Podcasts about brahmanism

"Kaasaegne eksperimentaalteadus on tuvastanud inimese tajuorganite võime hämmastavalt tundlike aistingute saamiseks. Näiteks ettevalmistatud tähelepanu ja pimeda ruumiga kohanenud inimsilm võib märgata lausa üksikut footonit (kvantmehaanilist valgusosakest). Ent väited joogide ülitajust lähevad sellistest täppisaistingutest kaugemale ning tõstatavad rea tunnetusteoreetilisi küsimusi, mille vastamisele pidid mõtlema kõik india klassikalise filosoofia koolkonnad," kirjutas füüsikateoreetik Laur Järv Tähenduse teejuhtide 40. numbris ("India joogide ülitaju", 3.24 [1]).Samanimelise saatesarja 248. vestlusringis rääkis Laur Järv india joogide ülitajust koos religiooniuurija Erki Linnuga [2].Tulenevalt teema võõrapärasusest käis vestlusest läbi terve trobikond mulle tundmatuid pärisnimesid ja mõisteid. Konspekti said kirja järgmised:1. Patañjali "Yogasūtra" pani aluse askeetlikule maailmavaatele, mis levis sajandite jooksul Indiast üle kogu maailma [3].2. saankja (sanskr 'loendamine'), india pärimusliku filosoofia süsteem. Käsitleb maailma mõistusepäraselt, üldiselt üksikule kulgeva põhjuste ja tagajärgede jadana, eristades selles 24 põhilüli ehk tattva't (EE, 8. kd).3. jooga (sanskr 'ike, side') india traditsioonilise maailmakäsituse põhimõisteid, väljendab inimese püüdu reguleerida ja korrastada oma käitumist, hoiakuid ja mõtlemist senise teadvusseisundi ületamiseks ning teatava seisundi (nirvaana) saavutamiseks (ENE, 4. kd).4. karma (sanskr 'tegu') india mütoloogia ja traditsioonilise filosoofia põhimõisteid. Karmaseaduse järgi sõltuvad kõikide loomulike ja üleloomulike olendite, sealhulgas ka inimese praegused ja tulevased olemisseisundid jätkuvate ümberkehastumiste ahelas tema tegude eetilisest olemusest (ENE, 4. kd).5. charvaka (lokāyata) ühendas vanaindia filosoofias materialismi, naturalismi, skeptitsismi ja religioosse ükskõiksuse erinevaid süsteeme (Vikipeedia [4]).6. mantra (sanskr 'mõttevahend'), india usundeis (eriti tantrismis) maagilise toimega palve või loits. Koosneb tavaliselt sanskriti keele häälikute kombinatsioonidest (EE, 6. kd).7. Vasubandhu (ca 330–400) Loode-Indiast Gandhārast pärit budistlik munk ja õpetlane, keda peetakse koosa tema vanema venna Asangaga joogatšaara ehk vidžnjaanavaada koolkonna rajaks (Ida mõtteloo leksikon [5]).8. seadmus, kõikide india õpetuste keskse sanskritikeelse mõiste 'dharma' eestikeelne vaste (Ida mõtteloo leksikon [6]).9. abhidharma (sanskr 'seadmuste kohta, seadmuste üle'), seadmusi kui budismi põhimõisteid süstematiseeriv ja nende tähendust selgitav õpetus (Ida mõtteloo leksikon [7]).10. Abhidharmakośa (sanskr 'abhidharma varamu'), Vasubandhu teos, tuntumaid sanskritikeelseid mittekanoonilisi abhidharma tekste (Ida mõtteloo leksikon [8]).11. Dharmakīrti, india budistlik filosoof (7. saj), Dignāga järglane, budistliku loogika ning pramāṇa väitlusteaduse üks olulisemaid esindajaid (Ida mõtteloo leksikon [9]).12. Dignāga (u 480–540), india budistlik õpetlane-filosoof, budistliku loogika, tunnetusteooria ja väitlusteaduse (pramāṇa) üks olulisemaid esindajaid ning alusepanijaid (Ida mõtteloo leksikon [10]).13. braahmanad, rühm vanaindia kirjanduse teoseid, brahmanismi pühad raamatud, pärinevad 8.–5. sajandist eKr. Veedasid täiendavad ja seletavad braahmanad kirjeldavad peamiselt usurituaale ning nendega seoses olevaid kujutelmi, sisaldavad rohkesti müüte ja legende (ENE, 1. kd).14. brahmanism, hinduismi varane arengujärk. Brahmanism kujunes I aastatuhande esimesel poolel eKr veedade usundist, lähtus ka upanišadidest ja braahmanatest, talle olid omased keerukas kombestik, esivanematekultus, asketism ja braahmanite eesõiguste toonitamine. Peajumal oli Brahma (brahman), austati ka veedade jumalaid, näiteks Indrat ja Varunat, sugenemas oli Šiva ja Višnu kultus, I aastatuhande lõpus eKr teisenes brahmanism hinduismiks (ENE, 1. kd).H. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As we learn in our conversation with Anjali Rao, what we learn of yoga history in our teacher trainings is often limited by the biases of heteropatriarchy, Brahmanism and colonialism. While what we get from our text books might hit many of the major points, this story is just as notable for whom it excludes. For both Jo and Rane, this conversation was a huge recontextualisation of what they thought they knew and a wonderful relearning of yoga history. Anjali Rao is a writer, the host of The Love of Yoga podcast, President of the Board of Directors of Accessible Yoga, and as she shares in our conversation is now beginning a Doctorate of Philosophy and Religion, with a concentration on Women's Spirituality, a trans disciplinary program that delves into a feminist perspective and “explores varied spiritual, ecological, and political perspectives rooted in care for the Earth, each other, and the Sacred.” Anjali is an Indian American immigrant, a cancer survivor and believes that a dedicated practice of yoga in all its expansiveness can alchemize and heal the world by creating ripples of change within and around us. She brings a multi disciplinary approach, integrating yoga philosophy and history, with storytelling, imagery and poetry. She brings an awe inspiring depth of knowledge and potent critical insight to yoga history which makes for a great conversation! LINKS Website: https://www.yoganjali.me/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yoganjali/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anjali.rao.509 Use the code MAKFLOW at https://www.makarlu.com/ to receive a 10% discount!

In this interview, Dr.SHIVA Ayyadurai, MIT PhD, Inventor of Email, Scientist, Engineer and Candidate for President, Talks about Zionism = Nazism = Brahmanism

Part 1 of 2! Greg interviews author Andrew Johnson, a cultural anthropologist with an expertise in the supernatural beliefs of Thailand and how they interact with urban planning and architecture. First, Greg inquires about the nature of ‘superstition' in Thailand, and whether Thai people truly live up to their reputation for being ‘superstitious.' Andrew notes that the distinction between ‘religion' and ‘superstition' is really a modern formalization of certain ‘official' religions, Buddhism in Thailand's case. But the nature of Buddhism is such that it is more tolerant of ‘syncretism,' or the mixing of beliefs, so Thai culture is really steeped in three traditions: formal Theravada Buddhism, Brahmanism (an earlier form of Hinduism), and ‘animism,' or the folk beliefs of early Thais.  Next, Andrew emphasizes that both the newer systems of belief and the older folk beliefs are actually in a constant state of evolution. Thais from the countryside steeped in animist ideas must adapt to living in a city of high rises and skytrains and taxis, just as Thais from the city may prefer modern variations of Buddhism (such as Dhammakaya or Santi Asoke) to traditional Theravada Buddhism.  The men continue with a fascinating exploration of the status of Bangkok in Thai society, how Thais address the issue of skepticism and belief, and how foreigners can best open their minds to Thai beliefs while keeping their feet on the ground.  Don't forget that Patrons get the ad-free version of the show as well as swag and other perks. And we'll keep our Facebook, Twitter, and LINE accounts active so you can send us comments, questions, or whatever you want to share.

Well-known author and Sanskrit scholar Shri Nityananda Misra reviews the essay on Devdutt Pattanaik by Subhodeep Mukhopadhyay, author of 'Ten Heads of Ravana.' Subhodeep Mukhopadhyay shows in his excellent analysis of Pattanaik's work, the protagonist's major positions—from equating Hindutva to militant Brahmanism, reading bizarre meanings into texts such as Krsna apparently having accepted and endorsed infidelity, to praising the brilliance and simplicity of Aryan Invasion/ Migration Theories despite them being repeatedly discredited with evidence—which, far from being rooted in tradition, are riddled with willful misinterpretations, distortions and divisive narratives. Mukhopadhyay builds a compelling picture of why Pattanaik, far from being considered an authority on Dharma related matters and texts, should be replaced by returning to the numerous accurate commentaries and interpretations from within the tradition which are grounded in pramana sastra. Snakes in the Ganga - http://www.snakesintheganga.com Varna Jati Caste - http://www.varnajaticaste.com The Battle For IIT's - http://www.battleforiits.com Power of future Machines - http://www.poweroffuturemachines.com 10 heads of Ravana - http://www.tenheadsofravana.com To support Infinity Foundation's projects including the continuation of such episodes and the research we do: इनफिनिटी फ़ौंडेशन की परियोजनाओं को अनुदान देने के लिए व इस प्रकार के एपिसोड और हमारे द्वारा किये जाने वाले शोध को जारी रखने के लिए: http://infinityfoundation.com/donate-2/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/rajivmalhotrapodcast/support

Last week, Seattle became the first U.S. city to pass a ordinance banning caste discrimination. The caste system in India is a division and hierarchy of people which is determined by birth and descent, and originated from Brahmanism, a spiritual philosophy which is considered a predecessor of Hinduism.  Although caste discrimination was banned in India in 1948, in many ways the caste system still persists in India.  Here in America, activists say that as South Asians have emigrated to America, caste discrimination persists. Critics of the bill say that it will lead to more anti-Hinduism discrimination, and that it's a painful reminder of the caste system which some believe to be obsolete in America. The Seattle ordinance gives legal recourse for those who have been discriminated against in the workplace, with housing, or in other circumstances. It passed by a 6-to-1 vote. We speak with Kshama Sawant, member of the Seattle City Council who proposed the ordinance, and Prachi Patankar, a community activist and writer who has been an advocate against caste based discrimination. Here are statements by two Hindu-American organizations critical of the bill, Coalition of Hindus in North America and the Hindu American Foundation.  The Takeaway also received a statement from Sara Nelson, the lone Seattle Councilmember who voted against the ordinance:  I voted against this legislation because it links caste discrimination with Hinduism and people of South Asian descent and we received hundreds of emails from opponents who argued that enshrining caste as a protected class here in Seattle will perpetuate racist and colonialist stereotypes and serve only to generate more anti-Hindu discrimination. This perspective was not represented in any of the materials provided to Councilmembers and I could not support creating a new protected class for a culturally and historically complex concept when the community the legislation is supposed to protect believes it will do more harm than good. 

