This is the book that is the basis for the workshop, Sacred Words of Wisdom. It consists of texts from the seven so-called World Religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. There are texts directly from the Sacred Books of each religion under these ten headings: The Great Mystery; The World; Humanity; Teachers; The Way; Prayer and Meditation; Struggle; Evil and Suffering; Death; The Ultimate. Here is the Foreword and Chapter 5 (IThemes of the Eastern Religions):
FOREWORD
I hope you find this little selection of texts from the world's religions to be useful on your spiritual path. There is an old Chinese curse that says, ""May you live in interesting times. As human beings that share a planet in the twenty-first century, we are witnessing unprecedented technological and medical advances at the same time there are terrible threats to our very survival. It is one of those watershed moments in human history. A fledgling planetary vision will either come clearly into focus, or be obliterated by the smoke and ash of upheaval. Interesting times indeed!
I love the Sufi story of the elephant and four blind men who were touching it from various angles and describing it to each other. One man said it must be like a rope, since he was holding its tail. Another said it must be like a fan, since he had hold of its ear. The third said it felt like a curved stick as he had a tusk in his hand, and the fourth said it was like a tree trunk since he had hold of a leg. The debate over the nature of the real elephant became heated.
Of course, the elephant is a metaphor for Truth. It can be perceived from many angles. All of them are true, yet none is complete.
When I was a young Religious Studies student, I asked a Hindu scholar which religion is True. He said, "you Americans are obsessed with the Truth. If you want to climb to the top of a mountain, you can take any one of a number of paths and you will get there. Why not just take the one that's nearest to you? Christianity will get you there just as well as any. But then again, if you are drawn to try a different path, find one with interesting scenery. If you climb, you will get there either way."
The "True" Mystery is like the sun whose clear blinding light is filtered through the earth's atmosphere and diffused into different colors during different times of the day - sunrise, high noon, sunset, and twilight. After it rains, the light is refracted into the colors of the rainbow. The light is different in different weather and in different seasons. It is different at different latitudes. It appears as a magnificent riot of colors through a stained glass window. None of the light colors is any more True than the others. You can not look directly into the sun to see its light more clearly. If you tried you would go blind. Most of the world's great wisdom traditions abound with metaphors of light as an archetypal symbol of illumination. It is up to us to develop the vision with which to perceive it.
I take all of these insights to mean that there are many ways to glimpse the Great Mystery. The Qur'an says it is closer to you than your own neck vein. Gandhi says "it is one, though named variously named? we remember Him by the name which is most familiar to us." Paul says "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." It is our universal longing, to find our way to light.
When I started to study the religions of the world, I kept getting excited about new discoveries. A Chinese scholar friend said to me "You are like someone who is always finding jewels, and doesn't realize she is in a jewelry store. There are jewels everywhere!" She is now married to my Hindu friend, and between them they represent all the religions of the East, as well as one of the West. He is a Hindu. She was raised as a Christian and says that when you are Chinese, you are born with a Taoist ritual, live according to Confucian principles, and buried with a Buddhist ceremony.
If we are true seekers of Wisdom, we will recognize it wherever we find it. The world's great religions and ancient native traditions have survived for thousands of years. They wouldn't have lasted if they had not had the power to move and sustain hundreds of millions of people with their spiritual nourishment. Their words offer us promising veins to mine for nuggets of wisdom about the questions that concern our innermost hearts.
What is the Great Mystery we feel compelled to search out so that we might fathom the meaning of existence? It is tremendous and overwhelming, yet infinitely close and familiar. It is inscrutable and ineffable, awful in power, yet peaceful, silent and endlessly creative. It is found within our human hearts and in the grandeur of the boundless universe. It has many Names but defies the power of words to describe. It is called Yahweh, Father, Allah, God, Brahman, Atman, Nirvana and Tao. It is beyond all Names.
And what of a world that is both cosmos and neighborhood? It is incomprehensibly ancient and vast. It is filled with people, animals, plants, and stones. And it reaches beyond the stars. It is solid and it is illusion. Was it created at a moment in time, or has it been here forever and ever? It is ours to share, to explore, and to exploit. It is a joyous garden and a vale of tears; a testing ground to which we endlessly return, and a place that we will never revisit. And "what is man that Thou art mindful of him?" We humans are suffering creatures who long for bliss. We are infants and children, householders and elders, creatures alone yet born into community. We are good, we are bad, we are brilliant and foolish; we can be the loveliest and most devilish of creatures.
