Patanjali, who created the Universe?

(Anand Universe Official)

Patanjali and the Yoga Sutras for union with the divine

 

"Yoga" is much more than poses and balance.

The Indian Sage Patanjali, author or compiler of the Yoga Sutras or "Aphorisms on Union" since they are not discourses (sutras) but rather terse sayings followed by brief explanations on the ultimate goal of Yoga ("Union").

All that we in the West call "yoga" are the poses, some breathwork (pranayama), and some chanting or repeating the names of the divine (japa).

But, in fact, the Eightfold Path of Yoga (Ashtanga, Raja, or Integral Yoga) combines a system of practices mirroring the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path, which was radically popular at the time, two millennia ago when the ancient yogi rishi Patanjali compiled his text to set out the ancient Vedic approach to "union with the divine."

They are not the same path, and they do not lead to the same goal, but they often use the same general terms, such as moksha (Pali vimutti) to describe "liberation from samsara." For the Brahmin priests of olde, "liberation" or "emancipation" was rebirth in Brahma's heaven.

• Brahma means "supreme" and was the personal God of the Brahmin priests, The Supremo, even though some understood that there was a higher truth, an impersonal "Ultimate Reality" behind all the illusion of maya called Brahman, the godhead or godhood; this distinction is crucial but as the words are so similar, some may miss the distinction and fall into wrong views about what the Vedas taught and how the Brahmin caste priests interpreted the ancient "Knowledge Books" of ancient proto-India when it was Maha Bharat and a likely remnant of the more ancient Indus Valley Civilization.
• The Hindu concept of BRAHMAN being impersonal brings it very close to a Buddhist understanding of the universe, whereas the Buddha rejected the Vedas, the concept of Great Brahma as the creator of the universe, and most Brahminical ideas of the Old Vedic Religion which he revivified by explaining in novel ways lost to the Brahmin rishis and scholar priests who were unable to explain many tough passages and instead speculated and wrangled and had fallen into wrong views.

The Buddha made known the path to all destinations

The Buddha and Early Buddhism did not advocate any spiritual seeker to remain in samsara (the Cycle of Rebirth and Death), which is what "rebirth with Brahma" means.

• Buddhist cosmology

Moreover, the Buddha taught the way to rebirth in Brahma's retinue, the path to rebirth as a brahma (including Great Brahma, of which there is only one per each "world system" or cakkavala. This is possibly a reference to a "universe" in the multiverse, a solar system, or a galaxy like the Milky Way, of which there are countless all like bubbles).

Brahmins (now Hindus) believes this will then be their final permanent destination, the end of further rebirths in samsara, with no possibility falling away, other brahmas, devas, and Noble Ones in the Pure Abodes -- as well as rebirth on the human plane, 30 other Planes of Existence -- and best of all, ultimate bliss and peace: the END of all further rebirth (nirvana).

• Anand Universe Official; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly

What is an 'enlightened' person?

Blissful, effervescent yogi as a result of persistent effort and letting go (yogatailor.com)

   

When I began, it wasn't easy then a breakthrough

In Buddhism a fully enlightened (bodhi) or awakened, a non-deluded or fully realized person is called an arhat (Pali, arahant). What does it mean?

It is the purification of view (ditthi), not personality. A person may continue to have his or her quirks, preferences, habits, and so on. The miraculous transformation that brings one from ordinary personhood into the Sangha of the Noble Ones (the Community of the Aryans) may not be visible at all to the casual observer. The Buddha said a person should not judge except after looking for a long time, reserving judgment and observing the person's character. It is not omniscience, not all-knowing awareness, not perfect perfection, not enlightened social views.

This is Buddhist "sainthood," but Buddhist saints are not like the saints of any other tradition. What is a "saint" to the world? It is someone who has temporarily suppressed the defilements and therefore appears "saintly" (moral, kind, wise, immaculate, and so on, often possessing mystic or magic powers to "prove" it. These things are all brought about by the jhanas, samadhi, and are very special but not necessary for full enlightenment.

It has a very precise meaning. Let us begin where we are -- in a state of delusion. We live in an illusion in the sense of not understanding what is actually there in front of us. What do we see? We see permanence, stability, solidity. We see enduring satisfaction, happiness, and fulfillment.

We see a self, identify with it, and imagine ourselves owners. An arhat is a spiritual practitioner who has realized four stages of attainment. The implications of the term vary based on the respective schools and traditions. The oldest surviving Buddhist school links these developmental stages to the dropping away of the ten bonds or "fetters" (samyojana). These are distinct from the Five Hindrances (nivarana), "taints" (asavas, cankers, inflows, outflows, biases), and defilements (kilesas).