Last week, Seattle became the first U.S. city to pass a ordinance banning caste discrimination. The caste system in India is a division and hierarchy of people which is determined by birth and descent, and originated from Brahmanism, a spiritual philosophy which is considered a predecessor of Hinduism.  Although caste discrimination was banned in India in 1948, in many ways the caste system still persists in India.  Here in America, activists say that as South Asians have emigrated to America, caste discrimination persists. Critics of the bill say that it will lead to more anti-Hinduism discrimination, and that it's a painful reminder of the caste system which some believe to be obsolete in America. The Seattle ordinance gives legal recourse for those who have been discriminated against in the workplace, with housing, or in other circumstances. It passed by a 6-to-1 vote. We speak with Kshama Sawant, member of the Seattle City Council who proposed the ordinance, and Prachi Patankar, a community activist and writer who has been an advocate against caste based discrimination. Here are statements by two Hindu-American organizations critical of the bill, Coalition of Hindus in North America and the Hindu American Foundation.  The Takeaway also received a statement from Sara Nelson, the lone Seattle Councilmember who voted against the ordinance:  I voted against this legislation because it links caste discrimination with Hinduism and people of South Asian descent and we received hundreds of emails from opponents who argued that enshrining caste as a protected class here in Seattle will perpetuate racist and colonialist stereotypes and serve only to generate more anti-Hindu discrimination. This perspective was not represented in any of the materials provided to Councilmembers and I could not support creating a new protected class for a culturally and historically complex concept when the community the legislation is supposed to protect believes it will do more harm than good. 

We have seen how D.T. Suzuki's take on zen was a very modern thing, tailor made in Illinois as a bourgeois ideology. This time, under the guidance of Ajith's dialectical materialist critique of Brahmanism, we take up the Bhagavad Gītā (India, post 5th c. BCE), especially its modern bourgeois idealist interpretations as represented by Tilak's Gītā Rahasya, a foundational text for India's comprador Brahman classes and their English masters. We notice here the emphasis on karma yoga, the spiritual practice of carrying out one's varṇa dharma or caste destiny, within an absolute monist worldview of advaita, non-dualism. Is this “class rule as spiritual practice”—relatively obscure in the premodern Japanese Buddhist tradition but so beloved of the Anglo-American bourgeoisie for similar reasons to their enthusiastic embrace of the Gītā—the secret ingredient in D.T. Suzuki's zen? And what happens when we read the Gītā from the dialectical materialist perspective which accords so much better with South Asian thought?Critiquing Brahmanism https://foreignlanguages.press/new-roads/critiquing-brahmanism-k-murali-ajith/K. Muralidharan (Ajith) on Medium https://ajithspage.medium.com/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Modern Western yoga approaches are not based on any particular belief or religion. However, yoga has its roots in Hinduism and Brahmanism. Yoga was developed primarily by seers and asceticists living in southern India. Foreseeers observed nature, lived near the earth, and studied many aspects of nature, animals, and themselves. By observing and imitating the different attitudes and customs of the animal kingdom, they were able to develop elegance, strength and wisdom. Continue reading on procommun.com

Support LCA - https://lightscameraazadi.in/support-lca/Support LCA Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/azadiAbout Kancha Ilaiah ShepherdKancha Ilaiah was born on 5th October, 1952 in the village of Papaiahpet, Warangal district in Telangana State. His family belonged to the sheep-grazing Kuruma Golla caste which is considered as one of numerically dominated sub-caste among the Telugu speaking. Ilaiah has an M.A. degree in political science from Osmania University, Hyderabad and an M.Phil. awarded for his study of land reform in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. He was awarded with Ph.D. degree for his work entitled ‘Political Thought of Gautama Buddha', later it was published in the form book entitled ‘God as Political Philosopher: Buddha's Challenge to Brahmanism'. He has been a recipient of the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Award and was a Nehru Fellow between 1994-97. Timestamps3:15 Understanding Professor's life story28:00 Professor's fight for English Education46:30 The cultural burden on the marginalized section53:15 The changes in language policy that Professor seeks1:10:45 Difference between Shudra and Bahujan 1:24:55 Looking at the marginalized section in the minority religion1:31:50 to endThe rise of Modi and the decline of CongressShow NotesFrom a Shepherd Boy to an Intellectual: My Memoirs https://www.amazon.in/dp/9381345414/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_YEEA0Z5BDN7YAMRKDJ31Why I Am Not a Hindu: A Sudra Critique of Hindutva Philosophy, Culture and Political Economyhttps://www.amazon.in/dp/9353282624/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_7T9C8253CHWMB0Y2C7D2Buffalo Nationalism: A Critique of Spiritual Fascismhttps://www.amazon.in/dp/935328256X/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_WXTBFB76TSVHVM9FNTYEUntouchable Godhttps://www.amazon.in/dp/8185604339/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_4C32RHZ8FRZ32EZNTHFAPost-Hindu India: A Discourse in Dalit-Bahujan, Socio-Spiritual and Scientific Revolutionhttps://www.amazon.in/dp/817829902X/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_KGVQ24RQ61YWC9WYMXCVThe Shudras: Vision for a New Path (Rethinking India, 5) https://www.amazon.in/dp/0670092983/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_GYSWQE3PW1Y1TBRD285FTurning the Pot, Tilling the Land : Dignity of Labour in Our Timeshttps://www.amazon.in/dp/8189059092/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_AGYYMP9DPC3QEH4MF60Q

Prachi Patankar was born and raised in rural India. She comes from a working-class and lower-caste family. Her parents and grandparents fought for worker's rights, women's rights, gender justice, and more. You may know Prachi for her writing and activism, and she's here to discuss the spiritual and political history of India and its relationship with yoga. Many different spiritual and religious traditions existed in India for centuries. What we know today as Hinduism was known as Brahmanism in the first millennium B.C. This community organized its people into an occupational-based categorization system, or caste, with the intent of creating an ideal social structure. Prachi discusses what a caste hierarchy is and how it entrenches injustices within the communities that are not part of the dominant caste. To go against the caste is to go against religion, and we discuss what happens when the worlds of spirituality and politics are mixed. The larger philosophy is further complicated by colonialism and the digital world of the modern age. For example, the yoga sutras we can easily find on YouTube are still not available to the lower castes in India. Caste systems have remained in India for millennia in different forms under different leaders. It's essential to our yoga practice to acknowledge this practice and speak critically of our own participation in it. A critical analysis does not demonize your yoga practice or foster Hinduphobia in the yoga community, but it will inspire a conversation that allows you to see where and how you can foster social justice. To learn more about the intersection of caste systems and yoga, Prachi recommends Annihilation of Caste by B.R. Ambedkar. His invitation to deliver this speech was revoked due to how controversial it was at the time. She also recommends Mahatma Jotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule, 19th-century activists. Learn more in A Gardener in the Wasteland by Srividya Natarajan. If you would like to get involved, visit Equality Labs for more information on how to help. If you would like to sign up for yoga courses with me, get your free 30-day membership on Omstars.com & use code: PODCAST. Keep up with us online @omstarsofficial. Follow me on Instagram @kinoyoga and visit my blog at Kinoyoga.com. Don't hesitate to get in touch with me at info@kinoyoga.com. If you want to share what you've learned on your yoga journey, you could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast.

Episode Notes Dr. Christopher Beckwith Joins us to discuss his book “Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism” which examines links between very early Buddhism and the philosophy of Pyrrho, an ancient Greek philosopher who accompanied Alexander the Great on his Indian campaign. We also discuss the role of Scythians and Prince Gautama's lineage, Zoroastrianism and it's involvement in a rethink of the Buddha's rebellion against Brahmanism - and much much more that will leave you questioning everything you thought about this time period, and Buddhism itself as a philosophical movement. Book Links (Authors Page): https://www.amazon.com.au/Christopher-I-Beckwith/e/B001HPSGMG/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1 Christopher I. Beckwith is an American philologist and distinguished professor in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University Dr. Beckwith has taught at IU for 45 years, in which time he has developed 48 distinct courses. He is one of the most prolific and versatile researchers in the field of Central Eurasian studies. Beckwith is renowned for revolutionary scholarship that reshapes understanding of how, why and when the Central Eurasian steppe peoples from Eastern Europe to East Asia influenced the development of knowledge, religious beliefs and societies, not only within their homeland but in the neighboring peripheral cultures of Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia as well. His research focuses on the history of ancient and medieval Central Eurasia and the cultures of the peripheral peoples, as well as the linguistics of Aramaic, Chinese, Japanese, Koguryo, Old Tibetan, Scythian, Turkic, and other languages. He has been named a MacArthur Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fulbright-Hays Fellow, and a Japan Foundation fellow and has had numerous visiting appointments around the United States and the world. He has authored 12 books and over 60 articles. Time Stamps: 00:01 SOFCast introduction  02:35 Start of podcast 03:48 Chris Talks about how he came to study Central Asia in General 12:00 What inspired Chris to write Greek Buddha  14:00 Sextus Empiricus and Classical Skepticism - the Pyrrhonic connection  15:15 New Book “Scythian Empire” 21:00 Who was Pyrrho of Elis? 22:18 Was it only early Buddhism Pyrrho interacted with? 24:35 Similarities between Skepticism and Pyrrhonism? 30:45 Pragmata 31:55 Impermanence  42:50 The Significance of the Buddha - Pyrrho - Sextus Empiricus connection & problem of Criterion 48:50 A French connection? 54:00 Types of downstream Western Thought? 57:00 Which was first? Brahmanism before Buddhism ? Zoroastrianism before buddhism? 01:07:10 The Rig Veda was NOT Brahmanism 01:12:00 Flipping the Traditional Narrative 01:16:00 Talk about Chronology of the Buddhist Texts  01:20:00 Did Scythians have a class structure? 01:24:00 Persians and Scythians as Zoroastrian 01:32:00 Q&A Section: What are some of the still extant influences of Indo-Greek Buddhism on Buddhism Today? 01:43:00 Similarities between Daoism and Buddhism? Was Lao Tzu actually the Historical Buddha? 01:48:00 Book Coming Up: “The Scythian Empire” Book Links (Authors Page): https://www.amazon.com.au/Christopher-I-Beckwith/e/B001HPSGMG/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1 Support SOF Cast by contributing to their Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/ship-of-fools-podcast Find out more at https://ship-of-fools-podcast.pinecast.co This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Good news: Evil demons aren't the only ones that possess people. Sometimes, benevolent spirits do, too. Bad news: It can be really difficult to tell the difference. This week, the crew heads to rural Thailand for a haunting mockumentary on shamanism and the spirits that surround us. Also, creepy eco-horror and a campy slasher sequel headline new international streaming releases this week. Motion Picture Terror Scale: 5 (Marcus) / 4 (Grady). Quality: 5/4. Enjoyment: 5/4. Articles mentioned in this episode: "'The Medium' director says film is ‘new type of horror'" by Song Seung-hyun in the Korea Herald "‘The Wailing' director Na Hong-Jin on producing Thai horror ‘The Medium'" by  Jean Noh in Screen Daily "Storytellers and Storytelling in Northeast Thailand" by Prasong Saihong in Storytelling, Self, Society "Thailand's fusion of religious beliefs: Buddhism, Animism and Brahmanism," by Ann Carter in Thaiger "Sticky rice in the blood" by Saowanee Alexander in Critical Asian Studies

Please join us for our study this week as we review the belief systems of the top 5 world religions regarding what happens after we die and which one is most credible.

