Brahman, Self, Atman, Shiva: India's seers

When Jesus walked in India (video)

When Jesus Walked in India | The Christ Series

(Spirit Science) In this episode of The Christ Series, we delve into one of the most intriguing and lesser-known chapters of Jesus’s life: his journey to India, drawing from historical accounts, ancient written manuscripts stored at Hemis Gompa, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Ladakh in the Himalayas, and other spiritual traditions.

• 00:00 - The connection exists
• 00:19 - The Star in the East
• 01:47 - Young Issa in India
• 03:38 - Issa in Nepal
• 04:20 - Other references
• 05:39 - The Yoga science
• 07:06 - Unity of East and West
• 08:58 - Master your meditations

This episode explores the possibility that Jesus, known as Issa in the East (and Isa in Islam), traveled through India, Nepal, Persia, and Tibet during his 18 “lost years.” Along this remarkable pilgrimage, he is said to have studied the Vedas (ancient Knowledge Books of the Indus Valley Civilization, now the holy scriptures of Hinduism, Buddhist sutras, and yogic practices, immersing himself in the profound spiritual teachings of the Mystic East.

As we trace his steps through sacred cities like Puri and the majestic Himalayan peaks, we uncover the transformative impact of this journey on his teachings. From challenging orthodoxy to sharing wisdom with the lower castes, even escaping danger from Zoroastrian priests (Parsis), Jesus’s story is both awe-inspiring and very human.

His lessons on inward prayer, fasting, and seeking the inner Kingdom of God within echo the meditative practices of yoga and the universal truths of self-realization and divine communion.

This episode also highlights the convergence of Eastern and Western traditions, showcasing how Jesus’s spiritual mission transcends cultural and religious boundaries. It calls us to recognize our shared spiritual heritage, bridging the depths of Eastern spirituality with the practicality of Western ideals.

Embark on this cinematic (AI recreated) exploration of faith and discovery, where the teachings of Jesus meet the wisdom of the East, illuminating a universal path to love (ahimsa), harmony, and divine purpose.

—Spirit Science tagged products: Learn more. The Hermetica: Rebirth of Wisdom paperback ($17.00, shop.spiritsciencecentral.com). Enhance the journey of self-discovery with the Muse Headset. Get 20% off to deepen meditation, unlocking the wisdom within: choosemuse.com/spiritverse.

• Spirit Science, 1/29/25; Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Buddhist Transformation of Yoga

Author Winston L. King (amazon.com); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Yoga ("Union" with Breath or Supreme Consciousness) became more about real liberation.

Theravada Meditation: The Buddhist Transformation of Yoga has 5.0 out of 5 stars with 4 ratings. The first book in English to relate modern forms of Theravada meditational practice to its Indian roots, Theravada Meditation: The Buddhist Transformation of Yoga rectifies the publishing imbalance toward Mahayana and Zen.

Buddhaghosa in Sri Lanka studying ola texts

The classic Theravada pattern in Buddhaghosa's Path of Purification (circa A.D. 500) is shown to be relevant to the present Buddhist world.

Beginning with a general description of similarities and differences between the Upanisadic-Yogic and Early Buddhist viewpoints, the author goes on to analyze Siddhattha Gotama's rejection-acceptance-modification of the Upanisadic-Yogic method of striving for moksa (liberation) in his search for Buddhahood (supreme enlightenment) as related in the Pali canon.

Contents:

• Preface
• Yogic Factors in Gotama Buddha's Enlightenment
• Conditions
• Preparations and Lower Levels of Meditation
• The Jhanic and Formless States
• The Jhanic Related "Buddhist" Meditation
• Vipassana Meditation
• The Attainment of Cessation (Nirodha-Samapatti)
• Contemporary Theravada Meditation in Burma
• Appendix "A Buddhist Pilgrim's Progress"
• Notes
• Selected and Annotated Bibliography
• Index

A second major section analyzes the meditational method of Buddhaghosa, showing the interaction between Upanisadic-Yogic jhanas (modes of concentration) and Buddhist vipassana (insight meditation).

