, Maya. Gandhi. AUM . The sound from which everything was created The buzz of the Cosmos All vowels included. Big Questions. Polytheism or Monotheism? Personal or Transpersonal?

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Desires, Moksha, Atman-Brahman, Personality Types, Yogas, Gods, Stages, Karma, Samsara, Maya

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  1. Desires, Moksha,Atman-Brahman, Personality Types, Yogas, Gods, Stages, Karma, Samsara, Maya

  2. Gandhi

  3. AUM The sound from which everything was created The buzz of the Cosmos All vowels included

  4. Big Questions • Polytheism or Monotheism? • Personal or Transpersonal? • What is the purpose of life? • What is the purpose of religion? • How are religions paths?

  5. Big Ideas • Big and Little • Self-Emptying • Paths - Different Strokes for Different Folks

  6. The Goal: Moksha, Atman-Brahman "It is only ignorance to regard the seeming separateness of objects in the external world as real. The only true reality is oneness with Brahman, and the only right and true purpose in human life is to realize this oneness. Man's essential duty is to transform his consciousness so that he can become one with Brahman" (Lamb, 27).

  7. Basics • World’s oldest, extremely diverse, constantly adapting • Goal – Atman (soul) Moksha (liberation) from cycle of Samsara (reincarnation), achieve unity with Brahman (universal spirit) by freeing self from earthly desires through discipline (yogas) • Lacks historical founder, organized priesthood, required creed of beliefs.

  8. Hinduism Map

  9. Where?IndiaGanges River (Benares, etc.)

  10. When? • Pre-1500 B.C. Mother goddess cult in Indus Valley • 1400-500 B.C. - Aryan people who wrote the Vedas - Ideas of hierarchies (higher and lower) - beliefs, castes, occupations, etc. emerged

  11. “People are different" • No founder • Four wants • Four major stages of life • Four major stations of life (castes) • Four major paths to God (Yogas) • All approaches to God equally valid

  12. Really Essential Questions • When are you happy? • When are you unhappy? • What is your passion? • When is your work your play? • What does your symbol mean? • What is an experience when words failed you? • What is a symbol/image/picture you would use to depict your image of “God”? • Who is a role model you admire enough to emulate and why?

  13. You can have what you want!

  14. What People Want: Path of Desire • Pleasure – not bad, right for a stage, seek intelligently, won’t last • Worldly success – a) wealth b) fame c) power - more satisfying –involves others

  15. You can have what you want!

  16. Why won’t worldly success last? • Exclusive –hence competitive, precarious • Drive is insatiable • Centers meaning on self, not beyond self • Finite and temporary – not eternal and transcendent – can’t take them with you

  17. The Question All Religion Begins With • "Is this all?“ – Is there More? • Turn from desire when desire turns from you • Toys • Psychological age v. chronological age

  18. What People Really Want: • Path of Renunciation 3. To be needed, useful, helpful - Duty 4. Liberation (“Moksha”) – a) being (sit) b) awareness (chit) c) bliss (ananda)

  19. Human Limitations Goal Obstacle • Joy suffering, unmet desire, boredom • Knowledge ignorance • Being space and time (“I wish you were here”, death, etc.)

  20. The Three Poisons • Desire/Grasping Fire • Aversion/Fear/Hatred Ice • Ignorance/Delusion • Cause all suffering • Reflect Personality types

  21. Caught between fear and desire

  22. Hindu Concept of the Self • Body (caterpillar) • Mind/Personality (conscious and subconscious) (butterfly) • Atman-Brahman (flying)

  23. Atman-Brahman • The Beyond Within • Detachment from finite self, or • Attachment to whole of BEING

  24. Whole One Energy Transcendent Spirit Idea/Word Tao unnamed Brahman – transpersonal, mono Parts Many Matter Immanent – Here/Now Flesh Incarnation/Flesh Tao named Gods – personal, poly Big Picture and Small Picture

  25. All is one – unity with Brahman Being is hierarchical World is multiple Galaxies, accordion Agrees Physics – Big Bang – “pearl” of E, BOOM, “cooled” into matter Physics/Chemistry - Atomic theory – Stuff/Matter Molecules Atoms Subatomic particles, quarks, no mass/diam, etc. Energy Bio/Genetics – Sameness Physics – String Theory? Strings of energy? Parallel Universes? Hinduism and Science

  26. Self is layered entity Body Conscious Mind Subconscious Mind Atman-Brahman Life is Developmental – stages of life, consciousness Samsara – Cycles of death and rebirth Karma – Moral cause and effect Agrees Psychology – levels of consciousness Evolution, psychological theory Happens all the time in nature? – cycles of water, nutrients, etc. What goes around comes around? Hinduism and Science

  27. Parables, Symbols, Rituals, MythsScriptures, etc. • “awake us to realms of gold hidden at the depths of our being” • Express inexpressible in everyday terms, pictures, etc.

  28. Hindu Scripture • Upanishads - section of Vedas discussed relationship between Brahman and Atman • Mahabharata and Ramayana - Long epic poems about a war, a quest • Bhagavad Gita – part of Mahabharata – dialogue between warrior Arjuna and Krishna, lays out essential concepts.