"Hindu culture and the caste system," writes Gail Omvedt in her EPW article on Jotirao Phule in 1971 "rested upon Brahmanism; hence Phule, who aimed for the complete destruction of caste, superstition and inequality within Indian tradition, linked his thought with a movement of opposition to the Brahman elite." On Phule's birth anniversary, we'll discuss his writing on caste, class, and gender relations in South Asia and importantly, the methods he used to counter Brahmanism and patriarchy in collaboration with his co-traveller and wife Savitribai Phule. Tejas Harad joins us on Research Radio to discuss his engagement and research primarily on Jotirao Phule. Tejas has worked at EPW since 2013 as a copy-editor and regularly contributes to multiple news publications in his individual capacity. We will also partially focus on Savitribai Phule, but this episode does not cover the depth of her work. Last year, Tejas started a bilingual journal called the Satyashodhak to make the Satyashodhak Samaj archive more accessible to people but the portal's focus is not limited to that, in his words. A few articles on the Jotirao Phule and related topics: Jotirao Phule and the Ideology of Social Revolution in India, Gail Omvedt, 1971 Education as Trutiya Ratna: Towards Phule-Ambedkarite Feminist Pedagogical Practice, Sharmila Rege, 2010 Liberating Jyotiba Phule, Gopal Guru, 2003 Remembering Jotiba Phule, the Mahatma Who Fought Against Brahmin Hegemony, Tejas Harad, 2018 Varna System in the Dharmasutras, Tejas Harad, 2020 Audio courtesy: The last ones by Jahzzar [CC BY-SA 3.0].

In this episode we are joined by Joseph Alter, who is a Professor of anthropology and the University of Pittsburgh with interests in the relationship among religion, nationalism, health and the body in South Asia. we explore the themes of masculinity and sexuality in North India and take closer look at topics such as Brahmanism, nationalism, sport, colonialism, Caste, regional differences and gender expression and see how they are all formulated with respect to each other.

How did Brahmanism Swallow Tamil Traditions? | பார்ப்பனியம் தமிழர் மரபை எப்படி விழுங்கியது ? If you find this interesting, please share this with your friends. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SUMMASINTHANAIGAL Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/summasinthanigal Twitter: https://twitter.com/ssinthanaigal Follow the Podcast on Other Platforms Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/15gvLSz7M8SCSeHB5bNedR Apple Podcast: apple.co/2RBKtYR Player FM: bit.ly/2yajEnJ Google Podcast: bit.ly/34vL2sw

Brahmanism

Historian Romila Thapar on the history of dissent in India – from Vedic Brahmanism to Shaheen Bagh.

I read from brad to Brahmanism.     The word of the episode is "brae".     dictionarypod@gmail.com Facebook Twitter Instagram Patreon 917-727-5757

Episode 0490 - TALKS: Sutta Nipata, part 20 (Dhammacariya/Kapila Sutta) (Click on the above link, or here, for audio.) Part I of an extended review & commentary on Brahma?adhammika Sutta with translation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Sutta introduction and summary from "Suttanipata: An Ancient Collection of the Buddha's Discourses" by Bhikkhu Bodhi. Gautama's survey of the history of Brahmanism from

Episode 0491 - Sutta Nipata, part 21 (Brāhmaṇadhammika Sutta, I) (Click on the above link, or here, for audio.) Part I of an extended review & commentary on Brāhmaṇadhammika Sutta with translation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Sutta introduction and summary from "Suttanipata: An Ancient Collection of the Buddha's Discourses" by Bhikkhu Bodhi. Gautama's survey of the history of Brahmanism from ancient

Save Tamils From Fanatical Brahmanism | வெறிகொண்ட பார்பனர்களிடமிருந்து தமிழர்களை காப்பாற்றுங்கள் If you find this interesting, please share this with your friends. If you would like more similar content please visit us at www.summamovies.com . Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/summamovies/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/summamovies Android App: https://summamemes.com

Dear Parents, We’re going to have a great upcoming week. Below is a short description of what’s coming up and important links and/or announcements: Jog-a-Thon Wednesday March 11th- Get those pledges in! Our class theme is blue/superman/supergirl. We’d like to all dress in blue that day! Panoramic Picture Day is Tuesday, March 17th. Reader’s Workshop We will continue with our deep study of character unit. We will shift our focus toward how setting shapes characters. We will look at the precise language authors use to describe the setting, how characters are torn by the pressures of places, and how settings change both physically and psychologically over time. The kids will continue reading each night and working in their reader’s notebooks. Writer’s Workshop The students will finish their first full literary essay and turn it in on Wednesday. They will be using mentor texts and their argument writing checklist to revise. By the end of the week we will start on our next literary essay where we will try to lift the level of complexity in the writing. Math Math Answers and Help Here We will start a new unit on Monday (Rational Numbers- See Family Preview). This unit will focus on negative numbers, inequalities, absolute value, the coordinate plane, and common factors and multiples. We will also continue to review basic skills (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division or whole numbers, fractions, and decimals and order of operations). In addition, I will be working on a new layout for the gradebook in math. I will out line this new system in a video I will send out as soon as possible so please look out for that. History We will start a new unit: Ancient India. In this unit, we will study the major beliefs and practices of Brahmanism (and how that evolved into early Hinduism) and the important aesthetic and intellectual traditions of Ancient India. Science We will continue looking at weather this week specifically the factors that influence weather and the characteristics of cold fronts and warm fronts. Thank you, Mr. Gray

This lecture explores the foundation of Hinduism and the Brahmanism that underwrites the key philosophical outlook of Indian culture. Delivered by Wesley Cecil PhD. at FinnRiver Cidery in Chimacum, Washington. More information and the lecture handout available at https://wescecil.com

What is "original Buddhism?" In the absence of texts from the Buddha's times, how can we know what the Buddha really taught? And how does the corpus of later texts help us understand Buddhism? Treeleaf Zendo (https://www.treeleaf.org) Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World (https://amzn.to/39EQqLg) Stephen Batchelor (https://www.stephenbatchelor.org/index.php/en/) The Circle of the Way: A Concise History of Zen from the Buddha to the Modern World (https://amzn.to/2ud7QQ7) Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism (https://serval.unil.ch/resource/serval:BIB_0AE49B543099.P001/REF.pdf) Theme music by Kiku Day (http://www.kikuday.com). To submit a question, send an email to podcast@zen-of-everything.com. If you like the podcast, please subscribe in iTunes (https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/the-next-track/id1116242606) or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast.

The history of Indian religions in the centuries leading up to the common era has been characterized in the scholarship by two distinct overarching traditions: the Brahmans (associated with Vedic texts, caste, and Vedic rituals) and the renouncer (śramaṇa) movements we see in the Upanishads, and in Jainism and Buddhism. Were these traditions at odds with each other as “snake and mongoose” (attributed to the 2nd-century BCE Sanskrit grammarian Patañjali)? Does “Brahmanism” pre-exist this pivotal encounter, or as it in fact forged therefrom? Was there such a thing, e.g., as a Buddhist Brahman in this era? In his book The Snake and The Mongoose: The Emergence of Identity in Early Indian Religion (Oxford University Press, 2018), Nathan McGovern draws on ancient texts to problematize the distinction between Brahman and non-Brahman in this era, shedding light on the presence of various Buddhist, Jain and Vedic groups who equally identified as Brahmans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The history of Indian religions in the centuries leading up to the common era has been characterized in the scholarship by two distinct overarching traditions: the Brahmans (associated with Vedic texts, caste, and Vedic rituals) and the renouncer (śramaṇa) movements we see in the Upanishads, and in Jainism and Buddhism.  Were these traditions at odds with each other as “snake and mongoose” (attributed to the 2nd-century BCE Sanskrit grammarian Patañjali)?  Does “Brahmanism” pre-exist this pivotal encounter, or as it in fact forged therefrom? Was there such a thing, e.g., as a Buddhist Brahman in this era?  In his book The Snake and The Mongoose: The Emergence of Identity in Early Indian Religion (Oxford University Press, 2018), Nathan McGovern draws on ancient texts to problematize the distinction between Brahman and non-Brahman in this era, shedding light on the presence of various Buddhist, Jain and Vedic groups who equally identified as Brahmans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The history of Indian religions in the centuries leading up to the common era has been characterized in the scholarship by two distinct overarching traditions: the Brahmans (associated with Vedic texts, caste, and Vedic rituals) and the renouncer (śramaṇa) movements we see in the Upanishads, and in Jainism and Buddhism.  Were these traditions at odds with each other as “snake and mongoose” (attributed to the 2nd-century BCE Sanskrit grammarian Patañjali)?  Does “Brahmanism” pre-exist this pivotal encounter, or as it in fact forged therefrom? Was there such a thing, e.g., as a Buddhist Brahman in this era?  In his book The Snake and The Mongoose: The Emergence of Identity in Early Indian Religion (Oxford University Press, 2018), Nathan McGovern draws on ancient texts to problematize the distinction between Brahman and non-Brahman in this era, shedding light on the presence of various Buddhist, Jain and Vedic groups who equally identified as Brahmans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The history of Indian religions in the centuries leading up to the common era has been characterized in the scholarship by two distinct overarching traditions: the Brahmans (associated with Vedic texts, caste, and Vedic rituals) and the renouncer (śramaṇa) movements we see in the Upanishads, and in Jainism and Buddhism.  Were these traditions at odds with each other as “snake and mongoose” (attributed to the 2nd-century BCE Sanskrit grammarian Patañjali)?  Does “Brahmanism” pre-exist this pivotal encounter, or as it in fact forged therefrom? Was there such a thing, e.g., as a Buddhist Brahman in this era?  In his book The Snake and The Mongoose: The Emergence of Identity in Early Indian Religion (Oxford University Press, 2018), Nathan McGovern draws on ancient texts to problematize the distinction between Brahman and non-Brahman in this era, shedding light on the presence of various Buddhist, Jain and Vedic groups who equally identified as Brahmans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The history of Indian religions in the centuries leading up to the common era has been characterized in the scholarship by two distinct overarching traditions: the Brahmans (associated with Vedic texts, caste, and Vedic rituals) and the renouncer (śramaṇa) movements we see in the Upanishads, and in Jainism and Buddhism.  Were these traditions at odds with each other as “snake and mongoose” (attributed to the 2nd-century BCE Sanskrit grammarian Patañjali)?  Does “Brahmanism” pre-exist this pivotal encounter, or as it in fact forged therefrom? Was there such a thing, e.g., as a Buddhist Brahman in this era?  In his book The Snake and The Mongoose: The Emergence of Identity in Early Indian Religion (Oxford University Press, 2018), Nathan McGovern draws on ancient texts to problematize the distinction between Brahman and non-Brahman in this era, shedding light on the presence of various Buddhist, Jain and Vedic groups who equally identified as Brahmans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The history of Indian religions in the centuries leading up to the common era has been characterized in the scholarship by two distinct overarching traditions: the Brahmans (associated with Vedic texts, caste, and Vedic rituals) and the renouncer (śramaṇa) movements we see in the Upanishads, and in Jainism and Buddhism.  Were these traditions at odds with each other as “snake and mongoose” (attributed to the 2nd-century BCE Sanskrit grammarian Patañjali)?  Does “Brahmanism” pre-exist this pivotal encounter, or as it in fact forged therefrom? Was there such a thing, e.g., as a Buddhist Brahman in this era?  In his book The Snake and The Mongoose: The Emergence of Identity in Early Indian Religion (Oxford University Press, 2018), Nathan McGovern draws on ancient texts to problematize the distinction between Brahman and non-Brahman in this era, shedding light on the presence of various Buddhist, Jain and Vedic groups who equally identified as Brahmans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The history of Indian religions in the centuries leading up to the common era has been characterized in the scholarship by two distinct overarching traditions: the Brahmans (associated with Vedic texts, caste, and Vedic rituals) and the renouncer (śramaṇa) movements we see in the Upanishads, and in Jainism and Buddhism.  Were these traditions at odds with each other as “snake and mongoose” (attributed to the 2nd-century BCE Sanskrit grammarian Patañjali)?  Does “Brahmanism” pre-exist this pivotal encounter, or as it in fact forged therefrom? Was there such a thing, e.g., as a Buddhist Brahman in this era?  In his book The Snake and The Mongoose: The Emergence of Identity in Early Indian Religion (Oxford University Press, 2018), Nathan McGovern draws on ancient texts to problematize the distinction between Brahman and non-Brahman in this era, shedding light on the presence of various Buddhist, Jain and Vedic groups who equally identified as Brahmans.