Attention is given to the highest attainable state, nirodha-samapatti (cessation of thought and perception), held by Theravada Buddhism to be an actual experience of Nibbana (nirvana or world-escape) in this life.

The final chapter discusses the attraction of Theravada meditation in parts of the contemporary world, notably Burma, drawing on materials little known in the West.

In Burma and to some degree in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and Thailand, emphasis is on a simplified meditational method open to laypeople as well as monastics yet viewed as fully orthodox.

• Theravada Meditation: The Buddhist Transformation of Yoga by Winston L. King

What about Hinduism? Alan Watts explains

Alan Watts (KPFK Archives); S. Auberon, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Journey of the Soul: Concepts of Hell/Heaven in Hinduism, Christianity, Islam (isrgrajan.com)

Check the KPFK archives for Alan Watts

Buddhist Radio Los Angeles (Something's Happening with Roy of Hollywood Tuckman on KPFK 90.7 FM) carries on even though the world has lost Roy to Mara, the Grim Reaper. A broadcaster with a speech impediment seems to be keeping the torch going, if not Tuckman's wife the nurse.

• Alan Watts every Sunday morning at 8:00 am or in the archives online at KPFK.org Buddhist Radio continues on Thursdays at midnight into the morning.

One day an LA man will champion me at Pacifica

(Spiritual Library) Alan Watts explains Hinduism completely, which should give some insight into what Mahayana or popular Buddhism is, deviating quite a bit from what the historical Buddha Siddhartha Gautama taught in opposition to the Brahman priests of proto-India (or the remnants of ancient Bharat).

Great Bharat (Maha-Bharata) is a great ancient civilization that is part of the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC), Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro surrounding Gandhara.

Could anyone call Roy Tuckman "healthy"?

So Brahmanism, which modern Hinduism claims as its cornerstone as the preservation of the Vedas, goes way back. So, too, does Buddhism because of previous teaching buddhas (samma-sam-buddhas) the historical Buddha named and talked about.

They existed kalpas ("aeons, epochs, ages") ago; however, the Sanskrit word kalpa (Pali kappa) is a variable term.

It can mean an ordinary lifespan for that period, geologic time, cosmic time, lasting from 120 years (like today) or millions and millions of years, or even periods so staggering as to boggle the mind that attempts to contemplate them.

There is the great kalpa, a day in the life of Brahma (the Supreme), a night of Brahma, a chaotic period before things reform again for another cycle. There is the indeterminate kalpa which may last even longer. One might imagine Big Bangs and Big Contractions, long periods of evolution, long periods of devolutions, and even interstitial periods of chaos before things impersonally organize themselves again.

The Buddha talked about previous buddhas from kalpas ago. How long ago was that? It seems that some of them were within history and, of course, most of them were prehistorical. Alongside buddhas teachings, there seem to have been Brahmin priests with their Vedas or "Books of Knowledge" handed down by the devas (shining celestial space beings who came to earth to help humankind), which we might think of as "angels" or "gods" or "demigods."

Oldest spiritual scriptures: Rig Veda (video)

New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove, June 10, 2019; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Understanding the Rig Veda with Debashish Banerji

(New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove) The guest is Haridas Chaudhuri Professor of Indian Philosophies and Cultures and Chairman of the East West Psychology Department at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco Debashish Banerji, PhD.

Prof. Banerji is the author of Seven Quartets of Becoming: A Transformative Yoga Psychology Based on the Diaries of Sri Aurobindo and also The Alternate Nation of Abanindranath Tagore, a book about his great grandfather.

There is much in the mind yet to fathom.

He edited an anthology about his great uncle, Rabindranath Tagore in the Twenty-First Century. His newest anthology is titled Critical Posthumanism and Planetary Futures. Here he discusses the cosmology inherent in what is arguably the world's oldest religious scripture, the Rig Veda, aspects of which are surprisingly modern.

