Podcasts about vedic india

A cross-cultural comparison of ancient beliefs about death and the afterlife • Reveals the powerful influence of near-death experiences (NDEs) on the formation of religious beliefs, mystical literature, and ritual practices • Focuses on the afterlife beliefs of five ancient world regions: Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt, Sumer and Old Babylonian Mesopotamia, Vedic India, pre-Buddhist China, and Maya and Aztec Mesoamerica • Shows how the similarities among afterlife beliefs and their correspondences with NDEs reveal that they both stem from universal truths Taking readers on a thought-provoking journey into our ancestors' beliefs about death, dying, and the afterlife, Gregory Shushan, Ph.D., reveals the powerful influence of near-death experiences (NDEs) on religious beliefs and ritual practices throughout human history. Focusing on five ancient world regions in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, and Mesoamerica, Shushan expertly explores each civilization's afterlife beliefs. He explains how each of these civilizations developed independently of one another, yet there is a series of similarities among afterlife beliefs too consistent and specific to be mere coincidence. This leads to the profound implication that afterlife beliefs are not entirely invented by cultures: they also stem from universal truths derived from NDEs. Drawing on anthropology, psychology, and philosophy, the author explores how each civilization interpreted NDEs and how afterlife beliefs develop over time. He also explores the metaphysical implications of his discoveries, including what an actual afterlife would look like. Revealing that NDEs have occurred throughout human history, Shushan shows how they continue to influence our understanding of what lies beyond death to this day.

• Reveals the powerful influence of near-death experiences (NDEs) on the formation of religious beliefs, mystical literature, and ritual practices• Focuses on the afterlife beliefs of five ancient world regions: Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt, Sumer and Old Babylonian Mesopotamia, Vedic India, pre-Buddhist China, and Maya and Aztec Mesoamerica• Shows how the similarities among afterlife beliefs and their correspondences with NDEs reveal that they both stem from universal truthsTaking readers on a thought-provoking journey into our ancestors' beliefs about death, dying, and the afterlife, Gregory Shushan, Ph.D., reveals the powerful influence of near-death experiences (NDEs) on religious beliefs and ritual practices throughout human history. Focusing on five ancient world regions in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, and Mesoamerica, Shushan expertly explores each civilization's afterlife beliefs. He explains how each of these civilizations developed independently of one another, yet there is a series of similarities among afterlife beliefs too consistent and specific to be mere coincidence. This leads to the profound implication that afterlife beliefs are not entirely invented by cultures: they also stem from universal truths derived from NDEs.Drawing on anthropology, psychology, and philosophy, the author explores how each civilization interpreted NDEs and how afterlife beliefs develop over time. He also explores the metaphysical implications of his discoveries, including what an actual afterlife would look like. Revealing that NDEs have occurred throughout human history, Shushan shows how they continue to influence our understanding of what lies beyond death to this day.BioGregory Shushan, Ph.D., is the leading authority on near-death experiences and afterlife beliefs across cultures and throughout history. He is an award-winning author affiliated with Birmingham Newman University, University of Winchester, Marian University, and the Parapsychology Foundation. A former researcher at the University of Oxford and University of Wales, he lives in San Francisco.https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D4MDW98Y/https://www.gregoryshushan.com/(Twitter): @GregoryShushanInstagram Profile: @gregoryshushanFacebook Page: facebook.com/gregoryshushanYouTube Channel: Gregory Shushan https://www.pastliveshypnosis.co.uk/https://www.patreon.com/ourparanormalafterlife

