[Would the Buddha be considered a "prophet" in Islam? The question sounds preposterous, but he is officially and formally a "saint" in Catholicism. In Hinduism, he is an avatar (incarnation of the God Vishnu). So it's not impossible that another world religion would hold him so highly.]
I am thy Emperor in the Sky, the Demiurge, thy Jealous and vengeful Lord of all Worlds!
.
Behold! The Way, the Truth, and the Light!
(MorgueOfficial) I discovered the REAL God | Why the Monad[the One, as taught in the varied traditions we collectively call Gnosticism] was too dangerous to teach.
So that even the Goddess of Wisdom (Sophia) as exemplified by Apostle Mary Magdalene (the closest and brightest apostle, the real intended successor of Jesus, not dogmatic Peter/Petra, an emissary of Sophia, Barbelo, the true GOD or godhead) had to denigrated and erased.
It's why Jesus the Anointed One (the Christed) had to be repurposed by imperial powers, misquoted, and made to work for the state (Emperor Constantine's Roman Empire and subsequent Christendom), and inverted until what the church says he said is nearly the opposite of what he was teaching.
Pistis Sophia (Koine Greek Πίστις Σοφία) is a Gnostic text discovered in 1773, possibly written between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. The existing manuscript, which some scholars place in the late 4th century, relates one Gnostic group's teachings of the transfigured Jesus to the assembled disciples, including his mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Martha. (In this context, "transfigured" refers to Jesus after his death and resurrection, not the event during his life where he spoke to appearances of Moses and Elijah on a mountain). In this text, the risen Jesus had spent 11 years speaking with his disciples, teaching them only the lower mysteries. After 11 years, he receives his true garment and is able to reveal the higher mysteries [entheogens] revered by this group. The prized mysteries relate to complex cosmologies and knowledge necessary for the soul to reach the highest divine realms. More
Why become a follower following in the footsteps of the guru to know what the guru knows when you can just pay lip service to the guru, praise, worship, sing about, and never actually follow anything he taught, pat yourself on the back for being a good "follower" (a pious Christian hypocrite), and call it a day?
Heaven awaits for all kiss-ups who never bothered to read, investigate, study, or experience what the Teacher taught. They just let child molesting intermediaries interpret it for them so they could be sure to get a good seat to the afterlife. God would be so proud!
So all true believers get into heaven?
It's interesting that many modern Christians, contradicting their own official sacred texts (council-approved books of The Book), believe in and speak of a God that sounds an awful lot like the Monad Jesus was really talking about.
The ancient Vedas, Brahmin priests (Brahmanism), and modern Hindus also speak of such a GOD (Brahman, not Brahma) that is not a being in the sky, not an old, bearded man on a cloud throne but rather "the absolute or ultimate reality behind all of the illusion" (the maya or simulation or the ever-revolving samsara). That GOD is called Brahman even in a polytheistic, henotheistic, sometimes pantheistic tradition with so much variety and complexity (because it's an amalgam of all the beliefs and practices found in India by the occupying British who could not understand it until they lumped the diversity into one big pile and called it a "thing," a "religion," of which ancient Indians had no concept, because like most people of the world, spirituality and daily life were not treated as separate).
BRAHMAN: In the Old Vedic and subsequent Hindu religions, Brahman (Sanskrit ब्रह्मन्) has a "variety of meanings," but in the Upanishads and later Indian philosophies it connotes "That" from which all existence proceeds, and to which everything returns [1, a], [the Source,] the origin and cause of all that exists [2, 3, 4]. In contemporary Hindu metaphysics, Brahman is the highest universal principle, the Ultimate Reality of the universe behind all the hide-and-seek "divine play" (lila), complexity, and confusion of maya (illusion). [The nondual of Advaita Vedanta.] More
That's what I've been trying to say: we're all divine
This Monad (ONE) is Brahman (GOD), and it probably the TAO, the Great Spirit of Native American lore, and it is likely the "Father" Jesus (Gnostic Jesus, Y'shua, Yeshua, Joshua, Isa, Saint Issa) was really talking about in an anionic (timeless/eternal now) Kingdom, not a heavenly rebirth but a timeless ("eternal") reality right now, for those [mystery cult] initiates ready and able to undergo purification and ego-death (loss of self to gain the kingdom of heaven) and be raised up in a rapture (bliss, unburdening, realization, union) of understanding (comprehension) and gnosis (actual experience) before passing away from this world.
The basic recurring theme in Hindu mythology is the creation of the world by the self-sacrifice of God—"sacrifice" in the original sense of "making sacred"—whereby God [or GOD] becomes the world which, in the end, becomes again God.