He points out that the Vedas share many Indo-European traits. The ancient Greek pantheon is similar to Rigvedic deities, which predates it by millennia. Dr. Banerji refers to hymns celebrating the use of a mysterious bliss-inducing entheogen known as "Soma."

How shall we become Western mystics?

He elaborates upon the role of sacrifice in ancient India. He also notes that this ancient proto-Indian (Indus Valley Civilization) scripture can be viewed in a psychological context.

New Thinking Allowed Host Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is the author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man.

Vajrayana Buddhism is greatly influenced

ABOUT: Between 1986 and 2002 Dr. Mishlove hosted and co-produced the original "Thinking Allowed" public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in "parapsychology" ever awarded (1980) by an accredited university -- in this case the greatest public school in the world, the University of California at Berkeley.

He has served as vice-president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology and is the recipient of its Pathfinder Award for outstanding contributions to the field of human consciousness. He is also past-president of the non-profit Intuition Network, an organization dedicated to creating a world in which all people are encouraged to cultivate and apply their inner, intuitive abilities.

(This interview was recorded on May 22, 2019). 

For a complete, updated list with links to all videos, see newthinkingallowed.com.... For opportunities to support the New Thinking Allowed video channel, please visit the New Thinking Allowed Foundation at newthinkingallowed.org. To join the NTA Psi Experience Community on Facebook, see facebook.com/groups/19530... To download and listen to audio versions of the New Thinking Allowed videos, please visit new podcast at itunes.apple.com/us/podcast....

Help support ongoing video productions while enjoying a good book. To order Seven Quartets of Becoming by Dr. Debashish Banerji, click here: amzn.to/2M6qdhx.

Are we all one? Misconceptions about Advaita

Dr. David Frawley, Misconceptions About Advaita, 8/19/19; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Allure of the Direct Path

OM, I thought nonduality meant One! - It does. - h

Advaita, which refers to the state of non-duality of the Self [Atman] and God [Brahman], can easily lend itself to all sorts of misconceptions.

Indeed, one can argue that since the Advaitic state transcends all thought and dualities, all conceptions about it are ultimately misconceptions!

Advaitic practice is itself about the removal of misconceptions, particularly wrong ideas about our true nature -- negating our false identification with the body and the external world.

But misconceptions about this direct path also exist and can be significant obstacles to overcome along the way. Of course, many of these same misconceptions can be found relative to any spiritual path, because all spiritual paths aim to take us to a higher state of consciousness, which can appeal to fantasy and escapism as well as to genuine aspiration.

Yet as Advaita is the highest and most direct path [according to its advocates], this potential for distortion is even greater, like an ordinary climber’s fantasy to quickly scale the heights of Mount Everest.

Advaita is formless in nature and in practice, so there is much room for overestimating, if not exaggerating one’s attainments, and little objective in the practice to keep one grounded.

Going all the way back to the Upanishads there are criticisms of practitioners who can brilliantly talk the Advaitic line but lack the realization to really back it up.

Advaita, though referring to the Brahmic state [of Brahman not Brahma] beyond Maya [Illusion], therefore, has its own glamor or Maya.

The allure of a quick and direct path to becoming God and guru has a special appeal not only to the awakened soul but also to the unawakened ego that wants the glory of spiritual realization without undergoing any real toil or tapas [cleansing austerities] in order to get there.

These usual misconceptions are getting further magnified as Advaita becomes popular in the West, which as a media-dominated culture easily falls into stereotype, image production, and fantasy-fulfillment.

Just as Yoga has undergone many distortions in the West, which has reduced it largely to a physical asana [posture or pose] practice, so too Advaita is often getting reduced to an instant enlightenment fad, to another system of personal empowerment or to another type of pop psychology.

An entire "Neo-Advaitic" movement has arisen reflecting not only traditional Vedantic teachings [the best of the ancient Vedas] but the demands of Western culture. While this movement is arguably a good trend for the future and contains much that is positive in it, it is also a fertile ground for many distortions, which are likely to become more pronounced as the popular base of the movement expands.