The history of Indian religions in the centuries leading up to the common era has been characterized in the scholarship by two distinct overarching traditions: the Brahmans (associated with Vedic texts, caste, and Vedic rituals) and the renouncer (śramaṇa) movements we see in the Upanishads, and in Jainism and Buddhism.  Were these traditions at odds with each other as “snake and mongoose” (attributed to the 2nd-century BCE Sanskrit grammarian Patañjali)?  Does “Brahmanism” pre-exist this pivotal encounter, or as it in fact forged therefrom? Was there such a thing, e.g., as a Buddhist Brahman in this era?  In his book The Snake and The Mongoose: The Emergence of Identity in Early Indian Religion (Oxford University Press, 2018), Nathan McGovern draws on ancient texts to problematize the distinction between Brahman and non-Brahman in this era, shedding light on the presence of various Buddhist, Jain and Vedic groups who equally identified as Brahmans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

HOW CAN BUDDHA CHANGE INDIAN POLITICS? Buddha is a spiritual personality and not belongs with politics. Although I explained here – How can Buddha change Indian Politics? I think Buddha influencing on Indian politics. Not towards communalism but towards revolution and communism. How it can be possible? Let me explain. HOW CAN BUDDHA CHANGE INDIAN POLITICS? Now a day’s Majority of Indian population are Hindus. And 15 % of Hindus are upper castes. And in Upper caste you can find Capitalists, Feudalistic and Patriarchal Males are ruling population of the country.Upper caste people are involved in teaching Brahmanism (fascist things) to people since 2000 years. They are using Manusmriti (law of Brahmanism) to implement Brahmanism. That’s why Indians are became mental slaves of Upper caste people.Due to that majority Indians are following lots of superstition, defective ritual, conventions and traditions, casteism, bigotry, predestination etc. You can find here many atrocities, riots, violence, discrimination against Lower castes (like Dalit, Tribes, Nomadic tribes & Shudras), minorities (like Muslims, Christians) and women as well as LGBT people.Although this situation is happened here. If majority people accept Buddhism and reject Brahmanism then situation will change towards political revolution. How? Let me explain – How can Buddha change Indian Politics?

Why we started Human Liberty – In this article we are discussing about Human Liberty organization. On 1st January 2006 we started Campaign for Human Liberty. We combine Buddha, Marx and Ambedkar in the organization. Why? Let me explain. STARTING DAYS In 2004 some Rationalist, Communist, Buddhist, Atheist and Ambedkarite activist came together. That time we were working with other like minded  organizations. We were discussed on many issues related with Social and political change. That period we think, discuss and wrote articles on various social issues. And  we actual worked on the field about social political things. SITUATION OF INDIA Majority of Indian population are Hindus. And 15 % of Hindus are upper castes. And in Upper caste you can find Capitalists, Feudalistic and Patriarchal Males are ruling population of the country. In India Upper caste people are involved in teaching Brahmanism (fascist things) to people since 2000 years. They are using Manusmriti (law of Brahmanism) to implement Brahmanism. That’s why Indians are became mental slaves of Upper caste people. Due to that majority Indians are following lots of superstition, defective ritual, conventions and traditions, casteism, bigotry, predestination etc. You can find here many atrocities, riots, violence, discrimination against Lower castes (like Dalit, Tribes, Nomadic tribes & Shudras), minorities (like Muslims, Christians) and women as well as LGBT people. RATIONALIST ASSOCIATION OF PEOPLE – 2004 Although this situation is happened here. If majority people accept Buddhism and reject Brahmanism then situation will change towards political revolution. How? For more information Click on – How can Buddha change Indian Politics? So we started Rationalist association of People. EXPLOITATION ERADICATION COMMITTEE (SHOSHAN NIRMULAN SAMITI) – 2005 After one year in 2005 we came together again. And we discussed about our way of Rationalism. This way is very long and couldn’t complete in our own life. So what if we directly work on system transformation? Once power will come in our hands, we can change people mind set through education department, media and other sources. And we can implement communism easily. So we change our ideology. We left Buddhism and we accepted Marxism. And Started work like communist. We changed the name of the organization. Our organization’s new name was Exploitation Eradication Committee (Shoshan Nirmulan Samiti) CAMPAIGN FOR HUMAN LIBERTY – 2006 After one year in December 2005 we came together again. And we thought on 3 issues. If we will take charge of power. But if people are remain Hindu mind set. Then they will destroy the system again and they will make system related with their religion (Brahmanism) again.Due to caste system, workers couldn’t unite. They divided in to many castes. And in casteism you can find hierarchy between them. Due to that people hate each other. If workers do not unite properly how revolution can possible in India?If majority of people are convert in to Buddhism. But if System is remaining in hands of Capitalist, feudalistic or Upper caste males. Then there is no meaning of only Religious conversion. WHY WE STARTED HUMAN LIBERTY We thought that if we want real revolution or communism. We need Buddhism to eradicate Brahmanism and change people mind set towards communism. We need Ambedkarism to eradicate caste system and other discrimination’s like gender, religion, language, area, race or skin color based. And we need Marxism for system transformation. And if Buddha, Ambedkar and Marx come together. Then real revolution will happen in India as well as in entire world. And communism can establish properly in the world. So We again change name of the organization. And now we started Campaign for Human Liberty on 1st January 2006. For more details click on Why we started Human Liberty ?

Opening this podcast with an introduction to the Medicine Buddha and his long time co-teacher + friend Richard Freeman, Professor Thurman explore the connections between Hatha Yoga, Buddhist Philosophy + the Indic Inner Sciences through a close translation of the classic fifteenth-century Sanskrit manual on hatha yoga, “The Hatha Yoga Pradīpikā” by Svāmi Svātmārāma. Using the teachings of K. Pattabhi Jois + Geshe Ngawang Wangyal Robert A.F. Thurman and Richard Freeman explore the symbolism and meditation practices centering on the Hindu Deities Brahmā, Shiva, and Buddha in the form of Great Vajradhara. Podcast includes a discussion of Brahmanism, Shaivism, Tantic Buddhism, the Chöd (“Severence”) Charnel Ground Practice, Raja Yoga (King Yoga), a re-telling of the story of the Mahasiddha, Luipa The Fish-Gut Eater and how the non-Dualism found in both the Hindu and Buddhist traditions erode hierarchies and brought change about change within the rigid caste system of India. Second half of this week’s podcast continues the dialog focusing on how the Vedic + Buddhist traditions both approach non-dualism, daily practice and bathroom humor. Stunning the Mind with Yoga – Episode #178 of the Bob Thurman Podcast Photo by Park Troopers on Unsplash This podcast was recorded at Menla’s Nalanada Conference Center in Phoenicia, New York during the 2016 ‘Buddha & The Yogis’ Retreat with Richard Freeman, Mary Taylor, John Campbell + Robert A.F. Thurman. Learn more about the connections between practical yoga, daily meditation & esoteric study at this year’s ‘Buddha & The Yogis: The Divine Feminine Retreat with Mary Taylor, Richard Freeman & Robert Thurman please visit: www.menla.us. This week’s episode’s of the Bob Thurman Podcast was thanks to Richard Freeman + Mary Taylor and was brought to you in part through the support of the Tibet House US Membership Community and Menla Retreat and Dewa Spa in Phoenicia, New York. Stunning the Mind with Yoga is an excerpt from the archive recordings from the Tibet House US retreat “Buddha & the Yogis” with Richard Freeman, Mary Taylor, John Campbell and Robert A.F. Thurman recorded at Menla’s Nalanda Conference Center in Phoenicia, New York, Summer 2011. Listen to more archive recordings from from past Robert AF Thurman teachings + public events please consider becoming a Tibet House US member. To learn about the benefits of Tibet House US Membership please visit: www.tibethouse.us. Previews are available on the Tibet House US YouTube Channel +

SICON02-B-12-Brahmanism Buddhism and Mimamsa - Sharda Narayanan Sicon02-b-12-brahmanismBuddhismAndMimamsa-ShardaNarayanan.mp3

Prof. Shrikant Bahulkar:There is seen the tendency of Vedism and Brahmanism through out the Buddhist literature, right from the early Pāli canon through the Mahāyāna to the late Buddhist Tantric texts. In the Pāli canon, the terms such as veda, vijjā, tevijja, yañña and so on. These terms have basically Vedic connotations; however they have been used in a different, typically Buddhist sense. In the Mahāyāna scriptures, there are a number of Vedic concepts used to praise the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas. In the Vajrayāna rituals, we find a growing tendency of Vedism and Brahmanism. While borrowing the Vedic and Brahmanical vocabulary, concepts and ritual practices, the Buddhist did not necessarily adhere directly to particular traditions or texts. The proportion of the usage of such vocabulary and ritualistic practices has increased in the Mahāyāna and, more prominently, in late Buddhist Tantric tradition that involved the muttering of various mantras, offerings into fire and other practices, resembling the Vedic and Brahmanical sacrificial ritual.