• Reveals the powerful influence of near-death experiences (NDEs) on the formation of religious beliefs, mystical literature, and ritual practices• Focuses on the afterlife beliefs of five ancient world regions: Old and Middle Kingdom Egypt, Sumer and Old Babylonian Mesopotamia, Vedic India, pre-Buddhist China, and Maya and Aztec Mesoamerica• Shows how the similarities among afterlife beliefs and their correspondences with NDEs reveal that they both stem from universal truthsTaking readers on a thought-provoking journey into our ancestors' beliefs about death, dying, and the afterlife, Gregory Shushan, Ph.D., reveals the powerful influence of near-death experiences (NDEs) on religious beliefs and ritual practices throughout human history. Focusing on five ancient world regions in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, and Mesoamerica, Shushan expertly explores each civilization's afterlife beliefs. He explains how each of these civilizations developed independently of one another, yet there is a series of similarities among afterlife beliefs too consistent and specific to be mere coincidence. This leads to the profound implication that afterlife beliefs are not entirely invented by cultures: they also stem from universal truths derived from NDEs.Drawing on anthropology, psychology, and philosophy, the author explores how each civilization interpreted NDEs and how afterlife beliefs develop over time. He also explores the metaphysical implications of his discoveries, including what an actual afterlife would look like. Revealing that NDEs have occurred throughout human history, Shushan shows how they continue to influence our understanding of what lies beyond death to this day.BioGregory Shushan, Ph.D., is the leading authority on near-death experiences and afterlife beliefs across cultures and throughout history. He is an award-winning author affiliated with Birmingham Newman University, University of Winchester, Marian University, and the Parapsychology Foundation. A former researcher at the University of Oxford and University of Wales, he lives in San Francisco.https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D4MDW98Y/https://www.gregoryshushan.com/(Twitter): @GregoryShushanInstagram Profile: @gregoryshushanFacebook Page: facebook.com/gregoryshushanYouTube Channel: Gregory Shushan https://www.pastliveshypnosis.co.uk/https://www.patreon.com/ourparanormalafterlife

Gargi Vachaknavi, an esteemed philosopher and Vedic scholar of ancient India, is celebrated as one of the earliest female intellectuals in recorded history. Known for her profound knowledge of Brahma Vidya, she engaged in rigorous philosophical debates, including a renowned discourse with sage Yajnavalkya on the nature of existence and the ultimate reality. Revered as a Brahmavadini, Gargi contributed significantly to the intellectual and spiritual traditions of Vedic India, inspiring generations with her wisdom and critical thinking.

We welcome back Professor Michael York to discuss Canaanite Gods. This includes the Israelites, Akkadians, Babylonians, and others. Due to proximity, we venture a bit into Sumeria, Egypt, Vedic India and beyond. We even touch upon Hittites, Minoans and Sea Peoples. But it's mostly Yahweh versus Ba'al with a dash of Inanna and Ashura, and other easy to pronounce names. Along the way we discuss soime recurring themes like evil baby eating Gods to matriarchal godheads versus patriarchal godheads. Somewhere along the line, Margorie Taylor Green came up. Oh my! Anyway, you don't want to miss this regional Gods discussion, which had earlier roots and ramifications that continue today.And I wasn't crazy about AI and translation. The Professor found this afterwards  https://www.hellenic.org.au/post/the-babylonian-engine#:~:text=The%20AI%20model%20was%20trained,and%20from%20cuneiform%20symbols%20directly.

You owe this one a listen. In episode 94 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss everything debt, from student loans and bank bailouts to the importance of honoring one's intellectual forebears. Did Shakespeare's Antonio really pay Shylock with “a pound of flesh”? Why does Nietzsche say that the Christian God is a creditor of infinite debt? Who really benefits from bailouts under capitalism today? And might it be time to bring back good old “jubilees,” i.e., sanctioned acts of collective debt cancellation? As they talk through these questions, your hosts explore how debt has structured social, family, and religious bonds across history, from Vedic India, to Plato's Athens, and how the notion of being “indebted” to one's cultural past conditions the experience of immigrants in America today.Check out the episode's extended cut here!Works DiscussedLauren Berlant, Cruel OptimismJeffery R. Di Leo, "Corporate Humanities in Higher Education"David Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 YearsCathy Park Hong, Minor FeelingsGeoffery Ingham, The Nature of MoneyNietzsche, The Genealogy of MoralsPlato, RepublicShakespeare, The Merchant of VeniceShatapatha BrahmanaAdam Smith, The Wealth of NationsHEROES actPatreon | patreon.com/overthinkpodcast Website | overthinkpodcast.comInstagram & Twitter | @overthink_podEmail |  Dearoverthink@gmail.comYouTube | Overthink podcastSupport the show