  29. Bhagavad Gita • dialogue btw warrior Arjuna + charioteer Krishna - avatar of Vishnu • Part of Mahabharata - about battle between Pandavas and 100 sons of Dhritarashtra • In 18 Teachings, Krishna lays out much of Hindu philosophy of duty (dharma), moral choice and consequence (karma) and discipline (yoga), as well as the nature of the divine essence (Brahman), and it's relationship to the self (Atman).

  30. Conceptions of God • Personal – God with attributes – creator, loving, powerful, etc. • Impersonal/Transpersonal – God without attributes – Godhead, Universal Essence, etc. Brahman, Tao, Nirvana? YHVH? Spirit? • The Transcendent in the Immanent – Religion expresses the inexpressible in the everyday – Metaphors pointing to truth?

  31. Hindu Concept of God Thou Before Whom All Words Recoil • words fail "like trying to ladle the ocean with a net.“ • Need concrete, use Supreme Person • Saguna Brahman - God w/ attributes - personal • Nirguna Brahman - God w/out attributes - transpersonal - how both? • light = wave and particle • "personal terms" - though not intervening

  32. Hindu Concept of God • Brahman – unnamed, universal, transcendent essence permeating everything – Monotheistic? • Hindu Gods – Polytheistic?

  33. Hindu Trinity • Brahma – Creator • Vishnu – Preserver • 10 Avatars (incarnations • Krishna • Rama • Buddha • Shiva – Destroyer • Destroys the barrier between illusion and reality • Shiva Nataraja • Lord of the Dance

  34. Jot everything you see, and guess what it symbolizes

  35. More Gods

  36. How Many Gods?

  37. The whole aim of Eastern religion is to shift self-identity from the light bulb to the light – • Joseph Campbell

  38. Goal - Awareness • “The only thing that is unqualifiedly good is extended vision, the enlargement of one’s understanding of the ultimate nature of things” (Smith, 8). • For Hindus this vision is the awareness of the essential unity of all things as being one with Brahman • Light Bulb or Light? • Transformation of consciousness

  39. Yoga - The Paths to God • India's obsession: “tap into supreme strength, fullness of wisdom, unquenchable joy within” • Religion = path to higher states of being • People are different – 5 yogas

  40. YOGA • method of training/discipline designed to lead to integration or union • Yoke – your own consciousness to transcendent. • Get rid of Desire and Fear by shifting Consciousness • Defined broadly – the discipline of “following your bliss” (Joseph Campbell) • Different strokes for different folks

  41. Four Personality Traits and Paths: • 1. reflective - knowledge - Jnana yoga • 2. emotional - love - Bhakti yoga • 3. active - work - Karma yoga • 4. experimental – psychophysical experiments – Raja yoga

  42. Hatha Yoga - Preparatory Whereas focus in west is on strength, focus in east is on control

  43. Jnana Yoga • Reflective/Philosophical personality – • Way to God through knowledge of Brahman • Shortest and Steepest Path • Staying “in the zone” • Shift self-ID to eternal part

  44. Bhakti Yoga • Religion (God, ritual) • Emotions, Love • Most popular • Closest 2 Christianity • Loving devotion to/ worship of chosen deity, family god • Like devotion to saints? • Myths, symbols, rituals

  45. Bhakti continued • Japam – Chanting God's name - "washing or weaving, planting or shopping, imperceptibly but indelibly these verbal droplets of aspiration soak down into the subconscious, loading it with the divine." • See God in various human relationships • Puja - Worship of chosen ideal

  46. Karma Yoga • Active Personality • Way to God through work – find your passion, empty self of attachment/desire • Work for God selflessly - in love (bhakti) or detachment (jnana) • Starve the finite ego by detaching self from fruits of labor • Of four yogas, main difference is between jnana and bhakti

  47. Habits to Cultivate First: • non-injury • truthfulness • non-stealing • self control • cleanliness • contentment • self-discipline • compelling desire to reach the goal.

  48. Raja Yoga • Meditation • For the scientific personality • Through “psychophysical experiments • 8 steps (control/tune out body, breathing, senses, etc. deepen mental concentration) • a "determined refusal to allow the pitter patter of daily existence to distract from the unknown demands of some urgency within " - a "total strike" against the routine of existence.

  49. Eight Steps of Raja Yoga 1) 5 Don’t’s - cravings, injury, lying, stealing, sensuality, greed 2) 5 Do’s - cleanliness, contentment, self control, studiousness, contemplation of divine 1 and 2 - clear moral static - achieve calmness in conscience 3) Body - yogic postures work through the body to mind, rid distractions, - lotus position 4) Breathing, reduce air required – “light of lamp does not flicker in windless place” 5) Senses - Control and Tune Out- close doors of perception - Up to now five intrusions - like damming of rivulets, but lake bottom streams and fantasies continue 6) Mind - Focus and Control still active/restless even now, allow thoughts that need release to exorcise themselves 7) Deepen Concentration – deepen to losing self-consciousness 8) Samadhi - state of mind of complete absorption in God, forms fall away, "The knower is united with what is known, been brought to the knowledge of total being, and for a spell, dissolved into it"

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