1. personality-belief or the wrong view that there is, ultimately speaking, a self
2. pernicious skeptical doubt about the path
3. clinging to the belief that enlightenment can be gained by the practice of mere rules and rituals
4. sensuous craving or strong five-sense strand desire
5. ill-will or aversion
6. craving for fine-material existence
7. craving for immaterial existence
8. conceit, the subtle, persistent habit of conceiving in terms of self
9. restlessness
10. ignorance

The Buddha gave very exact meanings for each of these impediments as well as the stages of Buddhist sanctity as these ten bonds are uprooted and cut off. How this is accomplished is also not a matter of speculation. The Buddha laid out the path, and as one progresses one has a vision of what is path and not-path.
  
There is no entering upon the first stage of enlightenment without an experiential grasp of not-self or egolessness. This is the hardest thing. And it is on account of it that the Buddha did not recognize "saints" in traditions outside the Dharma he made known. Indeed, there were very great beings with great attainments in concentration, wisdom, and mystical powers -- yet they were not free, liberated, emancipated from the cycle of rebirth and suffering. They were, at best, only temporarily sojourning in exalted heavens to fall again after staggering lifespans.

In many Christian schools today, "saint" simply means someone in heaven or guaranteed to be reborn in heaven. There are relatively few, while we comfort ourselves that every nice person ends up among the elect. The sad fact is that this is simply a comforting belief we cling to because the truth, and our associated views, are too much to bear.

1. Meditators free of the first three bonds are stream-enterers or stream-winners -- capable of being reborn a maximum of seven more times, guaranteed to become arhats.
2. Those who have in addition abandoned the grosser forms of the fourth and fifth as well are called once-returners, who might return to (be reborn in) this world, the lowest good rebirth within the Sensual Sphere, no more than once.
3. Those who are fully freed from the first five "lower" fetters (binding beings to the Sensual Sphere) are non-returners, who do not return to (are not reborn in) this sphere.
4. Those who are freed from all ten bonds are called arhats, that is, worthy ones, perfected ones, "holy" (whole, with integrity, integrated, wholesome) or accomplished ones.

Later schools developed different goals, such as the bodhisattva ideal -- the idea that vowing to strive to be a teaching buddha was not only possible but preferable to the goal the historical Buddha encouraged and taught the way to, that of the arhat who reaches safety (the stream) in this very life. Becoming a stream winner (one who has glimpsed nirvana) means that for the first time in this beginningless samsara one has put a limit on suffering. With no more than seven lives to undergo, which can mean millions of years of suffering (i.e., being disappointed) in delightful sensual and fine-material (even a few immaterial) "heavens" before nirvana. The Buddha was an arhat.

In the Early Buddhist schools

Bodhisattva Simpson (Concerning Art)

A range of views on the relative "perfection" of arhats existed among early Buddhist schools. In general, the Mahāsāṃghika branch -- such as the Ekavyāvahārikas, Lokottaravādins,^[9] Bahuśrutīyas,^[10] Prajñaptivādins, and Caitika^[11] schools -- advocated the transcendental and supermundane nature of buddhas and bodhisattvas, and the fallibility of arhats.^[12] The Caitikas, for example, advocated the ideal "career" choice of the bodhisattva (bodhisattva-yāna) over that of the arhat (śrāvaka-yāna) and viewed arhats as fallible and still subject to ignorance.^[13]
   
According to A.K. Warder, the Sarvāstivādins held the same position as the Mahāsāṃghika branch regarding arhats, considering them imperfect and fallible.^[14]
  
The Kāśyapīya school also held the doctrine that arhats were fallible and imperfect, similar to the view of the Sarvāstivādins and the various Mahāsāṃghika sects.^[15] Moreover, the Kāśyapīyas believed that arhats have not fully eliminated desires, that their "perfection" is incomplete, and that it is possible for them to relapse.^[16]

  

How the word is derived

Guru Homer (livejournal.com)

The exact etymology and interpretation of Sanskrit words such as arhat remains disputed. In the Theravada tradition, and in early PTS publications, the word is interpreted to mean "worthy one."
  
This has been challenged by more recent research. Comparing ancient Indian forms arahanta and arihanta^[2] in Pali and early Jain Prakrit languages results in the alternative etymology "foe-destroyer" or "vanquisher of enemies."
  
This corresponds to the Jain definition.^[3] The latter challenges the assumption that the root of the word is Pali araha (Sanskrit, arha). Richard Gombrich has proposed an etymology of ari + hanta, bringing the root meaning closer to jina (an epithet commonly used for both the Buddha and Mahavira, the leaders of the Jains and Buddhists.^[4]

  

Arhat was translated into East Asian languages phonetically as a transliterated term, exemplified in the Chinese āluóhàn, often shortened to simply lohan. However, the Tibetan term was translated by meaning from Sanskrit as dgra bcom pa, which translates as, "one who has destroyed the foes of afflictions."^[5] This Tibetan translation of the meaning conforms with the Jain definition as well.