May 8, 2020 #Yogananda #KriyaYoga #unconditionalloveIn the SRF inspirational service “God's Nature in the Mother,” SRF nun Sister Draupadi discusses the Mother aspect of the Divine, and explains that by applying Paramahansa Yogananda's teachings, we help our families live in a higher age of understanding and spiritual balance. She further affirms that as parents deepen their own relationship with God, they also guide the lives of children with ever-increasing love and acceptance. At the beginning of this service given at the SRF International Headquarters in Los Angeles, Sister Draupadi reads from the “Second Coming of Christ” and “God Talks With Arjuna,” Paramahansa Yogananda's commentaries on the New Testament and the Bhagavad Gita, respectively. After describing the ennobling instruction given to children before they entered householder life in the Golden Age of ancient India, she points out that we are truly blessed in our present time to have the Kriya Yoga teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda — which we can apply in our lives in order to live in a higher age, right now. “All of us who have embraced Paramahansa Yogananda's teachings are actually following the teachings of Vedic India,” Sister Draupadi affirms. She conducts a period of divine communion and guided meditation, which includes a chant to God as Divine Mother, from Paramahansaji's book of chants, “Cosmic Chants”: “Engrossed is the bee of my mind On the blue lotus feet of my Divine Mother. Divine Mother, my Divine Mother!” To learn how to practice the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons—which include the advanced techniques of meditation, including Kriya Yoga, and instruction on balanced spiritual living as taught by Paramahansa Yogananda: https://yogananda.org/lessons To read the book Mejda, the account of the early years of Paramahansa Yogananda written by his brother Sananda Lal Ghosh: https://bookstore.yogananda-srf.org/p... To purchase the ebook of God Talks With Arjuna, Yogananda's translations and commentary on the Bhagavad Gita: https://bookstore.yogananda-srf.org/p...#Yogananda#KriyaYoga#DivineMother#spiritualparenting#unconditionallove

Michael Salla: Extraterrestrial Life & Technology in Vedic India and its relevance today (720p)

Come Carpentier is an international relations author and researcher who has spent 50 years traveling to, and living in, Delhi, India, and has become an expert on ancient Vedic texts, philosophy, and culture. In addition, he is familiar with the history of Eurasia and the many wars between competing civilizations. In his second Exopolitics Today interview, Carpentier answers questions about what ancient Vedic texts tell us about the different ages of humanity; celestial wars impacting humanity; flying cities and their connection to extraterrestrial motherships; extraterrestrial life and technology; hybrid warriors or supersoldiers; and the legendary Rishi Kings and their connection to Ascended Masters. Finally, he discusses how ancient Vedic texts are being increasingly studied today by Indian scientists who are interested in reverse engineering the technologies the texts describe for India's moern space program. Come Carpentier's website is: https://comecarpentier.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/exopolitics/support

Ian FergusonIan has spent the majority of his life seeking truth both within and without. At age 24 he began a 20-year journey into the depths of his spiritual nature. In the mid 2000's Ian apprenticed with a Siberian shaman whose line came from Kamchatka. Though brief, this apprenticeship activated Ian psychically and marked an acceleration of his spiritual journey. This culminated in rediscovering the arte of Jyotish, "The Science of Light," also known as Vedic Astrology. Ian has since realized that the deep resonance he feels with Jyotish is due to many past lives as an Astrologer in Vedic India. A few years ago, Ian began his journey into the Celestial current of the Most High via his exploration of Angelic Magick. Over the course of two years of intense ritual workings, Ian made his way through the nine choirs and three celestial angelic spheres and currently he works with the Seraphim. This portion of his spiritual journey has in turn led to an increase in his already very strong psychic gifts. Now Ian uses these gifts and skills to help guide others as we traverse the storm-swept seas of Late Kali Yuga.I was first introduced to Ian through the Aquarian High Council - he was one of the featured presenters at the summit. He has a fascinating perspective on these times, informed by his in-depth astrological and historical research, as well as his psychic perception.Our conversation went longer than usual - he had a lot to share! In our two-hour, wide-ranging conversation, we covered:* Ian's personal journey from Muggle to Magician;* How angels helped Ian heal from trauma and break a 30-year addiction;* The intensity of karmic clearing at the end of the Kali Yuga – a different kind of “Great Reset”;* Moloch as the presiding deity of the Kali Yuga – and how trauma keeps us stuck in Molochian consciousness;* What the coming Luciferian Age will look like – “Renaissance Florence with free energy” – and the eventual Golden Age;* The rising chaos of the next two years before the closing of the Kali Yuga in 2025;* Predictions for the future that Ian received from the Angels;* And much more!Find out about Ian's astrology readings, spritual consultations and Magick classes at: WhiteLotusofLight.comIan's YouTube channel This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit embodiedaquarian.substack.com