What is the meaning of death? We live our lives in the blink of an eye, and then we are gone - but where? To be born and reborn? To be rewarded or punished? "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" And what can we think of the teachers who suggest meanings for suffering and joy, and point out rules by which we should live? They answer our craving for that something that is just beyond us, but that we have always known is there. There are saviors, teachers, prophets and messengers who appear inexplicably in history. They show us the pathways that we must walk for ourselves. They are Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Krishna, the Buddha, Confucius, Lao Tzu, and the holy sages and shamans of the tribes of the world.
And what is the way we must act in our lives? We are called to prayer and to introspection. We are called to mercy and love. We are called to struggle for strength and courage. There are laws to follow and sins to avoid. The golden rule, the Ten Commandments, the beauty way, and the eightfold path, all provide templates to bring out the best in us.
And what do we make of evil and suffering? There are destructive forces abroad in our world. We strain to comprehend them, and we strive to combat them. This is our present World Dharma and our "holy war." It is the striving of good against evil, the timeless struggle that now must be waged on a personal level and on the level of the cosmos.
And what of our hopes for our ultimate end? When we escape the bonds of life, what will we achieve? Will we be elevated to Nirvana or Paradise, or return to the Nameless that is beyond all names? Will we be cast into hell from which there is no salvation? Or will there be - Nothing? Every fiber of our being recoils from the thought. We want to know. So we seek.
Scholars have filled thousands of books with commentaries on religion. This book contains a little selection of texts from the sacred books themselves. We will see what they say about the timeless themes of the Great Mystery, the world, and humanity, as well as about our teachers who call us to be virtuous, about the consequences of our good and evil actions, the meaning of death, and the ultimate goal of our lives.
As we look more closely at wisdom, we find ourselves to be aware that we are face to face with an elephant, and that we have been blind, or at least shortsighted. We can begin to understand that we share the elephant with other people. We can call to each other, and tell each other the stories of how our ancestors understood wisdom in their times. And, sensing that the whole elephant is more like a mountain than a rope, a fan or a tree trunk, we can begin to climb. Who knows what we will find on top? Elephants and more elephants and more elephants...? Mystery, Mystery and more Mystery?
These sacred words will speak to you for themselves. May you find in them what you need.
Sandy Kahn, Belmont, Mass
CHAPTER 6 INTRODUCTION TO THE 10 THEMES IN THE EASTERN RELIGIONS
For followers of the eastern religions, the Great Mystery is the source of and permeates the whole natural universe. It perpetually creates the cosmos out of its own being. Not being personal, the Great Mystery demands nothing. By cultivating our own vital spirit - called prana in Sanskrit and chi in Chinese - we become identified with the divine. To the degree that human beings follow the natural moral law of the universe, we acquire what Hinduism and Buddhism call good or bad karma, or in Confucian and Taoist terms, we become more or less authentically human. By our own individual effort, human beings must pierce the veil of ignorance that comes from a deluded perspective of reality. Although we can find help from enlightened beings who have already traveled the path, each of us is ultimately responsible for our own fate.
Whereas in the monotheistic religions, it is essential for human beings to believe in and submit to the will of a Personal Being, in the eastern religions it is essential for human beings to discern for themselves the pattern of the divine strive to experience oneness with it. One could say that the eastern and monotheistic religions represent the yin and yang sides of the human psyche.
In each of the following chapters, there is a selection of texts under the following ten headings: the Great Mystery, the world, humanity, the teachers, the way, prayer, evil and suffering, struggle, death, and the ultimate.
Before looking at the texts themselves, we will first consider specific similarities and differences among the eastern religions.
The Great Mystery
Followers of the eastern religions experience the Great Mystery as a boundless dynamic void that is innate in everything that exists. Their sacred texts use abstract or negative words to describe the Great Mystery. Words such as unfathomable, ineffable, subtle, empty, formless, void, “Suchness,” “neti, neti,” (not this, not this) give a sense of its profound nature. Whether called Brahman, Nirvana, Sunyata or Tao, the Great Mystery is constantly creating all that is and ever will be - and it is also within us. The Source from which everything arises is also the dynamic principle that animates and pervades the world. It contains all the natural laws of the universe, both physical and moral.