  

Arhat occurs as arhattā in the Rigveda^[6] and as the first offer of salutation in the main Jain prayer, the Namokar Mantra. Based on a possible Sanskrit etymology, Arhant can be translated as deathless since hant in Sanskrit means "death or killing" and ar is often used for negation, implying "cannot be killed" or "beyond death" or "deathless."

• Buddhist Podcast, June 10, 2025; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit Arhat (Buddhism), 7/11/12

How to know if you're enlightened

.

Think about it. An enlightened* person not knowing she's enlightened is not that bad, but an unenlightened person thinking he is, that's not good. That's wrong view that could lead to trouble.

• *Enlightened: Aryan, the Noble Ones, those along any of the any of the stages of awakening, meaning the various kinds of stream enterers, once returners, non-returners, and the fully enlightened arhats, which some could argue are the only real "enlightened" (bodhi) ones.

By practice, an ordinary human can reach it.

There is a strange characteristic feature of enlightened persons. Look within and check for it: They don't compare themselves to others. This is odd because, are they better or worse than others? They don't know in the sense that it does not occur to them to think it, ponder it, ask, or make comparison. (They're better, of course, from our point of view but not from theirs).

Do they have an inferiority complex, a superiority complex, or do they see themselves as EQUAL to others? Go back to the key sentence. They don't compare themselves to others and, therefore, they are neither nor the other. This was mind-blowing to see because, well surely from their point of view, the "nice" thing would be to think themselves equal to us, the lowly uninstructed (and therefore ignorant) worldlings.

• "Ignorant" sounds bad, but it just means we don't know yet, so it includes everyone. Even God (Brahma, Jehovah/YHWH/Yahweh, Allah, Asherah, Astarte, El, Elohim, Demiurge, Flying Spaghetti Monster, etc.) is not omniscient, but there are two kinds of buddhas who may be, the samma-sam-buddha and the pacceka-buddha, the "supremely enlightened" and the "silent (nonteaching) enlightened." The Buddha was the first kind, and it is said that he could lay claim to being omniscient not in the sense that he knew everything all the but in the sense that he could know anything he put his mind to. (Things are not fixed, so did he really know what was going to happen or only what was most likely to happen?)

And this brings us to the next point, which is equally view-shattering: Do regular fully enlightened arhats know everything? I mean, it says "fully" right in their title, and if they have no ignorance, they must have full knowledge. No, they do not, far from it.

Not only can arhats likely not explain Buddhism, they may not know much of anything else (academic subjects, life lessons, trivia). They just happen to know the most important things, that which the Buddha was wise enough to winnow out and focus on. All the other things might be nice, but they are not essential for waking up.

What will I wear when I awaken, white linen with a Nehru collar? (arenasport.com)

• In Goenka's book, there's a wonderful parable called "Swimology." It goes something like this: One day, as the ship is about to leave safe harbor for the open seas, the young captain on his maiden voyage takes on an older able-bodied sailor who looks like he's been at sea all his life. The ship soon runs into trouble and gets lost. The captain consults the old sailor for help reading the map. But that salty seadog snaps back: "I don't know mapology!" The captain says, "You travel the sea but can't read a map? You wasted a quarter of your life!" In the hot sun, the men run out of water and start complaining. The captain asks the old sailor to fix the cistern, but he snaps back: "I don't know hydrology." The captain says, "You live on a ship depending on water, but you never learned plumbing? You wasted two quarters of your life!" Before long, they're completely lost, going in circles, running out of supplies. The captain orders him to grab a sextant to help navigate by the stars. The old sailor snaps back: "I don't know astrology!" The captain says, "You live under starry skies, and you can't read them for guidance? You wasted three quarters of your life!" At daybreak they spot land, but the captain being in a rush hits the rocks. The ship is wrecked and taking on water. The old sailor runs to the wheel to ask the captain, "Did you study swimology?" "What's that?" asks the captain. The old sailor yells for everyone to jump overboard and abandon ship. The ignorant old sailor, who never had an academic education, did study one thing and knew enough to save himself. He snapped back at the captain: "This ship is going down! Everyone who can swim can make it safely to shore. Those who can't are going to drown. You learned all those fancy ologies but skipped the most crucial lesson for a life at sea -- to be able to make to safety! You wasted your whole life!"
• So here we are, lost in Samsara (the Ocean of Life and Death), bobbing up and down about to drown, wasting our time swirling in confusion, asking so many questions about this, that, and the other, but never focusing on the most essential, the Dhamma (what the Buddha taught concerning the Seven Requisites of Enlightenment for salvation, for utter liberation or moksha). Like the captain, we're Smart Alecs with degrees in all kinds of ologies except the most valuable kind: Dharma Studies.
• [By the way, WHO can become enlightened? Any human or deva of average intelligence, no special quality necessary excepts, perhaps, having the karmic good fortune of coming into contact with the Buddha's Doctrine and Discipline (Dhamma-Vinaya). Sincerity is essential, and my teacher speculates that paramis (kusala-karma) are important, which he defines as "anything good done in the past with the idea of reaching enlightenment (bodhi) or nirvana (nibbana)."]