The Advaitic path is rooted in a powerful and simple logic, which is not difficult to learn. “You are That,” “The Self is Everything,” “All is One,” and so on.

We can easily confuse adapting this logic, which is not difficult, with the actual realization of the deeper state of awareness behind it, which is something else altogether. We can answer all questions with “Who is asking the question?” when it may be no more than a verbal exercise.

Faced with both old and new misconceptions, the Advaitic student today is in a difficult position to separate a genuine approach and real guidance from the bulk of superficial or misleading teachings, however well-worded, popular, or pleasant in appearance these may appear to be.

Advaita and Vedanta

The first Hindu: Sri Shankara

Advaita is primarily a term of Advaita Vedanta, the non-dualistic tradition of Vedanta.

Though rooted in the Vedas, Upanishads, and Bhagavad Gita, its most characteristic form occurs in the teachings of Shankara Acharya (circa 500 AD), who put these Vedic teachings in a clear rational language that remains easily understandable to the present day.

The basic language and logic of Shankara can be found behind most Advaitic teachings, even those who may not have studied [Sri] Shankara directly. More

• Strange, giant stone jars created by a mysterious people were just found in India

Transcendentalism on Walden POOL (video)

Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Seth Auberon, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly, Wiki edits

Gustav Holst (13Orcun) Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, Op. 26, Two Eastern Pictures (1911)

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Transcendentalism is an American movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the eastern United States.

It arose as a reaction to protest against the general state of intellectualism and spirituality at the time.

The doctrine of the Unitarian church as taught at Harvard Divinity School was of great interest.

 

Sarah Margaret Fuller

Transcendentalism emerged from "English and German Romanticism, the biblical criticism...the skepticism of David Hume," and the transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant and German Idealism.

• Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg is regarded as a pervasive influence on transcendentalism by Miller and Versluis.
• Hindu texts on philosophy of the mind and spirituality, particularly the Upanishads, also strongly influenced it.

Author on KPFA, Berkeley

A core belief of transcendentalism is in the inherent goodness of people and nature.

Adherents believe that society and its government institutions have corrupted the purity of the individual. They have faith that people are at their best when truly "self-reliant" and independent.

 

Transcendentalism emphasizes subjective knowledge (inner knowing, direct intuition of the heart) over objective empiricism (experts dictating from their experiments and heads).

Transcendatalists agree that individuals are capable of generating completely original insights with little reliance or deference to past "masters." More

The Graduate's Ben Braddock is just drifting along on his parents' California pool all summer.

Civil Disobedience

Thoreau's writing restored Walden Pond.

Civil Disobedience is an 1849 essay by American Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. It argues that individuals should resist permitting governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences.

We have a duty to resist and avoid allowing such acquiescence that enables the government to make us the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated, in part, by his disgust with American slavery and the Mexican-American War (1846-1848).

Who was Thoreau?

Henry David Thoreau, August 1861

Henry David Thoreau, while living in Walden Woods for two years beginning in 1845, was an American Transcendentalist contemplating Walden Pond's features.

In "The Ponds" section of Walden, published in 1854, Thoreau extols the water's physical properties.

He details its unparalleled water quality, clarity, color, temperature, unique animal life (aquatic, avian, mammalian), rock formations and bed and, especially, its mirror-like surface properties.

 

We can live in forests our own with Nature.

Thoreau contemplates the source of the pristine water body in the woods. He observes that it had no visible inlet or outlet, and considers the possibility of an unidentified spring at the bottom.