The Melchizedek Teachings in the Orient (1027.1) 94:0.1 THE early teachers of the Salem religion penetrated to the remotest tribes of Africa and Eurasia, ever preaching Machiventa’s gospel of man’s faith and trust in the one universal God as the only price of obtaining divine favor. Melchizedek’s covenant with Abraham was the pattern for all the early propaganda that went out from Salem and other centers. Urantia has never had more enthusiastic and aggressive missionaries of any religion than these noble men and women who carried the teachings of Melchizedek over the entire Eastern Hemisphere. These missionaries were recruited from many peoples and races, and they largely spread their teachings through the medium of native converts. They established training centers in different parts of the world where they taught the natives the Salem religion and then commissioned these pupils to function as teachers among their own people. 1. The Salem Teachings in Vedic India (1027.2) 94:1.1 In the days of Melchizedek, India was a cosmopolitan country which had recently come under the political and religious dominance of the Aryan-Andite invaders from the north and west. At this time only the northern and western portions of the peninsula had been extensively permeated by the Aryans. These Vedic newcomers had brought along with them their many tribal deities. Their religious forms of worship followed closely the ceremonial practices of their earlier Andite forebears in that the father still functioned as a priest and the mother as a priestess, and the family hearth was still utilized as an altar. (1027.3) 94:1.2 The Vedic cult was then in process of growth and metamorphosis under the direction of the Brahman caste of teacher-priests, who were gradually assuming control over the expanding ritual of worship. The amalgamation of the onetime thirty-three Aryan deities was well under way when the Salem missionaries penetrated the north of India. (1027.4) 94:1.3 The polytheism of these Aryans represented a degeneration of their earlier monotheism occasioned by their separation into tribal units, each tribe having its venerated god. This devolution of the original monotheism and trinitarianism of Andite Mesopotamia was in process of resynthesis in the early centuries of the second millennium before Christ. The many gods were organized into a pantheon under the triune leadership of Dyaus pitar, the lord of heaven; Indra, the tempestuous lord of the atmosphere; and Agni, the three-headed fire god, lord of the earth and the vestigial symbol of an earlier Trinity concept. (1027.5) 94:1.4 Definite henotheistic developments were paving the way for an evolved monotheism. Agni, the most ancient deity, was often exalted as the father-head of the entire pantheon. The deity-father principle, sometimes called Prajapati, sometimes termed Brahma, was submerged in the theologic battle which the Brahman priests later fought with the Salem teachers. The Brahman was conceived as the energy-divinity principle activating the entire Vedic pantheon. (1028.1) 94:1.5 The Salem missionaries preached the one God of Melchizedek, the Most High of heaven. This portrayal was not altogether disharmonious with the emerging concept of the Father-Brahma as the source of all gods, but the Salem doctrine was nonritualistic and hence ran directly counter to the dogmas, traditions, and teachings of the Brahman priesthood. Never would the Brahman priests accept the Salem teaching of salvation through faith, favor with God apart from ritualistic observances and sacrificial ceremonials. (1028.2) 94:1.6 The rejection of the Melchizedek gospel of trust in God and salvation through faith marked a vital turning point for India. The Salem missionaries had contributed much to the loss of faith in all the ancient Vedic gods, but the leaders, the priests of Vedism, refused to accept the Melchizedek teaching of one God and one simple faith. (1028.3) 94:1.7 The Brahmans culled the sacred writings of their day in an effort to combat the Salem teachers, and this compilation, as later revised, has come on down to modern times as the Rig-Veda, one of the most ancient of sacred books. The second, third, and fourth Vedas followed as the Brahmans sought to crystallize, formalize, and fix their rituals of worship and sacrifice upon the peoples of those days. Taken at their best, these writings are the equal of any other body of similar character in beauty of concept and truth of discernment. But as this superior religion became contaminated with the thousands upon thousands of superstitions, cults, and rituals of southern India, it progressively metamorphosed into the most variegated system of theology ever developed by mortal man. An examination of the Vedas will disclose some of the highest and some of the most debased concepts of Deity ever to be conceived. 2. Brahmanism (1028.4) 94:2.1 As the Salem missionaries penetrated southward into the Dravidian Deccan, they encountered an increasing caste system, the scheme of the Aryans to prevent loss of racial identity in the face of a rising tide of the secondary Sangik peoples. Since the Brahman priest caste was the very essence of this system, this social order greatly retarded the progress of the Salem teachers. This caste system failed to save the Aryan race, but it did succeed in perpetuating the Brahmans, who, in turn, have maintained their religious hegemony in India to the present time. (1028.5) 94:2.2 And now, with the weakening of Vedism through the rejection of higher truth, the cult of the Aryans became subject to increasing inroads from the Deccan. In a desperate effort to stem the tide of racial extinction and religious obliteration, the Brahman caste sought to exalt themselves above all else. They taught that the sacrifice to deity in itself was all-efficacious, that it was all-compelling in its potency. They proclaimed that, of the two essential divine principles of the universe, one was Brahman the deity, and the other was the Brahman priesthood. Among no other Urantia peoples did the priests presume to exalt themselves above even their gods, to relegate to themselves the honors due their gods. But they went so absurdly far with these presumptuous claims that the whole precarious system collapsed before the debasing cults which poured in from the surrounding and less advanced civilizations. The vast Vedic priesthood itself floundered and sank beneath the black flood of inertia and pessimism which their own selfish and unwise presumption had brought upon all India. (1029.1) 94:2.3 The undue concentration on self led certainly to a fear of the nonevolutionary perpetuation of self in an endless round of successive incarnations as man, beast, or weeds. And of all the contaminating beliefs which could have become fastened upon what may have been an emerging monotheism, none was so stultifying as this belief in transmigration — the doctrine of the reincarnation of souls — which came from the Dravidian Deccan. This belief in the weary and monotonous round of repeated transmigrations robbed struggling mortals of their long-cherished hope of finding that deliverance and spiritual advancement in death which had been a part of the earlier Vedic faith. (1029.2) 94:2.4 This philosophically debilitating teaching was soon followed by the invention of the doctrine of the eternal escape from self by submergence in the universal rest and peace of absolute union with Brahman, the oversoul of all creation. Mortal desire and human ambition were effectually ravished and virtually destroyed. For more than two thousand years the better minds of India have sought to escape from all desire, and thus was opened wide the door for the entrance of those later cults and teachings which have virtually shackled the souls of many Hindu peoples in the chains of spiritual hopelessness. Of all civilizations, the Vedic-Aryan paid the most terrible price for its rejection of the Salem gospel. (1029.3) 94:2.5 Caste alone could not perpetuate the Aryan religio-cultural system, and as the inferior religions of the Deccan permeated the north, there developed an age of despair and hopelessness. It was during these dark days that the cult of taking no life arose, and it has ever since persisted. Many of the new cults were frankly atheistic, claiming that such salvation as was attainable could come only by man’s own unaided efforts. But throughout a great deal of all this unfortunate philosophy, distorted remnants of the Melchizedek and even the Adamic teachings can be traced. (1029.4) 94:2.6 These were the times of the compilation of the later scriptures of the Hindu faith, the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. Having rejected the teachings of personal religion through the personal faith experience with the one God, and having become contaminated with the flood of debasing and debilitating cults and creeds from the Deccan, with their anthropomorphisms and reincarnations, the Brahmanic priesthood experienced a violent reaction against these vitiating beliefs; there was a definite effort to seek and to find true reality. The Brahmans set out to deanthropomorphize the Indian concept of deity, but in so doing they stumbled into the grievous error of depersonalizing the concept of God, and they emerged, not with a lofty and spiritual ideal of the Paradise Father, but with a distant and metaphysical idea of an all-encompassing Absolute. (1029.5) 94:2.7 In their efforts at self-preservation the Brahmans had rejected the one God of Melchizedek, and now they found themselves with the hypothesis of Brahman, that indefinite and illusive philosophic self, that impersonal and impotent it which has left the spiritual life of India helpless and prostrate from that unfortunate day to the twentieth century. (1029.6) 94:2.8 It was during the times of the writing of the Upanishads that Buddhism arose in India. But despite its successes of a thousand years, it could not compete with later Hinduism; despite a higher morality, its early portrayal of God was even less well-defined than was that of Hinduism, which provided for lesser and personal deities. Buddhism finally gave way in northern India before the onslaught of a militant Islam with its clear-cut concept of Allah as the supreme God of the universe. 3. Brahmanic Philosophy (1030.1) 94:3.1 While the highest phase of Brahmanism was hardly a religion, it was truly one of the most noble reaches of the mortal mind into the domains of philosophy and metaphysics. Having started out to discover final reality, the Indian mind did not stop until it had speculated about almost every phase of theology excepting the essential dual concept of religion: the existence of the Universal Father of all universe creatures and the fact of the ascending experience in the universe of these very creatures as they seek to attain the eternal Father, who has commanded them to be perfect, even as he is perfect. (1030.2) 94:3.2 In the concept of Brahman the minds of those days truly grasped at the idea of some all-pervading Absolute, for this postulate was at one and the same time identified as creative energy and cosmic reaction. Brahman was conceived to be beyond all definition, capable of being comprehended only by the successive negation of all finite qualities. It was definitely a belief in an absolute, even an infinite, being, but this concept was largely devoid of personality attributes and was therefore not experiencible by individual religionists. (1030.3) 94:3.3 Brahman-Narayana was conceived as the Absolute, the infinite IT IS, the primordial creative potency of the potential cosmos, the Universal Self existing static and potential throughout all eternity. Had the philosophers of those days been able to make the next advance in deity conception, had they been able to conceive of the Brahman as associative and creative, as a personality approachable by created and evolving beings, then might such a teaching have become the most advanced portraiture of Deity on Urantia since it would have encompassed the first five levels of total deity function and might possibly have envisioned the remaining two. (1030.4) 94:3.4 In certain phases the concept of the One Universal Oversoul as the totality of the summation of all creature existence led the Indian philosophers very close to the truth of the Supreme Being, but this truth availed them naught because they failed to evolve any reasonable or rational personal approach to the attainment of their theoretic monotheistic goal of Brahman-Narayana. (1030.5) 94:3.5 The karma principle of causality continuity is, again, very close to the truth of the repercussional synthesis of all time-space actions in the Deity presence of the Supreme; but this postulate never provided for the co-ordinate personal attainment of Deity by the individual religionist, only for the ultimate engulfment of all personality by the Universal Oversoul. (1030.6) 94:3.6 The philosophy of Brahmanism also came very near to the realization of the indwelling of the Thought Adjusters, only to become perverted through the misconception of truth. The teaching that the soul is the indwelling of the Brahman would have paved the way for an advanced religion had not this concept been completely vitiated by the belief that there is no human individuality apart from this indwelling of the Universal One. (1030.7) 94:3.7 In the doctrine of the merging of the self-soul with the Oversoul, the theologians of India failed to provide for the survival of something human, something new and unique, something born of the union of the will of man and the will of God. The teaching of the soul’s return to the Brahman is closely parallel to the truth of the Adjuster’s return to the bosom of the Universal Father, but there is something distinct from the Adjuster which also survives, the morontial counterpart of mortal personality. And this vital concept was fatally absent from Brahmanic philosophy. (1031.1) 94:3.8 Brahmanic philosophy has approximated many of the facts of the universe and has approached numerous cosmic truths, but it has all too often fallen victim to the error of failing to differentiate between the several levels of reality, such as absolute, transcendental, and finite. It has failed to take into account that what may be finite-illusory on the absolute level may be absolutely real on the finite level. And it has also taken no cognizance of the essential personality of the Universal Father, who is personally contactable on all levels from the evolutionary creature’s limited experience with God on up to the limitless experience of the Eternal Son with the Paradise Father. 