मंडळी, आज आपल्याकडे इंडोलॉजीस्ट सानिया माने आल्या आहेत. त्या कम्युनिकेशन स्किल मध्ये सर्टिफाइड ट्रेनर आहेत!पधिल हेरिटेज टुरिझम च्या संस्थापिका आणि संचालिका आहेत!'अखंड भारत'या त्यांच्या नवीन संकल्पनेविषयी आपण त्यांच्याशी गप्पा मारूया:Dr. Rajiv and Manik Deshmukh welcome Indologist Saniya Mane on Marathi Khidkitun. She is the host of our new podcast, Akhanda Bharat- Stories of a Greater India streaming on IVM Podcasts. It takes us back in time narrating and analyzing stories of Vedic India. Follow Saniya Mane on Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/saniyamane/You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: IVM Podcasts - Apps on Google Play or iOS: ‎IVM Podcasts, or any other podcast app.You can check out our website at https://shows.ivmpodcasts.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of The Oxbow a Benegal Spice cinnamon tea teabag is the mailed-in suggestion. This ends up being a springboard for sourcing good spices, reflecting on offerings to the divine in texts like the Hymns of Orpheus and the Bible. And then the great tale of the emergence Sri NarasimhaDev, the lion man god of Vedic India somehow all comes up. Who is the animal that invokes the divine and summons culture? Some wonderings today at The Oxbow.

Dena Merriam, the founder of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, shares her third book, When the Bright Moon Rises: The Awakening of Ancient Memories. Dena shares a rich and extensive story of her past lives that begins in Vedic India around the 9th century B.C.E. A sweeping story of love and compassion and living with grace and inner peace.

The Season 3 premiere for Echoes of India returns us to the vibrant world of ancient India. We'll meet the strange mix of peoples who together made the early cities of the Gangetic Plains, and set the stage for the extraordinary life which we'll follow this season: that of Siddhartha Gautama, also known as the Buddha, one of the most important figures in the history of South Asia.Notes and sources will be available at https://www.anirudhkanisetti.com - sign up for updates!Follow Anirudh on Instagram @aniryuddha, @cholabhaturaempire, or @connectedhistories for even more irreverent, well-researched stories from South Asia's incredible history.You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/

When the Bright Moon Rises is first and foremost a love story: love between the sages and the cosmic forces known as the deities, love of the sages for the people, and love between individuals seeking to express this universal force of love that exist within all of us. It is also a study of karma, the cosmic law of cause and effect. This narrative begins in Vedic India, around the 9th century BCE, with the meeting of two people and the seeding of a love that cannot be fulfilled but which comes to fruition nearly 10,000 years later during the Tang Empire in China, where they are reborn as the renown poet Li Bai and his poet wife. The awakening of her memories of previous births initiates an inner struggle that is only resolved under the guidance of her Daoist Master. This is her story. Dena is an author, storyteller, and the founder and convener of the Global Peace Initiative of Women.  Bringing spiritual resources to address critical global challenges, such as conflict, social justice, and ecological scarring of the earth.  Over the years sshe has worked to bring greater gender balance and balance between the Abrahamic and Dharma- based religious traditions for a more inclusive interfaith movement.

