The Logic of Hinduism 1 1 Atman and Brahman From Unity to Separation to Unity 1 Diversity of individualities personalities ways of life and deities Illusion 2 The ordinary personality ego is not one s true Self Atman which is one with Brahman the divine 3 Atman Brahman unifies the seemingly separate individualities or egos 2 Why does God create Recall in order to truly experience wealth one must experience poverty God knows that He She is God but wants to experience divinity To experience being God God must experience what it is like not to be God i e being an ordinary human being i e you and me So when we discover our true divine nature this is God within us experiencing what it is like to be God 3 Emanation of God 1 Brahman expresses itself emanates in Atman the Souls higher Selves Compare with God creating the human being in Genesis breathing His spirit into separate matter But the outer material world including the animals is not created this way In Hinduism there is no separation between Creator and Creation Advaita not two in Sanscrit Vedanta 2 Atman loses forgets itself and identifies with the physical being as separate and independent reality illusion of the egos the separated selves Maya 3 Rediscovery of one s true Self return to oneness of Brahman in the play of life Lila 4 Ordinary Self of Civilization ego Focus is on sensible world of pleasure and pain power and powerlessness pursuing wealth and avoiding poverty Seeks rewards outside the present action in the future including motive to raise oneself in the caste hierarchy in the next life concerned with negative consequences of the past external punishment internal guilt World of opposites Maya illusion 5 True Self Atman Turn within find point of permanence in the impermanent present the now The past and future are not only the present is Atman true Self is one with Brahman the universal Spirit of which one can only say It Is Being Thou art that 6 Plato s argument for immortality The human soul can recognize unchangeable truths E g The Theorem of Pythagoras We can recognize unchanging Beauty in itself in the changing beautiful things Diotema s teaching to Socrates The soul must be like what it knows and loves Therefore the soul must also be unchangeable Raise your awareness to the soul level above preoccupation with sensory objects the shadow world 7 Krishna s Argument for Immortality Being is non being is not Change a mixture of being and non being is an illusion What IS Being is Now Within the Now there is the illusion of constant change but the Now itself does not change Consciousness of Now the Soul Atman Consciousness of change the Ego 8 Analogous to watching a movie In the movie many things happen people move from one place to another That s how it seems when we are caught up in the film But everything in the movie happens in the same place which never moves and changes on the movie screen Being is like the three dimensional movie screen in which our lives unfold Being itself remains the same even as time the movement from past to future seems to unfold within it 9 Hinduism or Daoism Hinduism only Being is non being is not Daoism non being is real the emptiness between the spokes Which is right Hinduism the nature of ultimate reality Daoism the nature of the human world Full of non being we create it Hinduism This is Maya Lila the play of life 10 2 Meditation Path to the Inner Self The Saint who shuts outside his placid soul All touch of sense letting no contact through Whose quiet eyes gaze straight from fixed brows Whose outward breath and inward breath are drawn Equal and slow through nostrils still and close That one with organs heart and mind constrained Bent on deliverance having put away Passion and fear and rage hath even now Obtained deliverance ever and ever freed 11 What does meditation do We normally identify ourselves with our thinking mind our desires Ordinary self ego Concerned with past and future Not being in the present We normally don t control our mind it controls us We need to set aside the mind to discover our real being the experience of being I AM 12 You are not your thoughts You are not your thoughts worries fears Ego Stop thinking and just BE Become aware of the Self outside of the thoughts about external changing things past and future That is really the true You Atman that is the expression of God Brahman 13 How to meditate Sequestered should he sit Steadfastly meditating solitary His thoughts controlled his passions laid away Quit of his belongings There setting hard his mind upon The One Restraining heart and senses silent calm Let him accomplish Yoga union and achieve Pureness of soul Atman holding immovable Body and neck and head his gaze absorbed Upon his nose end 14 Meditation 1 Feel and relax your body completely 2 Close eyes and observe the darkness shadows inner clouds colors forms 3 Ignore your thoughts 4 Be aware of your breathing 5 Be aware of your awareness 15 3 Maya and Lila Maya the illusion of change when you are caught up in it Life is deadly serious who wins who loses Lila the illusion of change when you understand what it is You play a hard game of volley ball against opponents and then sit around and enjoy conversation 16 The true Self is an Ocean What is midnight gloom To unenlightened souls shines wakeful day To his clear gaze what seems as wakeful day Is known for night thick night of ignorance To his true seeing eyes Such is the Saint And like the ocean day by day receiving Floods from all lands which never overflows Such is the perfect one To his soul s ocean The world of sense pours streams of witchery 17 Life as the play of God 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 becomes the world which in the end becomes again God This creative activity of the Divine is called lila the play of God and the world is seen as the stage of the divine play 18 Life is magical Like most of Hindu mythology the myth of lila has strong magical flavour Brahman is the great magician who transforms himself into the world and he performs this feat with his 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 19 From the might or power of the divine actor and magician it came to signify the psychological state of anybody under the