4. The Hindu Religion (1031.2) 94:4.1 With the passing of the centuries in India, the populace returned in measure to the ancient rituals of the Vedas as they had been modified by the teachings of the Melchizedek missionaries and crystallized by the later Brahman priesthood. This, the oldest and most cosmopolitan of the world’s religions, has undergone further changes in response to Buddhism and Jainism and to the later appearing influences of Mohammedanism and Christianity. But by the time the teachings of Jesus arrived, they had already become so Occidentalized as to be a “white man’s religion,” hence strange and foreign to the Hindu mind. (1031.3) 94:4.2 Hindu theology, at present, depicts four descending levels of deity and divinity: (1031.4) 94:4.3 1. The Brahman, the Absolute, the Infinite One, the IT IS. (1031.5) 94:4.4 2. The Trimurti, the supreme trinity of Hinduism. In this association Brahma, the first member, is conceived as being self-created out of the Brahman — infinity. Were it not for close identification with the pantheistic Infinite One, Brahma could constitute the foundation for a concept of the Universal Father. Brahma is also identified with fate. (1031.6) 94:4.5 The worship of the second and third members, Siva and Vishnu, arose in the first millennium after Christ. Siva is lord of life and death, god of fertility, and master of destruction. Vishnu is extremely popular due to the belief that he periodically incarnates in human form. In this way, Vishnu becomes real and living in the imaginations of the Indians. Siva and Vishnu are each regarded by some as supreme over all. (1031.7) 94:4.6 3. Vedic and post-Vedic deities. Many of the ancient gods of the Aryans, such as Agni, Indra, Soma, have persisted as secondary to the three members of the Trimurti. Numerous additional gods have arisen since the early days of Vedic India, and these have also been incorporated into the Hindu pantheon. (1031.8) 94:4.7 4. The demigods: supermen, semigods, heroes, demons, ghosts, evil spirits, sprites, monsters, goblins, and saints of the later-day cults. (1031.9) 94:4.8 While Hinduism has long failed to vivify the Indian people, at the same time it has usually been a tolerant religion. Its great strength lies in the fact that it has proved to be the most adaptive, amorphic religion to appear on Urantia. It is capable of almost unlimited change and possesses an unusual range of flexible adjustment from the high and semimonotheistic speculations of the intellectual Brahman to the arrant fetishism and primitive cult practices of the debased and depressed classes of ignorant believers. (1032.1) 94:4.9 Hinduism has survived because it is essentially an integral part of the basic social fabric of India. It has no great hierarchy which can be disturbed or destroyed; it is interwoven into the life pattern of the people. It has an adaptability to changing conditions that excels all other cults, and it displays a tolerant attitude of adoption toward many other religions, Gautama Buddha and even Christ himself being claimed as incarnations of Vishnu. (1032.2) 94:4.10 Today, in India, the great need is for the portrayal of the Jesusonian gospel — the Fatherhood of God and the sonship and consequent brotherhood of all men, which is personally realized in loving ministry and social service. In India the philosophical framework is existent, the cult structure is present; all that is needed is the vitalizing spark of the dynamic love portrayed in the original gospel of the Son of Man, divested of the Occidental dogmas and doctrines which have tended to make Michael’s life bestowal a white man’s religion. 5. The Struggle for Truth in China (1032.3) 94:5.1 As the Salem missionaries passed through Asia, spreading the doctrine of the Most High God and salvation through faith, they absorbed much of the philosophy and religious thought of the various countries traversed. But the teachers commissioned by Melchizedek and his successors did not default in their trust; they did penetrate to all peoples of the Eurasian continent, and it was in the middle of the second millennium before Christ that they arrived in China. At See Fuch, for more than one hundred years, the Salemites maintained their headquarters, there training Chinese teachers who taught throughout all the domains of the yellow race. (1032.4) 94:5.2 It was in direct consequence of this teaching that the earliest form of Taoism arose in China, a vastly different religion than the one which bears that name today. Early or proto-Taoism was a compound of the following factors: (1032.5) 94:5.3 1. The lingering teachings of Singlangton, which persisted in the concept of Shang-ti, the God of Heaven. In the times of Singlangton the Chinese people became virtually monotheistic; they concentrated their worship on the One Truth, later known as the Spirit of Heaven, the universe ruler. And the yellow race never fully lost this early concept of Deity, although in subsequent centuries many subordinate gods and spirits insidiously crept into their religion. (1032.6) 94:5.4 2. The Salem religion of a Most High Creator Deity who would bestow his favor upon mankind in response to man’s faith. But it is all too true that, by the time the Melchizedek missionaries had penetrated to the lands of the yellow race, their original message had become considerably changed from the simple doctrines of Salem in the days of Machiventa. (1032.7) 94:5.5 3. The Brahman-Absolute concept of the Indian philosophers, coupled with the desire to escape all evil. Perhaps the greatest extraneous influence in the eastward spread of the Salem religion was exerted by the Indian teachers of the Vedic faith, who injected their conception of the Brahman — the Absolute — into the salvationistic thought of the Salemites. (1033.1) 94:5.6 This composite belief spread through the lands of the yellow and brown races as an underlying influence in religio-philosophic thought. In Japan this proto-Taoism was known as Shinto, and in this country, far-distant from Salem of Palestine, the peoples learned of the incarnation of Machiventa Melchizedek, who dwelt upon earth that the name of God might not be forgotten by mankind.* (1033.2) 94:5.7 In China all of these beliefs were later confused and compounded with the ever-growing cult of ancestor worship. But never since the time of Singlangton have the Chinese fallen into helpless slavery to priestcraft. The yellow race was the first to emerge from barbaric bondage into orderly civilization because it was the first to achieve some measure of freedom from the abject fear of the gods, not even fearing the ghosts of the dead as other races feared them. China met her defeat because she failed to progress beyond her early emancipation from priests; she fell into an almost equally calamitous error, the worship of ancestors. (1033.3) 94:5.8 But the Salemites did not labor in vain. It was upon the foundations of their gospel that the great philosophers of sixth-century China built their teachings. The moral atmosphere and the spiritual sentiments of the times of Lao-tse and Confucius grew up out of the teachings of the Salem missionaries of an earlier age. 6. Lao-Tse and Confucius (1033.4) 94:6.1 About six hundred years before the arrival of Michael, it seemed to Melchizedek, long since departed from the flesh, that the purity of his teaching on earth was being unduly jeopardized by general absorption into the older Urantia beliefs. It appeared for a time that his mission as a forerunner of Michael might be in danger of failing. And in the sixth century before Christ, through an unusual co-ordination of spiritual agencies, not all of which are understood even by the planetary supervisors, Urantia witnessed a most unusual presentation of manifold religious truth. Through the agency of several human teachers the Salem gospel was restated and revitalized, and as it was then presented, much has persisted to the times of this writing. (1033.5) 94:6.2 This unique century of spiritual progress was characterized by great religious, moral, and philosophic teachers all over the civilized world. In China, the two outstanding teachers were Lao-tse and Confucius. (1033.6) 94:6.3 Lao-tse built directly upon the concepts of the Salem traditions when he declared Tao to be the One First Cause of all creation. Lao was a man of great spiritual vision. He taught that man’s eternal destiny was “everlasting union with Tao, Supreme God and Universal King.” His comprehension of ultimate causation was most discerning, for he wrote: “Unity arises out of the Absolute Tao, and from Unity there appears cosmic Duality, and from such Duality, Trinity springs forth into existence, and Trinity is the primal source of all reality.” “All reality is ever in balance between the potentials and the actuals of the cosmos, and these are eternally harmonized by the spirit of divinity.”* (1033.7) 94:6.4 Lao-tse also made one of the earliest presentations of the doctrine of returning good for evil: “Goodness begets goodness, but to the one who is truly good, evil also begets goodness.” (1033.8) 94:6.5 He taught the return of the creature to the Creator and pictured life as the emergence of a personality from the cosmic potentials, while death was like the returning home of this creature personality. His concept of true faith was unusual, and he too likened it to the “attitude of a little child.” (1034.1) 94:6.6 His understanding of the eternal purpose of God was clear, for he said: “The Absolute Deity does not strive but is always victorious; he does not coerce mankind but always stands ready to respond to their true desires; the will of God is eternal in patience and eternal in the inevitability of its expression.” And of the true religionist he said, in expressing the truth that it is more blessed to give than to receive: “The good man seeks not to retain truth for himself but rather attempts to bestow these riches upon his fellows, for that is the realization of truth. The will of the Absolute God always benefits, never destroys; the purpose of the true believer is always to act but never to coerce.” (1034.2) 94:6.7 Lao’s teaching of nonresistance and the distinction which he made between action and coercion became later perverted into the beliefs of “seeing, doing, and thinking nothing.” But Lao never taught such error, albeit his presentation of nonresistance has been a factor in the further development of the pacific predilections of the Chinese peoples. (1034.3) 94:6.8 But the popular Taoism of twentieth-century Urantia has very little in common with the lofty sentiments and the cosmic concepts of the old philosopher who taught the truth as he perceived it, which was: That faith in the Absolute God is the source of that divine energy which will remake the world, and by which man ascends to spiritual union with Tao, the Eternal Deity and Creator Absolute of the universes. (1034.4) 94:6.9 Confucius (Kung Fu-tze) was a younger contemporary