Noting the kettle landform's ramparts and resilient shore, he concludes that a unique, natural geologic event (glacial retreat) formed the site, while recognizing local myths:

Some have been puzzled to tell how the shore became so regularly paved. My townsmen have all heard the tradition -- the oldest people tell me that they heard it in their youth -- that anciently the Indians were holding a pow-wow upon a hill here, which rose as high into the heavens as the pond now sinks deep into the earth, and they used much profanity, as the story goes, though this vice is one of which the Indians were never guilty, and while they were thus engaged the hill shook and suddenly sank, and only one old squaw, named Walden, escaped, and from her the pond was named. It has been conjectured that when the hill shook these stones rolled down its side and became the present shore. It is very certain, at any rate, that once there was no pond here, and now there is one; and this Indian fable does not in any respect conflict with the account of that ancient settler whom I have mentioned, who remembers so well when he first came here with his divining-rod, saw a thin vapor rising from the sward, and the hazel pointed steadily downward, and he concluded to dig a well here. As for the stones, many still think that they are hardly to be accounted for...one might suppose that it was called originally Walled-in Pond.

In "The Ponds" Thoreau describes incorporeal experiences around the water.

These experiences were relayed to him by others and his own. Thoreau -- who was a well read Transcendentalist and, therefore, presumably intimately familiar with Romanticism -- relates the stories in a way that could be argued to interpret or reveal the pond as the locale of the Grail Legend in the Americas.

An old man who used to frequent this pond nearly sixty years ago, when it was dark with surrounding forests, tells me that in those days he sometimes saw it all alive with ducks and other water-fowl, and that there were many eagles about it....

When I first paddled a boat on Walden, it was completely surrounded by thick and lofty pine and oak woods, and in some of its coves grapevines had run over the trees next the water and formed bowers under which a boat could pass. The hills which form its shores are so steep, and the woods on them were then so high, that, as you looked down from the west end, it had the appearance of an amphitheater for some kind of sylvan spectacle. I have spent many an hour, when I was younger, floating over its surface as the zephyr willed, having paddled my boat to the middle, and lying on my back across the seats, in a summer forenoon, dreaming awake, until I was aroused by the boat touching the sand, and I arose to see what shore my fates had impelled me to; days when idleness was the most attractive... More

The Graduate POOL was my Walden Pond

The Graduate's Ben ("Son" played by Dustin Hoffman), boyfriend of "Mrs. Robinson," on the pool in idyllic California. It's the 50 year anniversary,* and we're barely realizing the connection.

• FilmWeek screening of The Graduate, hosted by Lovery
• June 2, 2018, 7:00-10:30 pm @ The Theatre at Ace Hotel 933 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90015

*Mike Nichols’s romantic comedy-drama The Graduate recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. It is in the Top 20 of the American Film Institute’s best American movies list and has the distinction of being the last film to win an Academy Award for best director and nothing else (despite being nominated in six other categories).

Sanskrit: scientific, spiritual language

Sanskrit Language: The Most Scientific, Ancient, Spiritual

(Thinking Allowed) Professor Dean Brown points out that most European languages can be traced back to a root language that is also related to Sanskrit -- the sacred language of the ancient Vedic Hindu religions of India. Many English words actually have Sanskrit origins. Similarly, many Vedic religious concepts can also be found in Western culture. He discusses a Buddhist link, the fundamental idea of the Upanishads -- that the essence of each individual, the atman, is identical to the whole universe, the principle of Brahman. In this sense, the polytheistic traditions of India can be said to be monistic or pantheistic at their very core.

Buddhism and Hinduism

Contrasting temple styles, elegant Buddhist pagoda and the intricate complexity of a Hindu temple replete with gods and mythological themes (malaysia.com).

Sohoni Das (SF Hindu Examiner 6/29/09; WQ editing)

Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, who was [allegedly] born in Nepal, and lived and taught in the northeastern region of the Indian subcontinent. The Buddha's teaching, Buddhism, originated in what is now Bihar, India during the reign of Maurya Empire.

Since Buddhism and Hinduism originated in ancient India, they share many similarities. Buddhism, however, became a world religion, whereas Hinduism has largely stayed on the subcontinent. The Buddha is mentioned in several of the Puranas (ancient Hindu religious texts), and some Buddhist teachings appear to have been formulated responding to ideas contained in the early Upanishads.

It came to be taught in Hinduism, in many Puranas, that the Buddha must be an incarnation of Vishnu (a Hindu god) with the purpose of deluding demons (yakkhas) or mankind about the true Vedic Dharma.