Hindu scripture says that atman, our individual self, is Brahman, the Great Mystery. The whole of Hindu philosophy can be summed up in the saying "Thou art That!" Buddhist scriptures teach that we all have “buddha nature,” and our task is to realize it. When we do, we achieve Moksha (Hinduism) or Nirvana (Buddhism). This is a return to our true state that is blissful beyond all description. It is an experience that is both magnificent and serene.
The Great Mystery, called tao in Chinese, is the ineffable source from which everything is generated and to which everything returns. It is the essence of the cosmos that is elusive and subtle, yet it so close that we can unite with it. The Chinese description of the creation of the universe says that wu chi, (the primordial stillness and chaos) and tai chi (also called tao) gave rise to yin and yang. Out of the constant interplay and transformation of each into the other the world arises in all of its perpetual variety and change. In its knowable form in nature tao is the “mother of the ten thousand things.” In its transcendent form it is "darkness within darkness, the gate to all mystery."
The Confucian tradition also refers to the Great Mystery as tao, but it also describes a mediating being known as Sky or Heaven (ti'en). When earth and humans follow Heaven, and Heaven follows Tao, all is well with the world and society. As long as the emperor follows the “mandate of heaven” (ming ti’en) he remains in power. When he does not there is disaster in the land and in society: crops fail and there is war and famine. This is the reason why dynasties fall.
The texts in the following chapters describe the Great Mystery as: the ineffable, All in All, the mind of wisdom, emptiness, and power.
The World
According to the eastern religions the whole world arises from, and is imbued with the divine. Human beings exist on a continuum with nature and nothing is separate from the Great Mystery. It is our ignorance that makes things seem to be separate. The essential feature of the world for all four eastern religions is that it is ephemeral. It is like the spray of bubbles that is ultimately an illusion (maya). The Hindu scholar and guru Radhakrishnan refers to reality as “a phantasmagoria dancing on the fabric of pure being.” It is literally the play (lila) of the divine.
In Hinduism there are a plethora of creation stories. Three of these stories describe the world as arising from the navel of a god who is having a divine dream, as hatching from a cosmic egg and as the result of the cosmic sacrifice of a primal man, Purusha, from whose body parts it is made. The celebrated mythologist, Joseph Campbell says, “the notion of this universe, its heavens, hells, and everything within it, as a great dream dreamed by a single being in which all the dream characters are dreaming, too, has in India enchanted and shaped an entire civilization.”
The sheer magnitude of time and space in the context of creation is overwhelming - "In India the number of years of an aeon, known as a Day of Brahma, is reckoned as 4,320,000,000; after which there follows a Night of Brahma, when all like dissolved in the cosmic sea for another 4,320,000,000 years, the sum total of years of an entire cosmic round thus being 8,640,000,00 There is no question of punishment or guilt implied in a mythology of cosmic days and nights of this kind. Everything is completely automatic and in the sweet nature of things."
For all of the eastern religions our own world is a microcosm and a mirror of the divine world. Furthermore, the divine world is not somewhere "out there," but is hidden within ours. Human beings feel caught up in the exuberant and dramatic creativity of the divine. Oriental architecture illustrates this understanding of the world. Buddhist, Taoist and Shinto temples seem to be part of the landscape. They reflect the immanence of the divine in the world where human beings are comfortable and serene in their presence. Temples in India have innumerable layers of sculpted gods and goddesses who embody archetypal forces that are awesome, but depict lives that are similar to our own.
In the eastern religions, time is cyclic and repetitive. According to Hinduism and Buddhism people are born, they live, grow old and die, only to be reborn again and again. The world itself goes through cycles of creation and destruction. According to Taoism and Confucianism, the river is continually flowing and everything constantly ebbing and flowing into and out of existence. Buddhism sees everything in the world as constantly coming into and going out of existence. Everything is completely interconnected with everything else (by dependent origination.) In its eternal flux, it is ultimately an illusion. Suffering comes from attachment, even to our own selves, and prevents us from experiencing ultimate bliss.
For Taoism the world is a natural wonder that constantly arises from the dynamic creativity of the Tao. The Tao brought existence out of primordial chaos through a kind of internal differentiation process. The world, including humanity, is constantly being created and sustained by the activity of the Tao. Vital energy (chi) imbues everything. Yin and yang are expressed in the world as realities that continually ebb and flow. Richard Wilhelm says reality is like
"a waterfall of showers spraying in the sun. The waterfall is composed of always new drops, and yet its form is constant. Not because the drops are constant, but because the conditions that guide the drops in their course remain constant."