When the Bright Moon Rises is first and foremost a love story: love between the sages and the cosmic forces known as the deities, love of the sages for the people, and love between individuals seeking to express this universal force of love that exist within all of us. It is also a study of karma, the cosmic law of cause and effect. This narrative begins in Vedic India, around the 9th century BCE, with the meeting of two people and the seeding of a love that cannot be fulfilled but which comes to fruition nearly 10,000 years later during the Tang Empire in China, where they are reborn as the renown poet Li Bai and his poet wife. The awakening of her memories of previous births initiates an inner struggle that is only resolved under the guidance of her Daoist Master. This is her story.Dena is an author, storyteller, and the founder and convener of the Global Peace Initiative of Women.  Bringing spiritual resources to address critical global challenges, such as conflict, social justice, and ecological scarring of the earth.  Over the years sshe has worked to bring greater gender balance and balance between the Abrahamic and Dharma- based religious traditions for a more inclusive interfaith movement.

When the Bright Moon Rises is first and foremost a love story: love between the sages and the cosmic forces known as the deities, love of the sages for the people, and love between individuals seeking to express this universal force of love that exist within all of us. It is also a study of karma, the cosmic law of cause and effect. This narrative begins in Vedic India, around the 9th century BCE, with the meeting of two people and the seeding of a love that cannot be fulfilled but which comes to fruition nearly 10,000 years later during the Tang Empire in China, where they are reborn as the renown poet Li Bai and his poet wife. The awakening of her memories of previous births initiates an inner struggle that is only resolved under the guidance of her Daoist Master. This is her story. Dena is an author, storyteller, and the founder and convener of the Global Peace Initiative of Women.  Bringing spiritual resources to address critical global challenges, such as conflict, social justice, and ecological scarring of the earth.  Over the years sshe has worked to bring greater gender balance and balance between the Abrahamic and Dharma- based religious traditions for a more inclusive interfaith movement.

On this episode, Laura Chandler is joined by writer, activist, and Founder of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, Dena Merriam, to talk about her latest book, When the Bright Moon Rises: The Awakening of Ancient Memories. The book spans several periods from Vedic India to the Han and Tang Dynasties of China. It is an eloquent testimony to the evolution of a soul and the lessons learned over lifetimes. Dena and Laura discuss the remarkable awakening that was the impetus for writing the book, as well as the significance of the times we are living in and the part past lives play in understanding our current life. Dena is the author of two other books, The Untold Story of Sita: An Empowering Tale for Our Time and My Journey Through Time. In addition to being the Founder of the Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW), Dena was the Vice Chair of the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders held at the United Nations in New York in the year 2000. She is a long time practitioner of Kriya Yoga meditation and a devotee of the spiritual master Yogananda for over 40 years. She received her master's degree from Columbia University in sacred literature, and has served on the boards of many prestigious organizations, including the Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions and the Interfaith Center of New York. Our featured music is from Rajeev Taranath, one of India's foremost classical musicians, and a master of the sarod. His career spans over four decades and he was a distinguished disciple of the late legendary maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Rajeev has received many honors including India's highest government award in the arts, the esteemed Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2000.

When the Bright Moon Rises: The Awakening of Ancient Memories is Dena Merriam’s rich and extensive story of her past lives. This, her third book is a love story between the sages and the cosmic forces known as the deities, love of the sages and of the people, and love between individuals seeking to express this universal force of love that exists within us all. It is a study of karma, the cosmic law of cause and effect. Dena’s weaves her story through her life that begins in Vedic India around the 9th century BCE when two people meet and the seeding of a love that cannot be fulfilled then but comes to fruition nearly 10,000 years later during the Tang Empire in china when they are reborn as the poet Li Bai and his poet wife. The awakening of her previous births initiates an inner struggle that is only resolved under the guidance of her Daoist Master. This is the story of love and compassion, trust, truth, living with grace and inner peace. This is her story. Dena is an author, storyteller and the Founder and Convener of the Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW), which seeks to bring spiritual resources to address critical global challenges, such as conflict, social justice, and ecological scarring of the earth. Over the years she has worked to bring greater gender balance and between the Abrahamic and Dharma-based religious traditions for a more inclusive interfaith movement. Merriam served as Vice Chair of the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and convened a meeting of women religious and spiritual leaders at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, and from that gathering founded the Global Peace Initiative of women in 2002. Among GPIW’s many programs is the organization of a session on the inner dimensions of climate change as the annual UN Climate Summits. In 2008, Merriam was one of the founding members of the Contemplative Alliance, which later became a program of GPIW and which explores hoe meditation and contemplative practices are reshaping the spiritual landscape our societies. For over 40 years, Dena has been a devotee of Paramahansa Yogananda, a practitioner of Kriya Yoga meditation, and a student of the great texts of the Vedic tradition. Merriam received her MA from Columbia University in Sacred Literature. She has served on the boards of the Harvard Center of Study of World Religions, he Interfaith Center of New York, The International Center for Religion and Diplomacy, Manitou Foundation, All India Movement for Seva (AIM for Seva), the Gross National Happiness Center in Bhutan and as an advisor to the board of Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association. In 2014 she received the Niwano Peace Prize for her interfaith peace efforts. She is the author of My Journey through Time: A Spiritual Memoir of Life, Death and Rebirth and The Untold Story of Sita: An Empowering Tale for our Time. She is currently working on a book entitled Rukmini & the Turning of Time: The Birth of an Era expected release in 2021. Find out more about Dena Merriam at http://www.gpiw.org/