of Lao in sixth-century China. Confucius based his doctrines upon the better moral traditions of the long history of the yellow race, and he was also somewhat influenced by the lingering traditions of the Salem missionaries. His chief work consisted in the compilation of the wise sayings of ancient philosophers. He was a rejected teacher during his lifetime, but his writings and teachings have ever since exerted a great influence in China and Japan. Confucius set a new pace for the shamans in that he put morality in the place of magic. But he built too well; he made a new fetish out of order and established a respect for ancestral conduct that is still venerated by the Chinese at the time of this writing. (1034.5) 94:6.10 The Confucian preachment of morality was predicated on the theory that the earthly way is the distorted shadow of the heavenly way; that the true pattern of temporal civilization is the mirror reflection of the eternal order of heaven. The potential God concept in Confucianism was almost completely subordinated to the emphasis placed upon the Way of Heaven, the pattern of the cosmos. (1034.6) 94:6.11 The teachings of Lao have been lost to all but a few in the Orient, but the writings of Confucius have ever since constituted the basis of the moral fabric of the culture of almost a third of Urantians. These Confucian precepts, while perpetuating the best of the past, were somewhat inimical to the very Chinese spirit of investigation that had produced those achievements which were so venerated. The influence of these doctrines was unsuccessfully combated both by the imperial efforts of Ch’in Shih Huang Ti and by the teachings of Mo Ti, who proclaimed a brotherhood founded not on ethical duty but on the love of God. He sought to rekindle the ancient quest for new truth, but his teachings failed before the vigorous opposition of the disciples of Confucius. (1034.7) 94:6.12 Like many other spiritual and moral teachers, both Confucius and Lao-tse were eventually deified by their followers in those spiritually dark ages of China which intervened between the decline and perversion of the Taoist faith and the coming of the Buddhist missionaries from India. During these spiritually decadent centuries the religion of the yellow race degenerated into a pitiful theology wherein swarmed devils, dragons, and evil spirits, all betokening the returning fears of the unenlightened mortal mind. And China, once at the head of human society because of an advanced religion, then fell behind because of temporary failure to progress in the true path of the development of that God-consciousness which is indispensable to the true progress, not only of the individual mortal, but also of the intricate and complex civilizations which characterize the advance of culture and society on an evolutionary planet of time and space. 7. Gautama Siddhartha (1035.1) 94:7.1 Contemporary with Lao-tse and Confucius in China, another great teacher of truth arose in India. Gautama Siddhartha was born in the sixth century before Christ in the north Indian province of Nepal. His followers later made it appear that he was the son of a fabulously wealthy ruler, but, in truth, he was the heir apparent to the throne of a petty chieftain who ruled by sufferance over a small and secluded mountain valley in the southern Himalayas. (1035.2) 94:7.2 Gautama formulated those theories which grew into the philosophy of Buddhism after six years of the futile practice of Yoga. Siddhartha made a determined but unavailing fight against the growing caste system. There was a lofty sincerity and a unique unselfishness about this young prophet prince that greatly appealed to the men of those days. He detracted from the practice of seeking individual salvation through physical affliction and personal pain. And he exhorted his followers to carry his gospel to all the world. (1035.3) 94:7.3 Amid the confusion and extreme cult practices of India, the saner and more moderate teachings of Gautama came as a refreshing relief. He denounced gods, priests, and their sacrifices, but he too failed to perceive the personality of the One Universal. Not believing in the existence of individual human souls, Gautama, of course, made a valiant fight against the time-honored belief in transmigration of the soul. He made a noble effort to deliver men from fear, to make them feel at ease and at home in the great universe, but he failed to show them the pathway to that real and supernal home of ascending mortals — Paradise — and to the expanding service of eternal existence. (1035.4) 94:7.4 Gautama was a real prophet, and had he heeded the instruction of the hermit Godad, he might have aroused all India by the inspiration of the revival of the Salem gospel of salvation by faith. Godad was descended through a family that had never lost the traditions of the Melchizedek missionaries. (1035.5) 94:7.5 At Benares Gautama founded his school, and it was during its second year that a pupil, Bautan, imparted to his teacher the traditions of the Salem missionaries about the Melchizedek covenant with Abraham; and while Siddhartha did not have a very clear concept of the Universal Father, he took an advanced stand on salvation through faith — simple belief. He so declared himself before his followers and began sending his students out in groups of sixty to proclaim to the people of India “the glad tidings of free salvation; that all men, high and low, can attain bliss by faith in righteousness and justice.” (1035.6) 94:7.6 Gautama’s wife believed her husband’s gospel and was the founder of an order of nuns. His son became his successor and greatly extended the cult; he grasped the new idea of salvation through faith but in his later years wavered regarding the Salem gospel of divine favor through faith alone, and in his old age his dying words were, “Work out your own salvation.” (1036.1) 94:7.7 When proclaimed at its best, Gautama’s gospel of universal salvation, free from sacrifice, torture, ritual, and priests, was a revolutionary and amazing doctrine for its time. And it came surprisingly near to being a revival of the Salem gospel. It brought succor to millions of despairing souls, and notwithstanding its grotesque perversion during later centuries, it still persists as the hope of millions of human beings. (1036.2) 94:7.8 Siddhartha taught far more truth than has survived in the modern cults bearing his name. Modern Buddhism is no more the teachings of Gautama Siddhartha than is Christianity the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. 8. The Buddhist Faith (1036.3) 94:8.1 To become a Buddhist, one merely made public profession of the faith by reciting the Refuge: “I take my refuge in the Buddha; I take my refuge in the Doctrine; I take my refuge in the Brotherhood.” (1036.4) 94:8.2 Buddhism took origin in a historic person, not in a myth. Gautama’s followers called him Sasta, meaning master or teacher. While he made no superhuman claims for either himself or his teachings, his disciples early began to call him the enlightened one, the Buddha; later on, Sakyamuni Buddha. (1036.5) 94:8.3 The original gospel of Gautama was based on the four noble truths: (1036.6) 94:8.4 1. The noble truths of suffering. (1036.7) 94:8.5 2. The origins of suffering. (1036.8) 94:8.6 3. The destruction of suffering. (1036.9) 94:8.7 4. The way to the destruction of suffering. (1036.10) 94:8.8 Closely linked to the doctrine of suffering and the escape therefrom was the philosophy of the Eightfold Path: right views, aspirations, speech, conduct, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and contemplation. It was not Gautama’s intention to attempt to destroy all effort, desire, and affection in the escape from suffering; rather was his teaching designed to picture to mortal man the futility of pinning all hope and aspirations entirely on temporal goals and material objectives. It was not so much that love of one’s fellows should be shunned as that the true believer should also look beyond the associations of this material world to the realities of the eternal future. (1036.11) 94:8.9 The moral commandments of Gautama’s preachment were five in number: (1036.12) 94:8.10 1. You shall not kill. (1036.13) 94:8.11 2. You shall not steal. (1036.14) 94:8.12 3. You shall not be unchaste. (1036.15) 94:8.13 4. You shall not lie. (1036.16) 94:8.14 5. You shall not drink intoxicating liquors. (1036.17) 94:8.15 There were several additional or secondary commandments, whose observance was optional with believers. (1036.18) 94:8.16 Siddhartha hardly believed in the immortality of the human personality; his philosophy only provided for a sort of functional continuity. He never clearly defined what he meant to include in the doctrine of Nirvana. The fact that it could theoretically be experienced during mortal existence would indicate that it was not viewed as a state of complete annihilation. It implied a condition of supreme enlightenment and supernal bliss wherein all fetters binding man to the material world had been broken; there was freedom from the desires of mortal life and deliverance from all danger of ever again experiencing incarnation. (1037.1) 94:8.17 According to the original teachings of Gautama, salvation is achieved by human effort, apart from divine help; there is no place for saving faith or prayers to superhuman powers. Gautama, in his attempt to minimize the superstitions of India, endeavored to turn men away from the blatant claims of magical salvation. And in making this effort, he left the door wide open for his successors to misinterpret his teaching and to proclaim that all human striving for attainment is distasteful and painful. His followers overlooked the fact that the highest happiness is linked with the intelligent and enthusiastic pursuit of worthy goals, and that such achievements constitute true progress in cosmic self-realization. (1037.2) 94:8.18 The great truth of Siddhartha’s teaching was his proclamation of a universe of absolute justice. He taught the best godless philosophy ever invented by mortal man; it was the ideal humanism and most effectively removed all grounds for superstition, magical rituals, and fear of ghosts or demons. (1037.3) 94:8.19 The great weakness in the original gospel of Buddhism was that it did not produce a religion of unselfish social service. The Buddhistic brotherhood was, for a long time, not a fraternity of believers but rather a community of student teachers. Gautama forbade their receiving money and thereby sought to prevent the growth of hierarchal tendencies. Gautama himself was highly social; indeed, his life was much greater than his preachment. 9. The Spread of Buddhism (1037.4) 94:9.1 Buddhism prospered because it offered salvation through belief in the Buddha, the enlightened one. It was more representative of the Melchizedek truths than any other religious system to be found throughout eastern Asia. But Buddhism did not become widespread as a religion until it was espoused in self-protection by the low-caste monarch Asoka, who, next to Ikhnaton in Egypt, was one of the most remarkable civil rulers between Melchizedek and Michael. Asoka built a great Indian empire through the propaganda of his Buddhist missionaries. During a period of twenty-five years he trained and sent forth more than seventeen thousand missionaries to the farthest frontiers of all the known world. In one generation he made Buddhism the dominant religion of one half the world. It soon became established in Tibet, Kashmir, Ceylon, Burma, Java, Siam, Korea, China, and Japan. And generally speaking, it was a religion vastly superior to those which it supplanted or upstepped. (1037.5) 94:9.2 The spread of Buddhism from its homeland in India to all of Asia is one of the thrilling stories of the spiritual devotion and missionary persistence of sincere religionists. The teachers of Gautama’s gospel not only braved the perils of the overland caravan routes but faced the dangers of the China Seas as they pursued their mission over the Asiatic continent, bringing to all peoples the message of their faith. But this Buddhism was no longer the simple doctrine of Gautama; it was the miraculized gospel which made him a god. And the farther Buddhism spread from its highland home in India, the more unlike the teachings of Gautama it became, and the more like the religions it supplanted, it grew to be. (1038.1) 94:9.3 Buddhism, later on, was much affected by Taoism in China, Shinto in Japan, and Christianity in Tibet. After a thousand years, in India Buddhism simply withered and expired. It became Brahmanized and later abjectly surrendered to Islam, while throughout much of the rest of the Orient it degenerated into a ritual which Gautama Siddhartha would never have recognized. (1038.2) 94:9.4 