Arr eu shur? Ai'm thee gretest g'nius.

I always imagined that when I became enlightened, I would go over to the university, convene a meeting of professors, researchers, scholars, and academics and solve their biggest problems for them.

• Yes, Einstein?
• Yez, vell, vee kno thut E=mc2...
• Ugh, actually, Albie, you left out ether (e) which accounts for your imprecision. So I want you to get back to the drawing board, confer to Nikola Tesla (he's in Dimension 7, Quadrant 5) and you should be able to see the error of your ways and get back to Earth to clean up the mess.
• Yes, Hawking?
• I-am-the-longest-lived-survivor-of-ALS-and...
• That's not what you had, Steve, and your idea that...
• Yes, Witten, why are you interrupting? Your view of string theory is all in knots, but here's how to resolve the equations...

I guess it's a silly thought, and it's completely wrong. What an enlightened person comes to know, overcoming all ignorance on these four things, can be summarized in the Four Enlightened (Noble) Truths:

1. what disappointment is,
2. its cause,
3. its full resolution, and
4. the path to that end.

Though such beings have glimpsed these things directly, that is not to say they can in any way articulate it for others. They might be able to. It would certainly be good to hear them, but they may not be inclined to speak about it at all.

For example, many monks in the Thai Forest Tradition are said to have gained realization, but are they able to explain it or effectively teach it to others to the point that that person experiences the liberating truth? That's very rare.

Ajahn Chah was able to, but are his accomplished students? Maybe Ajahn Brahm or Ajahn Sumedho. Why aren't they all famous with large retinues of noble disciples. The great Ajahn Jumnien personally knows more than most beings, but can he communicate it effectively?

The great Pa Auk Sayadaw, the Burmese meditation master, is rare among all Buddhist monastics in that he is both a scholar and an adept practitioner. He can teach it.

He is nevertheless limited by his students' limitations. He cannot impart it, nor can he read minds or flex the magical iddhi powers that might help him teach. He can advise, guide, reproach, encourage but he is without the iddhi powers to do more.

The Buddha had iddhi powers at his disposal. And using them he could not, as it were, get a horse to drink water though it had been led right to the refreshing stream.