This creative activity of the Divine is calledlila, the play [or drama] of God, and the world is seen as the stage [platform] of the divine play. Like most of Hindu mythology, the myth of lila has a strong magical flavour.
Brahman is the great magician who transforms [it]self into the world and then performs this feat with [its] "magic creative power," which is the original meaning of maya in the Rig Veda.
The word maya—one of the most important terms in Indian philosophy—has changed its meaning over the centuries. From the might, or power, of the divine actor and magician, it came to signify the psychological state of anybody under the spell of the magic play [the actors or audience lost in the play].
As long as we confuse the myriad forms of the divine lila with reality, without perceiving the unity of Brahman underlying all these forms, we are under the spell of maya....
The Tao of Physics (Fritjof Capra)
In the Hindu view of nature, then, all forms are relative, fluid and ever-changing maya, conjured up by the great magician of the divine play. The world of maya changes continuously, because the divine lila is a rhythmic, dynamic play.
The dynamic force of the play is karma [act, action, deed, doing, intention], an important concept of Indian thought. Karma means "action." It is the active principle of the play [the acting], the total universe in action, where everything is dynamically connected with everything else.
In the words of the [Bhagavad] Gita, Karma is the force of creation, wherefrom all things have their life.
(Baba Ram Dass) June 8, 2026: Ram Dass' full lecture interview from "The Congress of Planetary Initiative for the World We Choose" in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1983.
Who is "God," Ram Dass? The Monad (Gnosticism), Brahman (Vedas), Maha Brahma (Buddhism), Brahma (Hinduism)? We need to make a distinction between the lesser personality many call "God" (the Demiurge or "Fabricator") and that all-encompassing reality behind the illusion (Brahman), which in the West may be called the Monad (One).
Remember: Be Here Now (Ram Dass)
In this interview, Ram Dass (formerly Harvard's Dr. Richard Alpert) presents his viewpoints regarding the state of the world and what we can do. He skillfully weaves his way through his perspectives on personal responsibility, American media, and spiritual practice.
The Love Serve Remember Foundation is dedicated to preserving and continuing the teachings of Ram Dass and his love guru, Neem Karoli Baba.
Find out more at ramdass.org. Social media: Instagram (babaramdass), Facebook (babaramdass), TikTok (ramdassofficial). Patreon: ramdasspodcast.
Support channel in offering more content like this: igfn.us/form/dHI2oA
or text YouTube to 91999. This is an all-time favorite Ram Dass piece, so enjoy! SUBSCRIBE to channel for more magic Ram Dass moments.
I was trying to read the Heart Sutra to chant it in Sanskrit. But it doesn't make any sense translated into English. At least it didn't until Wisdom Quarterly's Dharma editor explained it.* Now it's clear. Now I know why "enlightenment" eludes me. Now I know what to study and put into practice to know-and-see. Thanks, WQ!
one is called a noble disciple who is a stream-winner, no longer liable to ever fall into subhuman states of woe [1], assured of full and final enlightenment."
NOTE: 1.
The "stream-winner" (sotapanna) is sure to become fully enlightened (an arahant) within seven rebirths and will not be reborn more than seven more times, and such a person will never again be reborn in any state lower than the human plane.
the one "with seven rebirths at the utmost" (sattakkhattu-parama) ["one with only seven further rebirths at the utmost," is one of the three kinds of stream-winners (sotāpannas).
the one "passing from one noble family to another" (kolankola),
the one "germinating only once more" (eka-bījī, lit. "one seed" or perhaps "at most once more seeded").]
(1) "If a person, after the disappearance of the three lower fetters (personality-belief, skeptical doubt, attachment to rites and rituals), see samyojana), has entered the stream [that leads inevitably to nirvana], that person is no longer subject to any rebirth in the lower worlds [anywhere below the human plane], is firmly established, destined to reach full enlightenment. After having passed among celestial beings (deva) and human beings (manussya) only at most seven times more through the Round of Rebirths, one puts an end to all suffering. Such a person is called "one with seven rebirths at the utmost" (sattakkhattu-parama).
I continued to practice to make an end of all ill.
(2) "If a person, after the disappearance of the three fetters.... is destined to reach full enlightenment, that person, after having passed among noble families two or three times through the round of rebirths, makes an end of all suffering. Such a person is called "one passing from one noble family to another" (kolankola).
(3) "If a person, after the disappearance of the three fetters...is destined to full enlightenment, one, after having only once more returned to the human plane, makes an end of all suffering. Such a person is called "one germinating only once more" (eka-bījī).