In the south the fundamentalist stereotype of the teachings of Siddhartha persisted in Ceylon, Burma, and the Indo-China peninsula. This is the Hinayana division of Buddhism which clings to the early or asocial doctrine. (1038.3) 94:9.5 But even before the collapse in India, the Chinese and north Indian groups of Gautama’s followers had begun the development of the Mahayana teaching of the “Great Road” to salvation in contrast with the purists of the south who held to the Hinayana, or “Lesser Road.” And these Mahayanists cast loose from the social limitations inherent in the Buddhist doctrine, and ever since has this northern division of Buddhism continued to evolve in China and Japan. (1038.4) 94:9.6 Buddhism is a living, growing religion today because it succeeds in conserving many of the highest moral values of its adherents. It promotes calmness and self-control, augments serenity and happiness, and does much to prevent sorrow and mourning. Those who believe this philosophy live better lives than many who do not. 10. Religion in Tibet (1038.5) 94:10.1 In Tibet may be found the strangest association of the Melchizedek teachings combined with Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Christianity. When the Buddhist missionaries entered Tibet, they encountered a state of primitive savagery very similar to that which the early Christian missionaries found among the northern tribes of Europe. (1038.6) 94:10.2 These simple-minded Tibetans would not wholly give up their ancient magic and charms. Examination of the religious ceremonials of present-day Tibetan rituals reveals an overgrown brotherhood of priests with shaven heads who practice an elaborate ritual embracing bells, chants, incense, processionals, rosaries, images, charms, pictures, holy water, gorgeous vestments, and elaborate choirs. They have rigid dogmas and crystallized creeds, mystic rites and special fasts. Their hierarchy embraces monks, nuns, abbots, and the Grand Lama. They pray to angels, saints, a Holy Mother, and the gods. They practice confessions and believe in purgatory. Their monasteries are extensive and their cathedrals magnificent. They keep up an endless repetition of sacred rituals and believe that such ceremonials bestow salvation. Prayers are fastened to a wheel, and with its turning they believe the petitions become efficacious. Among no other people of modern times can be found the observance of so much from so many religions; and it is inevitable that such a cumulative liturgy would become inordinately cumbersome and intolerably burdensome. (1038.7) 94:10.3 The Tibetans have something of all the leading world religions except the simple teachings of the Jesusonian gospel: sonship with God, brotherhood with man, and ever-ascending citizenship in the eternal universe. 11. Buddhist Philosophy (1038.8) 94:11.1 Buddhism entered China in the first millennium after Christ, and it fitted well into the religious customs of the yellow race. In ancestor worship they had long prayed to the dead; now they could also pray for them. Buddhism soon amalgamated with the lingering ritualistic practices of disintegrating Taoism. This new synthetic religion with its temples of worship and definite religious ceremonial soon became the generally accepted cult of the peoples of China, Korea, and Japan. (1039.1) 94:11.2 While in some respects it is unfortunate that Buddhism was not carried to the world until after Gautama’s followers had so perverted the traditions and teachings of the cult as to make of him a divine being, nonetheless this myth of his human life, embellished as it was with a multitude of miracles, proved very appealing to the auditors of the northern or Mahayana gospel of Buddhism. (1039.2) 94:11.3 Some of his later followers taught that Sakyamuni Buddha’s spirit returned periodically to earth as a living Buddha, thus opening the way for an indefinite perpetuation of Buddha images, temples, rituals, and impostor “living Buddhas.” Thus did the religion of the great Indian protestant eventually find itself shackled with those very ceremonial practices and ritualistic incantations against which he had so fearlessly fought, and which he had so valiantly denounced. (1039.3) 94:11.4 The great advance made in Buddhist philosophy consisted in its comprehension of the relativity of all truth. Through the mechanism of this hypothesis Buddhists have been able to reconcile and correlate the divergencies within their own religious scriptures as well as the differences between their own and many others. It was taught that the small truth was for little minds, the large truth for great minds. (1039.4) 94:11.5 This philosophy also held that the Buddha (divine) nature resided in all men; that man, through his own endeavors, could attain to the realization of this inner divinity. And this teaching is one of the clearest presentations of the truth of the indwelling Adjusters ever to be made by a Urantian religion. (1039.5) 94:11.6 But a great limitation in the original gospel of Siddhartha, as it was interpreted by his followers, was that it attempted the complete liberation of the human self from all the limitations of the mortal nature by the technique of isolating the self from objective reality. True cosmic self-realization results from identification with cosmic reality and with the finite cosmos of energy, mind, and spirit, bounded by space and conditioned by time. (1039.6) 94:11.7 But though the ceremonies and outward observances of Buddhism became grossly contaminated with those of the lands to which it traveled, this degeneration was not altogether the case in the philosophical life of the great thinkers who, from time to time, embraced this system of thought and belief. Through more than two thousand years, many of the best minds of Asia have concentrated upon the problem of ascertaining absolute truth and the truth of the Absolute. (1039.7) 94:11.8 The evolution of a high concept of the Absolute was achieved through many channels of thought and by devious paths of reasoning. The upward ascent of this doctrine of infinity was not so clearly defined as was the evolution of the God concept in Hebrew theology. Nevertheless, there were certain broad levels which the minds of the Buddhists reached, tarried upon, and passed through on their way to the envisioning of the Primal Source of universes: (1039.8) 94:11.9 1. The Gautama legend. At the base of the concept was the historic fact of the life and teachings of Siddhartha, the prophet prince of India. This legend grew in myth as it traveled through the centuries and across the broad lands of Asia until it surpassed the status of the idea of Gautama as the enlightened one and began to take on additional attributes. (1040.1) 94:11.10 2. The many Buddhas. It was reasoned that, if Gautama had come to the peoples of India, then, in the remote past and in the remote future, the races of mankind must have been, and undoubtedly would be, blessed with other teachers of truth. This gave rise to the teaching that there were many Buddhas, an unlimited and infinite number, even that anyone could aspire to become one — to attain the divinity of a Buddha. (1040.2) 94:11.11 3. The Absolute Buddha. By the time the number of Buddhas was approaching infinity, it became necessary for the minds of those days to reunify this unwieldy concept. Accordingly it began to be taught that all Buddhas were but the manifestation of some higher essence, some Eternal One of infinite and unqualified existence, some Absolute Source of all reality. From here on, the Deity concept of Buddhism, in its highest form, becomes divorced from the human person of Gautama Siddhartha and casts off from the anthropomorphic limitations which have held it in leash. This final conception of the Buddha Eternal can well be identified as the Absolute, sometimes even as the infinite I AM. (1040.3) 94:11.12 While this idea of Absolute Deity never found great popular favor with the peoples of Asia, it did enable the intellectuals of these lands to unify their philosophy and to harmonize their cosmology. The concept of the Buddha Absolute is at times quasi-personal, at times wholly impersonal — even an infinite creative force. Such concepts, though helpful to philosophy, are not vital to religious development. Even an anthropomorphic Yahweh is of greater religious value than an infinitely remote Absolute of Buddhism or Brahmanism. (1040.4) 94:11.13 At times the Absolute was even thought of as contained within the infinite I AM. But these speculations were chill comfort to the hungry multitudes who craved to hear words of promise, to hear the simple gospel of Salem, that faith in God would assure divine favor and eternal survival. 12. The God Concept of Buddhism (1040.5) 94:12.1 The great weakness in the cosmology of Buddhism was twofold: its contamination with many of the superstitions of India and China and its sublimation of Gautama, first as the enlightened one, and then as the Eternal Buddha. Just as Christianity has suffered from the absorption of much erroneous human philosophy, so does Buddhism bear its human birthmark. But the teachings of Gautama have continued to evolve during the past two and one-half millenniums. The concept of Buddha, to an enlightened Buddhist, is no more the human personality of Gautama than the concept of Jehovah is identical with the spirit demon of Horeb to an enlightened Christian. Paucity of terminology, together with the sentimental retention of olden nomenclature, is often provocative of the failure to understand the true significance of the evolution of religious concepts. (1040.6) 94:12.2 Gradually the concept of God, as contrasted with the Absolute, began to appear in Buddhism. Its sources are back in the early days of this differentiation of the followers of the Lesser Road and the Greater Road. It was among the latter division of Buddhism that the dual conception of God and the Absolute finally matured. Step by step, century by century, the God concept has evolved until, with the teachings of Ryonin, Honen Shonin, and Shinran in Japan, this concept finally came to fruit in the belief in Amida Buddha. (1041.1) 94:12.3 Among these believers it is taught that the soul, upon experiencing death, may elect to enjoy a sojourn in Paradise prior to entering Nirvana, the ultimate of existence. It is proclaimed that this new salvation is attained by faith in the divine mercies and loving care of Amida, God of the Paradise in the west. In their philosophy, the Amidists hold to an Infinite Reality which is beyond all finite mortal comprehension; in their religion, they cling to faith in the all-merciful Amida, who so loves the world that he will not suffer one mortal who calls on his name in true faith and with a pure heart to fail in the attainment of the supernal happiness of Paradise. (1041.2) 94:12.4 The great strength of Buddhism is that its adherents are free to choose truth from all religions; such freedom of choice has seldom characterized a Urantian faith. In this respect the Shin sect of Japan has become one of the most progressive religious groups in the world; it has revived the ancient missionary spirit of Gautama’s followers and has begun to send teachers to other peoples. This willingness to appropriate truth from any and all sources is indeed a commendable tendency to appear among religious believers during the first half of the twentieth century after Christ. (1041.3) 94:12.5 Buddhism itself is undergoing a twentieth-century renaissance. Through contact with Christianity the social aspects of Buddhism have been greatly enhanced. The desire to learn has been rekindled in the hearts of the monk priests of the brotherhood, and the spread of education throughout this faith will be certainly provocative of new advances in religious evolution. (1041.4) 94:12.6 At the time of this writing, much of Asia rests its hope in Buddhism. Will this noble faith, that has so valiantly carried on through the dark ages of the past, once again receive the truth of expanded cosmic realities even as the disciples of the great teacher in India once listened to his proclamation of new truth? Will this ancient faith respond once more to the invigorating stimulus of the presentation of new concepts of God and the Absolute for which it has so long searched? (1041.5) 94:12.7 All Urantia is waiting for the proclamation of the ennobling message of Michael, unencumbered by the accumulated doctrines and dogmas of nineteen centuries of contact with the religions of evolutionary origin. The hour is striking for presenting to Buddhism, to Christianity, to Hinduism, even to the peoples of all faiths, not the gospel about Jesus, but the living, spiritual reality of the gospel of Jesus. (1041.6) 94:12.8 [Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.]