• In the simplest terms, since we have defined "enlightened" (bodhi) to mean "having reached any of the stages of enlightenment, one need only concern oneself with the first stage: get there, and everything will be all right within seven lives. Of course, reaching it, there's no reason to stop. Keep striving, or start striving now that you are 100% sure what the Buddha taught is real and works.
• For simplicity let's say there are four such stages, though the Path of Freedom (Vimuttimagga) lists the other kinds of stream enterers -- and an additional two kinds of preenlightened folks, the saddhānusārī and dhammānusārī (confidence-devotee rooted in faith and Dharma-devotee rooted in wisdom). What are the characteristics of the person who has undergone that stage (knowing-and-seeing described in two parts as path-and-fruit)?
• The stream enterer is the first person to be safe in this interminable sojourn, this samsara, this Wheel of Life and Death, for this person has for the first time in all these aeons put a limit on suffering (dukkha). Other beings may go on suffering for as far as the mind can see, but such a noble one now has to endure no more than seven rebirths. And all of these rebirths will be on the human plane or higher, never lower. This is one of the wonders of enlightenment.
• Now, indeed, what could go wrong? Nothing that happens can matter much because one is sure to get out. For example, say we were all serving life sentences and one of us got a reprieve, a pardon, and held a letter for the warden that had to be heeded. That person is already free in theory and now need only wrap it up and go from our h*ll hole or choose to stay longer to help others, or putter about, or fulfill karmic obligations and promises or waste away on trivialities like more sensual enjoyments for their own sake (though how this is done if one knows better is hard to fathom).
• One wrong view many hold, which seems to be a part of Theravada (Pali canon) lore, is that a stream enterer can do no moral wrong. This is completely mistaken. There are certainly at least five things one cannot do, but everything else, it's possible. (Those five cannot be done because they would entail an immediate result in the very next rebirth on a subhuman plane, which now one is no longer liable to fall into). For evidence that such exalted beings can behave badly, be immoral, do wrong, be bad, commit an offense, one need only read the Ratana Sutta ("Jewel Sutra"). Though one engages in whatever misconduct, one will nevertheless not fall into worlds more miserable than this, nor will one reappear anywhere more than seven more times.
• Furthermore, of course stream enterers can have lapses if even arhats might violate Monastic Disciplinary Code rules, which are listed indicating which rules those are that even an arhat might slip up on.
• Of course, it must be that this does not sound good to most people -- who are people (human or deva) because they are beset by greed (lust, attraction, clinging), hatred (aversion, fear), and delusion (wrong view, ignorance) -- because we want to go on, have more rebirths (ignorant of the countless number that have already transpired and the countless yet to come as we engage in karma and those deeds work themselves out).
• When one knows-and-sees, directly has knowledge-and-vision of some past lives and how this life and this present suffering came to be (which is the knowledge that arises from the practice of Dependent Origination, which most people do not know is a practice rather than a theory), one will be able to let go.
• Moksha or liberation is possible by letting go, but letting go is only really possible as a result of knowing-and-seeing. So it is not willpower or brute force or strong determination (a triumph of will) that does it. It is practice (bhavana, kammatthana, sadhana) that brings about knowledge and vision. For instance, say you had a warm bowl of rice in the dark and would not part with it for the world, not to give away not even to share with anyone. And someone told you to throw it away. You would think them mad. Throw away this thing I'm about to devour and have so much greed/attraction for that I don't even want to share a grain of it with anyone else? You cling to the rice bowl. And again the person advises, admonishes, and asks you to let go and toss it. Do you? Could you? Do you possess the faith (saddha) to take that person's word for it and do it? Probably not. So what is it going to take that person to have to do since words won't work? What now if that person were to get you to turn on the light or bring a candle or step out of the dark and look into the bowl? And say that in doing so, you were to perceive what was really there all along -- maggots not rice grains? How hard would it be to let go now, how hard to throw away, toss, discard, abandon? Not hard at all, right? It takes no willpower, no force, no faith even. What does it take? Knowing-and-seeing, direct perception for oneself so that one need never rely on another for what is true and what is not.
• How does that tie in? We have lust. Who or what do we lust after? Beautiful objects. Why are they "beautiful"? It is exactly because we do not see their true nature but just their appearance. Skin is beautiful, complexion, hair, scent, softness... How deeply do we need to look into it to see what's really there? Worms, blood, flesh, gore, guts, partly digested food, mucus, urine, oil, feces... Ahhh! How fast can you let go?
• One cannot do it fast enough -- and with no willpower, no force, no sense of loss, no triumph of will, not even any faith. Faith can be a great thing but, ultimately, it is not the necessary and sufficient thing. It is excellent for starters, but we need to know and see for ourselves. That is what the Buddha promises. That is the path to enlightenment.
• With the attainment of stream entry, these mental defilements go away:
• With the attainment of stream entry, one will instantly gain unshakeable faith in three things: the Teacher, the Teaching, and those successfully Taught (Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha). Why? It is because now one knows for sure that they were all three right.
• Through the path of stream entry (stream-winning, sotāpatti-magga) one "becomes" free (whereas by realizing the fruition, one "is" free) from the first three fetters (samyojana) that bind beings to existence in the Sensual Sphere, namely:
  • (1) personality-view (sakkāya-ditthi; see ditthi),
  • (2) skeptical doubt (vicikicchā),
  • (3) attachment to mere rules and rituals (sīlabbata-parāmāsa; see clinging upādāna).

The seven groups (sets) of noble disciples are as follows:

1. (1) the faith-devotee (saddhānusārī),
2. (2) the faith-liberated one (saddhāvimutta),
3. (3) the body-witness (kāya-sakkhī),
4. (4) the both-ways-liberated one (ubhato-bhāga-vimutta),
5. (5) the Dhamma-devotee (dhammānusārī),
6. (6) the vision-attainer (ditthippatta),
7. (7) the wisdom-liberated one (paññā-vimutta).

What is the significance of these groupings? I've asked Bhikkhu Bodhi and other scholar-monks only to hear that there are limited references in the Pali canon. They offer hope because it is said by some (mentioned in Ven. Bodhi's endnotes to his Middle Length Discourses (Majjhima Nikaya) translation) that such beings as 1 and 5 will not pass away until becoming stream enterers. Why this is said or what the proper understanding is remains to be seen. (Dhamma-viyama is a strange and fascinating subject).