7. This is an encouraging message for many! Compare it to the end of MN 22 and also the charming image of the newborn calf in MN 34. The Commentary (MA) to MN 22 says such people are termed "lesser stream-winners" (cula-sota-panna). This term is discussed in The Path of Purification (VM XIX, 27). [This term is more fully explained in The Path of Freedom (Vimuttimagga).] The stress laid here on the importance of faith (actually saddha, "confidence," "conviction," the trust sufficient to investigate that precedes personal verification) is interesting in view of later developments such as the Pure Land schools (e.g., Jodo-Shinshu or "Shin-Buddhism" in Japan).
(SN 22.109 PTS: S iii 160 CDB i 9650)
Maurice O'Connell Walshe (trans.), Sotapanno Sutta: The Sotapanna, "The Stream-Winner" Pali title based on PTS (Feer) edition; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly
Feeling a pull towards deeper understanding and greater connection with the Universe? This could be signs of an impending spiritual awakening, a profound shift that changes our understanding of self and reality.
This post may help in understanding everything we need to know about this transformative experience – from recognizing the early signs to navigating challenges and enjoying its benefits.
Ready for an [Eastern, more Hindu than Buddhist] enlightening journey? Let’s dive in, beginning with this guided meditation.
Key points
A spiritual awakening is a transformative experience where we become aware of our "true selves" and connect to a higher power.
Signs of spiritual awakenings can include feeling disconnected, reevaluating beliefs, having vivid or lucid dreams, experiencing shifting relationships, and increased intuition.
Each person’s spiritual awakening journey is unique and personal, guided by one's own beliefs, experiences, and inner wisdom.
During a spiritual awakening, individuals may also experience a strong connection to nature and have physical symptoms. More
There's a small Cat in a tall Hat, and that's that.
Discover Alan Watts' profound insight into the Western illusion of meaning and the freedom found in Eastern surrendering to life’s mystery. In this powerful lecture from his 1959 TV seriesEastern Wisdom and Modern Life, Watts explains why our desperate "search" for purpose can often lead us AWAY from true peace.
Embrace the present, let go of control, and understand why [the sense of] nonsense might just be the key to enlightenment.
In 1958, Watts toured parts of Europe with his father, meeting the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung and the German psychotherapist Karlfried Graf Dürckheim [29]. Upon returning to California and the Bay Area in the United States, Watts recorded two seasons of a TV series (1959–1960) for KQED public television in San Francisco, Eastern Wisdom and Modern Life [30]. More
Joe Rogan: The Path to Roganlightenment | The Daily Show
(The Daily Show) July 30, 2025: From his humble beginnings in Newark to his scrappy days in Boston, Joe Rogan has always pushed his brains to the limit. Rogan's stand-up comedy led him to a career in television, eventually inspiring him to start his own podcast where he could ask the really important questions, like, "Wouldn't it be crazy if a wolf wore a fedora?" This is The Daily Showography of Joe Rogan.
Martin Shaw: Israel's genocide in Gaza is backed by Israeli society and Western powers, all of whom are complicit in these atrocities. It is a good thing these actions will not come back upon Jews, Judaism, or secular Jewish people.
The deepest meditation I’ve ever found (and I’ve tried 112)
(SoulArtist) May 14, 2025: After exploring over 100 different meditation techniques across the past seven years — from silent sitting to active movement, from vipassana (insight) to breathwork (pranayama) — I recently discovered a meditation so powerful, it went deeper than anything I’ve ever tried before: the OSHO Mahamudra Meditation™.
Might the Tibetan version be better than Osho's?
In this video, I share my honest experience with this practice, what makes it so different, and why I believe it may be one of the most transformative meditations available today. This is not a technique for the mind; it’s a surrender into something far greater.
🧘♂️ What is OSHO Mahamudra Meditation™? “This meditation is a meeting between you and the cosmos, between you and the whole of existence. It helps you to merge, melt, and let-go on the deepest level possible.”
– Osho, from “Tantra: The Supreme Understanding, #6”
The meditation has two stages (approx. 50 minutes) and is supported by specific music that mirrors and deepens the energetic flow of the practice. Instructions (from osho.com):
First Stage – 30 minutes: Stand with eyes closed and let the body move naturally. Allow spontaneous movements to arise — no control, just witnessing. This is Latihan. The body becomes an expression of pure energy.
Second Stage – 20 minutes: Kneel, raise both hands to the sky. Feel like a hollow bamboo. Let energy pour into you from above — then bow down and release it into the earth. Repeat at least 7 times.
“If you do this every day, soon, somewhere within three months, one day you will feel you are not there. Just the energy is pulsating with the universe – nobody is there, the ego is completely lost, the doer is not. The universe is there, and you are there, the wave pulsating with the ocean – that is Mahamudra. That is the final orgasm, the most blissful state of consciousness that is possible.”