Some striking similarities between the two religions are given below:

• Ahimsa: a Sanskrit word meaning "non-violence" (non-harming) and respect for all life.

Buddha’s dialog of ahimsa in the Lesser Exposition on Karma Discourse (Culakammavibhanga Sutta) was a definitive move against the traditional [cruel animal] sacrificial Vedic rituals of Hindu culture. However, the Upanishadic literature in Hinduism was often critical of the Vedic ritual and emphasized the internal meaning and symbolism of the sacrifice rather than its literal enactment. Ahimsa doctrine was later developed in the Hindu Yajurveda under the Brahmanical culture.

• Karma: meaning one's deeds or actions or activity, which is a central theme of Buddhist teachings.

It is believed that this idea is derived from Hinduism. However, there are apparent inconsistencies regarding this. The Buddhist doctrine of karma is based on the Buddha's direct mystical observations, rather than literary derivations. Hindu seers had their interpretations, which the Buddha seems to have expanded on, clarified, and added to.

• Dharma: this term means "religious or ethical duty"

Both Buddhism and Hinduism believe that beings that live in harmony with dharma precede on towards moksha or nirvana (liberation).

Despite the similarities between the two religions, the major differences are:

• God: The Buddha set an important trend of non-theism [different from atheism] by denying the notion of an omnipotent God.

According to Buddhism, there are gods but a higher reality, but not an ultimate creator God beyond the law of karma or rebirth. Mankind's need for protection and agency [not to mention Buddhist devas or Greek-style demigods], which are psychologically deep-rooted, prompts a need for this belief. However, Hinduism strongly believes in the existence of an ultimate creator God [Brahman] and also believes that gods are reborn as humans to save the earth (avatars or "messiahs").

• Vedas: these Holy Scriptures are followed in Hinduism to acquire the divine Three-Knowledges of life.

Unlike Hinduism, Buddhists believe that Three-Knowledges should be achieved through the process of enlightenment, which the Buddha achieved in the three watches of the night on the night of his Great Enlightenment (mahabodhi). The Three-Knowledges are memory of past lives, seeing the rebirth of others according to their karma, and complete intuitive penetration of the Four Noble Truths and the destruction of spiritual defilements, which fester in the mind/heart (citta) and keep it obscured, defiled, and unenlightened. (This third knowledge is a composite one).

The Four Noble Truths are deep and profound. Understanding them fully (particularly the fourth) is the essence of Buddhist enlightenment. This understanding is not intellectual, however, but rather thorough-going, psychological, and even mystical.

1. PROBLEM: All planes of existence are ultimately bound up with uneasiness (dukkha) in one way or another.
2. CAUSE: This uneasiness is caused by cravings and attachments of all kinds.
3. SOLUTION: This uneasiness ends when craving ends, when one is free of craving, which is achieved by knowledge-and-vision of nirvana, which means reaching the ultimate liberated state of enlightenment (bodhi).
4. PATH: Reaching this liberated state is achieved by following the Path rediscovered and laid out by the Buddha.

It is apparent that later Indian religious thought was in turn influenced by Buddhism's new interpretations and novel ideas. The new religion gained prominence on the Indian subcontinent at one time eclipsing all other traditions in India before Hinduism assimilated many of its ideas and teachings and became the de facto state religion (with considerable Islamic and other minorities but almost no Buddhists independent of Hinduism).

Buddhism was eclipsed by a Hindu renaissance and Islam onslaughts in the 13th Century. It then flourished beyond India -- Theravada in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian nations; Vajrayana/Lamaism in the Himalayas (Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, etc.); and Mahayana in East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, etc.).

Hinduism and Buddhism now coexist harmoniously in the world and are followed, at least in name, by hundreds of millions of adherents. Buddhism in India survived and is still practiced -- particularly in the Himalayan region such as Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and in the east in what is now Muslim dominated Bangladesh.

• For more on Buddhism_and_Hinduism (wikipedia)