• What if a better list of the "noble ones" can be argued for: (1) saddhānusārī (the faith-devotee who will not pass until attainment), dhammānusārī (the Dharma-devotee who will not pass until attainment), (3) the stream enterer (who is now destined to no more than seven rebirths), (4) the once-returner (who will return to this world at most one more time but will be reborn in the Pure Abodes and make final attainments there), (5) the non-returner (who will no longer be reborn on the human plane but in the Pure Abodes until final attainments), (6) the arhat with remainder (still in human form, experiencing the results of past karma, making no new karma only kriya), (7) the arhat without remainder (no longer in form of any kind, no longer experiencing any karmic results, utterly freed from delusion, having entered final-nirvana). (The suggestion that the "change of lineage" or gotrabhu is another "noble one" makes no sense since all of the noble ones are this. The reason there are four stages yet "eight individuals" is because they are distinguished between path (magga) moment and fruition (phala) moment, which by orthodox tradition is explained as meaning one nanosecond of difference as one mind-moment (citta) supplants the previous one and one goes from gaining the path and experiencing the moment or change of lineage inherent in gaining the path-moment. It is not a satisfying explanation for such a big distinction as to list Eight Individuals among the "Noble or Enlightened Ones."

So until Ven. Analayo (who exhaustively defined Mindfulness in Early Buddhism, Journal of Buddhist Studies, Vol. XI, 2013) makes a dissertation of it, the Buddhist Dictionary entry Ariya ("Noble Ones") by Ven. Nyanatiloka will have to do. The Apadana Commentary gives a little explanation.

So to answer the question, "How to know if I'm enlightened?" it's as easy as 1-2-3 (which is not to say it's easy to reach, because it is extremely rare, but easy enough to know for yourself):

1. Do I have perfect, unshakeable faith (confidence, conviction) in the Triple Gem or "Three Jewels" (Buddha, Dhamma, and Noble Sangha, the Teacher, Teaching, and the successfully Taught), because I have glimpsed nirvana and seen what they had seen (when we were all set free by the Truth)?
2. Am I no longer inclined, and does it no longer make sense, to compare self to others (seeing as how one has understood it is all impersonal and there is no self, no ego, no soul to cling to but there is, and one has directly seen, that all things arise based on Dependent Origination with the sole exception of nirvana, which is the only thing that is not a "thing," not a constituent composite, not a conditioned phenomenon, and is therefore called the "unconditioned element" or the asankhata dhatu)?
3. And have I irreversibly put an end to three of the defilements/hindrances: personality-view, skeptical doubt, and clinging to mere rites and rituals as if they could ever bring about enlightenment.

• NOTE: As for morality and monastic rules (vinaya), there are different lists of what we might generally call "defilements," such as: āsava, kilesa, nivarana, samyojana, and very generally the Three Roots or Three Poisons. They are all overcome by an arhat. More
• Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly; story by S.N. Goenka (dhamma.org); Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines

Enlightenment FRAUD of Zen Master Rama

The Enlightenment Fraud of Zen Master Rama

(LA Weekly, Jan. 28, 1988)

(Atrocity Guide) June 12, 2023. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, a Jewish college professor (Dr. Frederick Lenz), alleged student of blissful Sri Chinmoy, and self-proclaimed "enlightened" Zen master comedian accumulated a loyal following of meditation students, taking them across the United States on a mission to achieve enlightenment [or at least get rich in this world]. It did not go well.

Joe Szimhart: @josephszimhart9431 Jim Picariello: jimpicariello.com. Further reading/viewing/listening: Take Me For a Ride by Mark Laxer: (gutenberg.org). "What is Dancing?" music video by Zazen. Full Larry King interview with Lenz (1988): Zen Master Rama

Cult leader "Rama"

I'm totally enlightened. Pay me. Be a programmer.

Cult leader "Zen Master Rama" (formerly Frederick Philip Lenz III, also known as Atmananda, a name handed out to Sri Chinmoy's inner circle of recruiters) lived from Feb. 9, 1950–April 12, 1998, at which time he committed suicide.

He was an American "spiritual leader," scandal monger, author, alleged software designer, and record producer. He founded what he termed "American Buddhism," which incorporated the teachings of Tibetan (Vajrayana) Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, Vedanta (Hinduism), mysticism, and a hodgepodge of New Age ideas.

Reborn in San Diego, California, Lenz grew up in Stamford, Connecticut. He faced legal trouble in his youth for marijuana possession, and afterwards — according to his own account — embarked on a spiritual journey in Kathmandu, Nepal.

He attended the University of Connecticut, where he earned a master's degree, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNY), where he completed a doctorate degree.

He later studied under various Hindu and Buddhist teachers, most notably Sri Chinmoy, for whom he served as a recruiter for years before breaking away to start his own cult.

Lenz's teachings centered around "enlightenment in the modern world" through the integration of Eastern religious principles into everyday American life.

Some of Lenz's former students accused him of cult activity, including financial and sexual exploitation of his students.

Lenz tried to deny the accusations, and no civil or criminal proceedings were brought against him.