The eastern religions describe an early age of innocence in the world. In the Hinduism it is the Krita Yuga. In Confucianism and Taoism it is a time in the remote age of ancestral sages. The golden age is followed by ages of increasing decadence. Enlightened beings appear from time to time to guide human beings back to the right path. There is a widespread mythology in all religions concerning the end of the world, as we know it. In the eastern religions there are Hindu and Buddhist descriptions of how the earth will be destroyed in a great cataclysm, and a great being will come to initiate a perfect world. For Hindus this savior-avatar is called Kalki and for certain Buddhist sects he is known as Maitreya.
The texts in the following chapters depict the world of nature as creative arising, divine, and ephemeral.
Humanity
In all the eastern traditions human beings exist on a continuum with nature. There is, however, an important difference between the traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism on the one hand, and the spiritual traditions of China on the other.
In the Hindu and Buddhist view human beings are reborn over and over again, sometimes as humans and sometimes as other creatures, sometimes into heavens and sometimes into hells. We are not specially created, but arise out of the same creative process that produces the entire universe. A human being may be reborn as an animal or insect, or any natural being. Therefore he/she is not essentially different from anything else. Being human is important only because we can be released from the bonds of karma into ultimate bliss (Moksha or Nirvana) from a human life. Each of us must seek to follow the natural law (Dharma) that exists in both the physical world and in the moral structure of our lives, so that we can attain a higher life or be released from rebirth altogether. Just as material objects obey the laws of physics human beings follow the laws of karma. Good karma is acquired by means of good action and leads to a higher life. Bad karma is acquired by means of bad action and leads to a lower one. The cause of all our trouble is ignorance, not sin. Our false sense of being separate from each other is maya (illusion). When we come to realize that we are actually identified with all beings, we will naturally treat them with compassion and enter the state of oneness with the Great Mystery.
The world with its endless and tedious round of rebirths is something from which Hindus and Buddhists wish to escape from. The greatest barrier to escape is our own ignorance. The goal for which we humans strive, is to become liberated and attain the state that is blissful beyond words. For Hindus, the atman, the individual self, yearns to realize its union with Brahman, the Great Mystery.
For Buddhists the self itself is an illusion. The great scholar of Chinese religion, Richard Wilhelm describes it this way:
A person at birth is not like a substance… It is something like a whirlwind that whirls up dust. The whirlwind of dust appears to exist in space, but in reality it is no more than a state of atmospheric pressure that causes ever new whirls. As new winds enter the whirl new dust particles rise into the air, and so the whirlwind of dust assumes the appearance of enduring existence. …Birth is followed by development; man takes nourishment, grows, and matures; then comes love, sickness, old age, and death. But the course does not stop here. For as long as the causes are not exhausted, and once the cycle is visible, the succession is repeated over and over again. Just as whirlwinds may become invisible in dustless places, new dust is whirled up as soon as they enter dusty regions. We call it transmigration of souls, or the succession of births…
The great insight human beings seek is to realize that all is Emptiness (Sunyata). The attainment of this insight is Nirvana, a "blowing out" of the illusion that finally brings great peace.
In China chi not only informs humans and nature, but also places, buildings, paintings and tools inform everything. There is a brotherhood among all that exists. The Taoist strives to live in accordance with nature, in utter simplicity. Taoist philosophy looks back with nostalgia to a golden age that existed without the mechanical and wealthy trappings of civilization. It is a predominantly solitary philosophy, although it puts forth many suggestions for the ideal ruler. The Confucianist, on the other hand, strives to live in correct harmonious relationships with other human beings in order to have a civilized society. It is based on mutual respect and social order. Confucianism is primarily a social philosophy (although it acknowledges the working of Tao. It might be said that Taoism is the yin side of the collective Chinese psyche, and Confucianism is its yang side.
The texts in the following chapters describe humanity as one with nature, one with the divine, subject to reincarnation, suffering, and having self-determination.