When the Bright Moon Rises: The Awakening of Ancient Memories is Dena Merriam's rich and extensive story of her past lives. This, her third book is a love story between the sages and the cosmic forces known as the deities, love of the sages and of the people, and love between individuals seeking to express this universal force of love that exists within us all. It is a study of karma, the cosmic law of cause and effect. Dena's weaves her story through her life that begins in Vedic India around the 9th century BCE when two people meet and the seeding of a love that cannot be fulfilled then but comes to fruition nearly 10,000 years later during the Tang Empire in china when they are reborn as the poet Li Bai and his poet wife. The awakening of her previous births initiates an inner struggle that is only resolved under the guidance of her Daoist Master. This is the story of love and compassion, trust, truth, living with grace and inner peace. This is her story. Dena is an author, storyteller and the Founder and Convener of the Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW), which seeks to bring spiritual resources to address critical global challenges, such as conflict, social justice, and ecological scarring of the earth. Over the years she has worked to bring greater gender balance and between the Abrahamic and Dharma-based religious traditions for a more inclusive interfaith movement. Merriam served as Vice Chair of the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and convened a meeting of women religious and spiritual leaders at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, and from that gathering founded the Global Peace Initiative of women in 2002. Among GPIW's many programs is the organization of a session on the inner dimensions of climate change as the annual UN Climate Summits. In 2008, Merriam was one of the founding members of the Contemplative Alliance, which later became a program of GPIW and which explores hoe meditation and contemplative practices are reshaping the spiritual landscape our societies. For over 40 years, Dena has been a devotee of Paramahansa Yogananda, a practitioner of Kriya Yoga meditation, and a student of the great texts of the Vedic tradition. Merriam received her MA from Columbia University in Sacred Literature. She has served on the boards of the Harvard Center of Study of World Religions, he Interfaith Center of New York, The International Center for Religion and Diplomacy, Manitou Foundation, All India Movement for Seva (AIM for Seva), the Gross National Happiness Center in Bhutan and as an advisor to the board of Dharma Drum Mountain Buddhist Association. In 2014 she received the Niwano Peace Prize for her interfaith peace efforts. She is the author of My Journey through Time: A Spiritual Memoir of Life, Death and Rebirth and The Untold Story of Sita: An Empowering Tale for our Time. She is currently working on a book entitled Rukmini & the Turning of Time: The Birth of an Era expected release in 2021. Find out more about Dena Merriam at http://www.gpiw.org/

When The Bright Moon Rises: The Awakening Of Ancient Memories with Dena Merriam When the Bright Moon Rises is first and foremost a love story: love between the sages and the cosmic forces known as the deities, love of the sages for the people, and love between individuals seeking to express this universal force of love that exists within all of us. It is also a study of karma, the cosmic law of cause and effect. This narrative begins in Vedic India, around the 9th century BCE, with the meeting of two people and the seeding of a love that cannot be fulfilled but which comes to fruition nearly 10,000 years later during the Tang Empire in China, where they are reborn as the renown poet Li Bai and his poet wife. The awakening of her memories of previous births initiates an inner struggle that is only resolved under the guidance of her Daoist Master. This is her story. For more info. visit: Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW: www.gpiw.org)  ************************************************************** For more information about BITEradio products and services visit: www.BITEradio.me See the photography of Robert Sharpe at rpsharpe.picfair.com