Lenz committed suicide in 1998. After his ignominious death, his $23 million cult estate became the subject of a legal dispute, ultimately leading to the creation of the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism, which has made significant grants to various American Buddhist organizations since 2003. More

Death of U.S. monk: "Arahant" Vimalaramsi

"Enlightened" Delson Armstrong, Dhamma Sukha MC, Missouri; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly 

Bhante V has passed away

(TWIM - Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center) June 29, 2023. Accomplished student Delson Armstrong remembers American Theravada monk Ven. Vimalaramsi's life and reveals some amazing stories -- without indicating why and how he thinks, believes, or knows any of this.

Bhante Vimalaramsi passed just after midnight on June 27th, 2023, after everyone left his room at the nursing home at 11:00 PM.

He seemed very peaceful and uplifted. Delson Armstrong talks about Bhante's life and reveals some untold stories of their past lives.

It is possible to attain enhanced psychic abilities by practicing tevijja (abhijñā). This is the "triple knowledge." It is the way the Buddha himself attained full awakening according to the sutra texts.

This is a self-proclaimed remembrance of alleged past lives, seeing people in other realms and seeing how they go there until finally attaining awakening.

Anyone can develop the divine eye as did the great monks Anuruddha and Moggallana. It is possible. Bhante V taught this to select students who were able to succeed in the practice -- but only the most advanced ones.

Hey, everyone, look at me! Only I understand

Bhante V background and how he claims he re-discovered the Path

(TWIM - Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center) June 26, 2010. Bhante exalts himself and dismisses other, talking about his background and the story about what happened before he left for the airport to go to Asia to become a monk. He didn't make it. He talks about how an errant monk [Ven. Punnaji] told him to only regard the sutras [and forget about the invaluable commentarial material] and try to re-read the discourses from a different perspective.

Psychic powers sutra

"If one wants, one recollects manifold past lives [lit., 'previous homes'], that is, one birth, two births, three births, four, five, ten, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100, 1,000, 100,000, many aeons of cosmic contraction, many aeons of cosmic expansion, many aeons of cosmic contraction and expansion, [recollecting,] ‘There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose there. There, too, I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose here.’ Thus, one remembers one’s manifold past lives in their modes and details. One can witness this right there whenever there is an opening" (dhammatalks.org/suttas/AN).

• Retreat June 22-July 2 DSMC Delson Armstrong
• dhammasukha.org
• delsonarmstrong.info

Where: Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center (dhammasukha.org) A complete guide to the meditation the way [Ven. Vimalaramsi says] the Buddha taught: thepathtonibbana.com.

How to practice Metta/TWIM Meditation dhammasukha.org/beginner-... What are the "6 Rs" (dhammasukha.org/the-6rs). Donate: Help pay the expenses of Delson Armstrong and visiting monks (dhammasukha.org/shop-donations...)

Awakening Mind Part 1, "Know Thyself" 2023

AwakenTheWorldFilm, premiered June 5, 2023; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

You can wake up someone who's only pretending to be asleep, sheep on the way to slaughter..

(AwakenTheWorldFilm) [In Buddhism, spiritual "awakening" is known as bodhi and is usually translated as enlightenment.] Awakening is the next stage in human evolution.

The Awakening Mind film series travels the globe speaking to wisdom teachers, visionaries, and scientists from broad and diverse disciplines, philosophies, and traditions who are pointing with uncanny similarity and intelligence to this time as an epic juncture and an invitation to a higher evolution for humanity.

Awakening Mind explores the questions:

• "Who am I?"
• "What is awakening?"
• "Why awaken?"
• "What is consciousness?"
• "How do I awaken?"
• "What is the purpose and meaning of life?"
• "How am I to navigate this world experience to the best of my ability for the benefit of all?"

At this time when the world feels out of control and filled with so much suffering and sadness, these questions are particularly relevant, and the answers are a lot simpler than one might imagine.

Visionaries help the audience see that life is not as complicated as we may believe, and it is possible to awaken to the understanding that peace and happiness is available to anyone anywhere in the world right now.

The Awakening Mind film series will be released for free for the benefit of humanity and the awakening of human consciousness (in as many languages as possible).

Speakers in Part 1, “Know Thyself,” include: Rupert Spira, Donald Hoffman, Neale Donald Walsch, Loch Kelly, Lisa Natoli, and Daniel Schmidt.

As these films are released for the benefit of the world free. It relies on support for funding. Like Awakening Mind Part 1 "Know Thyself"? Please consider supporting Awakening Minds Part 2 "Living Presence."

It is scheduled to commence filming in the summer of 2023. Donations can play a vital role in making it a reality. indiegogo.com/project/pre...