If you’ve tried many meditations but still feel like something’s missing, this might be the one. ✨ Subscribe for more honest insights on presence, awareness, and embodied spiritual practice. #mahamudra #osho #meditation #powerfulmeditation
Saraha, Mahāsiddhas (British Museum)
Mahāmudrā (Sanskrit महामुद्रा, Tibetan ཕྱག་ཆེན་, phyag chen, chag-chen, contraction of Tibetan ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་, phyag rgya chen po, chag-gya chen-po) literally means "great seal" or "great imprint."
It refers to the fact that "all phenomena inevitably are stamped by the fact [that] wisdom and emptiness [are] inseparable" [1]. (That is to say, the "perfection of wisdom" or prajnaparamita is that all things are ultimately impersonal).
Mahāmudrā is a multivalent term of great importance in later Indian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism, which "also occurs occasionally in Hindu and East Asian Buddhist esotericism" [2].
The name also refers to a body of teachings representing the culmination of all the practices of the New Translation schools of Tibetan Buddhism that believe it to be the quintessential message of all of their sacred texts.
The practice of Mahāmudrā is also known as the teaching called "Sahaja Yoga" or "Co-emergence Yoga" [3].
In Tibetan Buddhism, particularly the Kagyu school, Sahaja Mahāmudrā is sometimes seen as a different Buddhist vehicle (yana), the "Sahajayana" (Tibetan lhen chig kye pa), also known as the vehicle of self-liberation [4].
Jamgon Kongtrul, a Tibetan nonsectarian (ri-mé) scholar, characterizes mahāmudrā as the path to realizing the "mind as it is" (sems nyid), which also stands at the core of all Kagyu paths. He states, "In general, Mahāmudrā and everything below it are the ‘mind path’" (sems lam).
Mahāmudrā traditionally refers to the quintessence of mind itself and the practice of meditation in relation to a true understanding of it [5].
History
The usage and meaning of the term mahāmudrā evolved over the course of hundreds of years of Indian and Tibetan history and, as a result, the term may refer variously to "a ritual hand-gesture, one of a sequence of 'seals' in Tantric practice, the nature of [ultimate] reality as emptiness [impersonal], a meditation procedure focusing on the nature of Mind, an innate blissful gnosis [knowing] cognizing emptiness nondually, or the supreme attainment of buddhahood at the culmination of the Tantric path" [2].
According to Jamgon Kongtrul, the Indian theoretical sources of the mahāmudrā tradition are Yogacara and tathagatagarbha ("buddha-nature") texts such as the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra and the Mahāyānottaratantraśāstra [6].
The actual practice and lineage of mahāmudrā can be traced back to wandering maha-siddhas ("great adepts") during the Indian Pala Dynasty (760-1142), beginning with the 8th century siddha Saraha [7].
Saraha's dohas ("songs" or "poems in rhyming couplets") are the earliest extant mahāmudrā literature and promote some of the unique features of mahāmudrā such as the importance of:
pointing-out instruction by a guru,
the non-dual nature of mind, and
the negation of the conventional means of achieving enlightenment such as calm-and-insight (samatha-vipasyana) meditation, monasticism, rituals, tantric practices, and doctrinal study in favor of more the direct methods of mahāmudrā "non-meditation" and "non-action" [8].
These teachings also became the wellspring for the body of instructions eventually known as the mind teachings of Tibet associated with mahāmudrā of the Kagyu lineages [9].
Later Indian and Tibetan masters such as Padmavajra, Tilopa, and Gampopa incorporated mahāmudrā into tantric, monastic, and traditional meditative frameworks [10]. More: Mahamudra
Osho's Mahamudra Meditation. How to practice. A Tibetan Vajrayana meditation
(The Rebirthing Journey) Feb. 20, 2022: Osho says of this meditation: “If you do this every day, soon, somewhere within three months, one day you will feel you are not there. Just the energy is pulsating with the universe – nobody is there, the ego is completely lost, the doer is not. The universe is there, and you are there, the wave pulsating with the ocean – that is Mahamudra. That is the final orgasm, the most blissful state of consciousness that is possible.” #osho #mahamudra #meditation
(ReligionForBreakfast) June 19, 2025: As the 14th Dalai Lama turns 90, a global power struggle looms. Who gets to choose his [rebirth] successor? This video explores the battle over reincarnation, politics, Chinese rule, and the future of Tibetan Vajrayana/Bon Buddhism.
Check out earlier video explaining the Dalai Lama: The Dalai Lama Explained: The Last Lama? (now that YouTube has restricted Last Week Tonight with John Oliver'sinterview)
Compare news coverage. Spot media bias. Avoid algorithms. Try Ground News today and get 40% off subscription by going to ground.news/religionforbreakfast.
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