The Teachers
Among the eastern traditions, there are several different models for the spiritual teacher. Hindu texts refer to avatars who are incarnations of Vishnu. They come to earth from time to time in order to teach humanity the truth about reality and the way to bliss. The two most familiar of these avatars are Rama and Krishna, although there have been many others, both human and animal. Besides recognizing these celestial incarnations, Hindus look for guidance from gurus, saintly people who have already trodden the spiritual path, and know its pitfalls
The Buddha, on the other hand, explicitly denies the existence of divine beings, and specifically denied being one himself. The only reason he can be believed by other human beings is only that he is awake. In fact he said, there have been many previous buddhas, and there will be many more. After leaving his home in order to solve the problem of suffering which comes from illness, old age and death, he discovered the “middle way,” which is neither overly ascetic nor blatantly worldly. After achieving enlightenment through his own effort, he decided to stay in the world to teach others the path (Dharma). He spent forty years with his monks (bikkhus) as a mendicant beggar, teaching the antidote to suffering and ignorance. He is called “Thus gone” (Tathagata) because he has gone to the further shore and returned to teach the way. He is the Compassionate One who teaches “skillful means” to those who seek the release from suffering. According to Mahayana Buddhist tradition, there are also certain people, who, having attained enlightenment, vow to stay in the world until all beings are saved. They are called bodhisattvas.
Upon reaching enlightenment the Buddha chose to teach people the way he had discovered. But he stressed that it was only through the individual's effort that he could achieve his own liberation. His deathbed words were "Be lamps unto yourselves."
Sages or wise teachers, have been always been revered in China. Taoist sages are usually in close touch with nature and with the natural wisdom of an earlier, purer age, and are often humble hermits. Their learning is from direct intuition of the meaning of the world, and they are generally anti-intellectual, irreverent, apolitical, and contemptuous of wealth or the trappings of society. Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu are the most famous. Confucius, on the other hand, was a teacher of ethics whose wisdom is of a social nature. His aim, which has been idealized for over two thousand years, is to have a society based on virtue and civility. Both Confucius and Lao Tzu developed their wisdom by looking back to the wisdom of ancestors of a golden age, especially the Book of Changes (I Ching). Confucius studied the I Ching and wrote extensive commentaries on it. He said " I transmit but I do not create; I am sincerely fond of the ancient. "Give me a few more years and by fifty I shall have studied the book of divination called Changes. Through it I may become free of large faults." Lao Tzu said "
The ancient masters were subtle, mysterious, profound, responsive. The depth of their knowledge is unfathomable. Because it is unfathomable, all we can do is describe their appearance. Watchful, like men crossing a winter stream. Alert, like men aware of danger. Courteous, like visiting guests. Yielding, like ice about to melt. Simple, like uncarved blocks of wood. Hollow, like caves. Opaque, like muddy pools. Who can wait quietly while the mud settles? Who can remain still until the moment of action? Observers of Tao do not seek fulfillment. Not seeking fulfillment, they are not swayed by desire for change.
The texts in the following chapters describe teachers as wise, enlightened beings, and models.
The Way
The Great Mystery in Hinduism and Buddhism, is not a personal God. Therefore virtues and vices are not actions to be rewarded or punished as a result of divine judgement. As we have seen the laws for human behavior are inherent in the laws of the universe itself as karma. Since the nature of the universe is illusion or maya, the key to ultimate happiness is learning how to free ourselves from the disappointment of attachment. Noticing that the world is in constant change provides the key for the central insight of all the eastern religions. That is we must look beyond the world and identify with its eternal substrate, the Great Mystery. All the virtues are practiced to this end.
Hindus believe we must perform our actions, (duty or dharma) without regard for the fruits of these actions. Buddhists refer to virtuous behavior as “skillful.” Since the highest virtue is compassion, Buddhists strive to carry out “skillful” as opposed to “unskillful” action. In any situation, a devout Buddhist must try to discern the action that will best further all beings toward liberation. The Tao Te Ching cites the behavior of ancient sages and the forces of nature as models for virtuous behavior:
The highest good is like water.
Water gives a life to the ten thousand things
and does not strive.
It flows in places men reject and
so is like the Tao.
In dwelling, be close to the land.
In meditation, go deep into the heart.
In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.
In speech, be true.
In ruling, be just.
In business, be competent.
In action, watch the timing.
No fight: No blame.