To learn more, visit the Awakening Mind film series website: awakeningmindfilms.com/home. Many resources, including free guided meditations and films for awakening can be found at awakentheworld.com

#awakening #spirituality #meditation #yoga #selfinquiry #enlightenment

The Life of Ajahn Brahm (photos)

A picture biography of Ajahn Brahm

(BWSA Retreats 2011-15 & Media) August 2, 2019. This is an updated re-release of "A Picture Biography of Ajahn Brahm" on the occasion of his 68th birthday. This time it comes with a soundtrack as well. This compilation of photos is a narrative video to give some glimpses into Ajahn Brahmavamso's eventful life to see the valuable work he does selflessly to advance the Dharma and given women and men a chance to practice as fully ordained monastics or ordinary laypersons.

Ajahn Sumedho: How I became a monk (video)

Ajahn Sumedho: How I became a Buddhist monk

(Wat Buddha Dhamma - Theravadin Forest Monastery, Jan. 14, 2020) Presented by Ven. Sumedho  Maha Thera during his visit to Sydney, Australia, in 2016. Ajahn Sumedho (Robert Karr Jackman) is a direct student of Ajahn Chah, having ordained in Northeast Thailand or Isan. He had been a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley practicing Zen.

I want to be enlightened so I'm unenlightened

Ajahn Amaro; Ajahn Chah via Ven. Sujato, Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

I want to be enlightened. What do I need to do?

When suffering ceases, where do we go? What are we practicing [the Buddhist path to enlightenment] for? We are practicing to relinquish [to let go], not in order to gain anything.

There was a woman this afternoon who told me that she is suffering. I asked her what she wants to be. And she said she wants to be "enlightened."

I said, "As long as you want to be enlightened, you will never become enlightened. Don’t want anything. [Let go instead.]

The Cure for Death

Look! It's Death/Mara! (R. W. Machell, 1895)

If we trained properly, we wouldn’t feel frightened when we fall ill, nor upset when someone else dies.

When you go to the hospital for treatment, determine in your mind that if you get better, that’s fine, and that if you die, that’s fine, too.

I guarantee that if the doctors told me I were sick and going to die in a few months, I’d remind them: "Watch out. Death is coming to get you, too. It’s just a question of who goes first and who goes later."

Doctors are not going to cure death or prevent it. Only the Buddha was such a doctor, the master physician, so why not go ahead and use the Buddha’s medicine?

Theory vs. Experience (Ajahn Chah)

Master Ajahn Chah (ajahnchah.org) via Ellie Askew and Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

I get it. Yeah, this'll work! I've memorized the lists, understood, and I'm ready to start.

.

Don't be too stiff (serious) nor too lax.

Practice with unflinching dedication! If anyone wants to practice Dharma then please try not to think too much.

If we’re meditating and we find ourselves trying to force specific results then it’s better to stop.

When our mind settles and becomes peaceful and we think, "That’s it! That’s it, isn’t it? Is that it?" then stop.

Take all that analytical and theoretical knowledge, wrap it up, and store it away in a locked chest. And don’t drag it out to discuss or teach. That’s not the type of knowledge that penetrates inside. Theory and experience are different types of knowledge.

Ah, this is a much better way to sit and sleep.

When the reality of something is seen, it’s not the same as any written description.

For example, let’s say we write the words "sensual craving." When "sensual craving" actually floods in and overwhelms the heart/mind, it’s impossible that the written word had any ability to convey the meaning of the reality.

It’s the same with the word "anger." We can write the letters on a blackboard, but when we’re actually angry, the experience is different. We can’t read the letters we've written fast enough when the heart becomes engulfed with rage.

You said you wouldn't get angry any more. - STFU!

This is an extremely important point. The theoretical Buddhist teaching is accurate, but it’s essential to bring it into our hearts. It must be internalized.

If the Dharma isn’t brought into the heart, it’s not truly known. It’s not actually seen.

How do I get enlightened?

Relax. Pushing is NOT the way to meditate.

Directly knowing-and-seeing is at the heart of successful Buddhist practice.

Paradoxically, it is accomplished by not thinking too much and not trying too hard. Instead, go easy and keep going.

The Buddha said it very beautifully using the analogy of how he himself crossed the "great flood" samsara to reach the great peace nirvana. They are not the same thing, though it may be useful to think so or tell oneself so.

We already are, in a sense, all we are capable of being, so long as we keep striving in a balanced way because we certainly do not yet realize what we are capable of. See Crossing the Flood.

In another very powerful analogy, the Buddha teaches a lute player that just as he cannot make beautiful music if his strings are either too tight or too loose, so a meditator cannot succeed if s/he is too stiff or too lazy. The secret is balanced effort and persistence.

• AUDIO: Balance Spiritual Urgency with Serene Calm
• Happiness is not the destination; happiness is the way