Taoism resembles Christianity in its use of models for humble and self-effacing behavior. In his book, Taoism the Parting of the Way, Holmes Welsh cites the following texts of the Tao Te Ching side by side with quotes from the New Testament:
Tao clothes and feeds the myriad things. (34)
The sage puts himself last and finds himself in the foremost place (7)
When gold and jade fill your hall, you will not be able to keep them safe. (9)
One's own self or material goods, which has more worth? (44)
Consider the lilies of the field, ho they grow; they toil not neither do they spin. (Mt.6: 28)
If anyone would be first, he must be last of all. (Mk. 9:35)
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth…where thieves break through and steal. (Mat. 6:19)
For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? (Mat.16: 26)
Requite hatred with virtue (63)
In controlling your vital force to achieve gentleness, can you become like the newborn child. (10)
Did [the Ancients] not say, "to search for the guilty ones and pardon them"? (62)
My teachings are very easy to understand and very easy to practice. (70)
Do good unto them which hate you. (Luke 6:27)
Except ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Mat. 18:3)
Parable of the lost sheep. (Mat. 18:12)
My yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Mat. 11:30)
There are also parallels between certain Buddhist, Hindu, Confucian and Christian texts.
Confucianism is more a clearly described as a code of ethics than a religion. All of the Sayings of Confucius describe correct behavior. Since the second millennium BCE, the emperor of China (called the “Son of Heaven”) has been seen as the conduit between heaven and earth, who must rule as a moral person with the interests of the people at heart. On him depended not only the welfare of the people, but also even the correct workings of the natural world. The concept of a heavenly decree is not understood as coming from a personal anthropomorphic being, but is more like the Greek concept of Destiny. When an emperor forgot his function and began to rule for his own selfish power, crops failed, flood and famine occurred, the people were thrown into chaos, and Heaven withdrew its decree and bestowed it on another leader. In the twentieth century, some people saw Mao Tse Tung as receiving the mandate of heaven, replacing a corrupt dynasty. Confucius exhorted people, especially rulers, to live civil and virtuous lives harking back to the golden age of the ancestors when the world was in order. Both Taoist virtues of simplicity and minimal action, and Confucian ethics follow the "will of Heaven," which is inscrutable.
Wisdom
For both Hinduism and Buddhism, the pursuit of the wisdom that is needed to overcome ignorance is the primary path to enlightenment. The very name of one of the most famous Buddhist sutras, the Prajnaparamita Sutra, means "the Sutra of the Wisdom that has gone beyond". This is enlightenment itself:
(Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond. O what an awakening, all hail!)
This completes the Heart of perfect wisdom.
For Taoism, wisdom is intuited from the nature of reality, and from Nature itself, and when incorporated into one’s life, it brings fulfilment. In Confucianism, wisdom is one of the main virtues along with benevolence, courage, respect, and trustworthiness.
Light
Light imagery is used to describe the Great Mystery as well as being a characteristic of highly developed human beings. The Teachers are light bringers. The path and the goal for seekers are also described in terms of light. The very goal for Hindus and Buddhists is "en-light-enment", finding the light of wisdom and release from suffering. To be a light for the world, shedding the light of good works, is one of the requirements for devout followers of all sacred traditions.
The texts in the following chapters describe virtue as overcoming ignorance, responsibility for oneself, humility, and using skill.
Meditation
The purpose of meditation is to still the mind so that we can directly experience the state beyond bliss that is called nirvana, moksha, or sunyata (emptiness). We wish to become one with That which is the Source of all. The word yoga is related to the English word “yoke,” and means “spiritual discipline.” In the west we often picture a person doing yoga as sitting in a lotus position and doing exercises. This is hatha yoga that is only a small aspect of the spiritual disciplines that are mentioned in Hindu scripture. The Bhagavad Gita describes four kinds of yoga that provide ways to salvation: jnana yoga is the "way of knowledge" (studying scriptures), karma yoga is the way of right action or doing good works, bhakti yoga is the way of devotion and raja yoga is the way of meditation and mystic exercise. Raja yoga is often called the "royal road." In Buddhism, there are three classes of behavior that lead to salvation: morality (sila), meditation (dhyana) and wisdom (prajna). The Sanskrit word for meditation (dyana) became chan in China, and zen in Japan.
Hinduism, Theravada Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism all prescribe practices of sitting and counting the breaths, and also mantra meditation. They are marked by a feeling of serenity and gravity. Mahayana Buddhism (which includes Zen) adds devotion and prayer addressed to enlightened beings or Bodhisattvas, to the conventional forms of meditation. Zen Buddhism, which arose out of the melding of Chinese Taoism and Indian Buddhism, also uses nature, humor and shock in order to move a seeker to enlightenment. Koans (mind-breaking riddles) are also used. In Zen the experience of enlightenment (satori) is spontaneous, immediate and breathtaking.
Japam in Sanskrit, is the silent repetition of a mantra or Holy Name in the mind. The word mantra is from manas, mind and tra, to cross over. Therefore it is “that which enables us to cross the tempestuous sea of the mind.”
The most common mantra is OM. Hindus and Buddhists chant it all over the world. It is the sacred syllable pronounced as a-u-m. The “a” sound is made by opening the mouth, which signifies the creation of the universe; the “u" sound is made when the mouth stays open, which signifies the sustaining of the universe; and the “m" sound is made by closing the mouth and pursing the lips, signifying the end or destruction of the universe. The silence that precedes and follows is the Mystery. This is cosmic shorthand for Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the sustainer, and Shiva, the destroyer, all aspects of Brahman who is endlessly creating, sustaining and destroying worlds for aeons and aeons. The Sanskrit word for peace is shanti. The phrase OM, shanti shanti shanti is repeated at the end of religious rituals such as weddings and funerals.
There is a famous Buddhist mantra, "OM mani padme hum," that means “the Jewel is in the lotus.” If meditated on deeply, we find that the jewel that is our true natures, and it is already in the lotus of our hearts.
The goal of Zen Buddhism is to recognize the fullness of reality (paradoxically also experienced as the great emptiness) in the here and now. Scholarly learning is not the way to this experience. One way the masters developed to lead people to enlightenment was to use the koan, which is a kind of absurd mind game to propel them outside the box of intellectual thinking into the experience of the clear light of reality.
The texts in the following chapters describe meditation as silent, chanting, emptying, and unifying.
Evil and Suffering
In the monotheistic religions, evil has an of existence of it's own, both in the dark inclinations of human nature, and as embodied by Satan, a personal being opposed to God. The world takes the guise of a battlefield on which good and evil actors perform. In the eastern traditions, neither human beings nor the world has this menacing aspect. The worst that can be said about the world is that it is merely an illusion (maya). It is as ephemeral as a bubble. Suffering is a result of ignorance, not of evil. We do not suffer because of disobedience to a personal lawgiver. Rather, it is our ignorance in becoming attached to things of the world that causes our suffering. The demons of Hindu and Buddhist mythology and art are understood as manifestations of the dark side of reality rather than as personal beings who have a vendetta with a personal god. The goal of human beings is to escape the endless round of rebirths, and become liberated. When we become attached to the bubble world, we hurt ourselves. When we work by skillful means, to purify ourselves of attachment, we help ourselves. We know by experience that when we become attached to anything, we will inevitably be disappointed when we lose it, as we surely will. Therefore it is chiefly ignorance of our own higher truth, rather than evil forces, that leads to our suffering.
The texts in the following chapters refer to evil as: attachment, ignorance, and the result of one's karma.
Struggle
The archetypal imagery of war is some of the most powerful in the human psyche. Physical war has always been part of the human condition, and so has the internal struggle of god versus evil for which war is a metaphor.
Among the eastern traditions there are significant differences in the ways they see struggle. On the external plane, the Bhagavad Gita of Hinduism tells the story of a warrior who does not want to fight and kill. The god Krishna tells him that, since he is of the warrior caste, it is his duty to fight. The Bhagavad Gita is sometimes, but not always, understood as an allegory for internal struggle on the battlefield of the individual self. One must strive to overcome the passions, master the self and conquer attachment. Buddhism, with it’s idea of dependent origination and the intimate connection between all aspects of reality, never condones killing. Struggle can legitimately take place only on the inner plane. The Buddha's struggle with Mara, the tempter, is a struggle to overcome the illusion that the world is substantial. Struggle is understood as effort or work. Its purpose is to sharpen the mind's ability to cut through illusion. The sixth of the eight steps in the eightfold path is to perform “right effort,” which is assertion of the will with strength and courage. Buddhism utilizes skillful means, and not heroic measures, to overcome harm to all creatures.
In Taoism the ideal is NO struggle. Not doing is the most efficient way of allowing everything to get done. The primary way is termed wu wei (variously translated as non ado non interfering, non action, creative quietude). In the monotheistic religions, struggle is a heroic undertaking, illustrated by the chivalrous warrior riding into battle. For Taoism struggle is understood to be like the almost invisible strength underlying the minute movements of the dance-like Chinese meditation of tai chi chuan. The emphasis is on being, not doing. It is only by not doing too much that the delicacy, sensitivity, humility and innocence of the peaceful human being can be achieved. Even when war is necessary, the Art of War says "those who render others' armies helpless without fighting are the best of all." Avoiding the shedding of blood requires such "modern" tactics as spying, spreading disinformation, blocking supply routes and using swift, precise minimal force.
The texts in the following chapters describe struggle as effort, using skillful means, letting go, overcoming ignorance, and no struggle.
Death
One of the hallmarks of Hinduism and Buddhism is the belief in reincarnation. Death is not the ultimate end to life, but a passage, either to another life, or to final enlightenment. We are solely responsible for whatever happens to us after death. The state into which we are propelled, depends on our actions in our previous lives, and the karma generated from them. There is peace to be found in this knowledge. In fact, the opening scene of the most famous Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, finds the hero, Arjuna agonizing over the inevitable deaths of his adversaries, and the god Krishna reassures him that death is not the end. Not only does human existence consist of endless cycles, but the universe itself also moves in and out of existence. Behind and beyond the cycles, is the unfathomable Mystery.
There is a Hindu creation story of the "days and nights of Brahma" that depicts the universe as a kind of dream arising from the divine unconscious, which itself disappears for millions of eons only to spring once again into existence. The individual death becomes a relatively small matter in the context of this vast continuum. Life and death, however, are tiresome. Our ultimate goal is to liberate ourselves from this endless cycle. One of the most fascinating Buddhist documents is the Tibetan Book of the Dead, a manual on how to navigate the experience of death in order to escape rebirth and attain enlightenment. Some of the most powerful texts in the Bhagavad Gita refer to the hollowness of death, comparing it to merely taking off old garments and exchanging them for new ones. Victory over death comes with enlightenment. Buddhists call this state Nirvana, and Hindus call it Moksha. It is utterly blissful and beyond description.
In China, the understanding of death is related to the concept of chi. According to Richard Wilhelm, t
The body is the unifying bond of the various powers of the soul that are active in the human being… only the sage succeeds in creating harmony by taking his standpoint in the center of the movement… The Book of Documents describes a ruler's death at one point as "Ascent and Descent." The two principles are so constituted that one, the soul of the body, the anima (p'o), descends; and the other, animus (hun) or more spiritual, ascends.
In addition to this vegetative soul, the corporeally alive, there is still another soul… that which is spiritually receptive. Spirit as such is not something that the human being can produce from within himself; it is something that is acquired in the course of life… According to the Confucian point of view, this spiritual soul contains after death some sort of consciousness…
This psychic body is at first very delicate, and only the greatest of sages find in it a support beyond death.
For ordinary people the survivors must furnish this support. This is the significance of ancestor worship… Each good thought sent on to the departed gives him strength and prevents his being scattered into nothingness.
The texts in the following chapters describe death as the end of one of many lives, leading to reincarnation, leading to enlightenment, and the days and nights of Brahma.
The Ultimate
In the eastern religions the point of life is to find escape from the ignorance that keeps us enmeshed in the transitory world of maya. If we follow the eternal laws that are embedded in reality we will attain enlightenment and release from rebirth. This state has no description. That is why it is referred to as the Great Emptiness or "Neti, neti" (not this, not this). As the Buddhists say, we can only see "the finger pointing to the moon" and not the moon itself until we achieve Nirvana. While there are descriptions of Buddhist and Hindu heavens and hells, these are not understood to be final or eternal residences for the individual soul, but only as stopping-off places on the way to enlightenment. If we do not live according the cosmic law we will be reborn over and over again until we overcome our ignorance and attachments.
In China there are stories of the "realms of the Immortals," and in Hindu and Buddhist countries there are colorful depictions of hells and paradises. However, there is nothing that would be understood as the eternal monotheistic abodes of heaven or hell. In the east, all things, even heavens and hells, gods and goddesses, teachers and avatars, are fleeting realities that come and go in the spirals of existence. Only the great dynamic still Source is the All.
The texts in the following chapters describe the ultimate as Moksha, Nirvana, and returning to the Source.