In this podcast I interview Steve Briggs, yogi and author of India Mirror of Truth, A Seven Year Pilgrimage, a memoir about his time in India. This interview includes: ▶︎ Steve's extraordinary encounters with Indian holy men. ▶︎ His reflections on the current world situation, pandemic, politics etc. ▶︎ The importance of breath ▶︎ Steve's personal connection with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi ▶︎ The importance of gratitude and passion for success in life About Steve Briggs As a teenager, Steve Briggs met his guru at a meditation retreat in the Swiss Alps. After studying English Literature at the University of Arizona on an athletic scholarship, the author received an MBA and a Ph.D. in Vedic Studies, and traveled internationally instructing thousands in the art of meditation. Sent to India by his guru, the author embarked on a seven-year odyssey taking him from Cape Comorin in the south to the high Tibetan plateau. Along the way, he initiated India's government and corporate leaders into meditation, encountered saints and sadhus, and astrologers and artists. He sipped yak butter tea with lamas at windswept Tibetan monasteries and hiked the paths of Vedic India's time-honored pilgrimages. Website: www.stevebriggsauthor.com Email: sbriggs108@yahoo.com

Examines how the similarities of symbols and wisdom across many cultures point to an ancient civilizing plan and system of ancient instruction• Reveals the shared cosmological knowledge of Dogon and Maori cultures, ancient Egypt, Gobekli Tepe, Vedic India, the pre-Indian Sakti civilization, Buddhism, the Tibetan Bon religion, and the kabbalistic tradition of the Hebrews• Explores symbols and techniques used to frame and preserve instructed knowledge as it was transmitted orally from generation to generation• Explains how this shared ancient knowledge relates to the precessional year and the cycles of time known as the yugasExploring the mystery of why so many ancient cultures, separated by time and distance, share remarkably similar cosmological philosophies and religious symbolism, Laird Scranton reveals how this shared creation tradition upholds the idea that ancient instruction gave birth to the great civilizations, each of which preserves fragments of the original knowledge.Looking at the many manifestations of this shared cosmological knowledge, including in the Dogon and Maori cultures and in ancient Egypt, Gobekli Tepe, Vedic India, Buddhism, the Tibetan Bon religion, and the kabbalistic tradition of the Hebrews, Scranton explores the thought processes that went into formulating the archetype themes and metaphors of the ancient symbolic system. He examines how commonly shared principles of creational science are reflected in key terms of the ancient languages. He discusses how the primal cosmology also transmitted key components of sacred science, such as sacred geometry, knowledge of material creation, and the nature of a nonmaterial universe--evidence for which lies in the orientation of ancient temples, the drama of initiations and rituals, and countless traditional myths. He analyzes how this shared knowledge relates to the precessional year and the cycles of time known as the yugas. He also explores evidence of the concept of a nonmaterial twin universe to our own--the “above” to our “below” in the famous alchemical and hermetic maxim.Through his extensive research into the interconnected wisdom of the ancients, Scranton shows that the forgotten instructional tradition at the source of this knowledge was deliberately encoded to survive for countless generations. By piecing it back together, we can discover the ancient plan for guiding humanity forward toward greater enlightenment.Laird Scranton is the author of a series of books on ancient cosmology and language, including The Science of the Dogon and Point of Origin. He has presented at conferences throughout the United States and is a frequent guest on radio shows such as Coast to Coast AM, Fade to Black, and Midnight in the Desert. He lives in Albany, New York.

Exploring the mystery of why so many ancient cultures, separated by time and distance, share remarkably similar cosmological philosophies and religious symbolism, Laird Scranton reveals how this shared creation tradition upholds the idea that ancient instruction gave birth to the great civilizations, each of which preserves fragments of the original knowledge. Looking at the many manifestations of this shared cosmological knowledge, including in the Dogon and Maori cultures and in ancient Egypt, Gobekli Tepe, Vedic India, Buddhism, the Tibetan Bon religion, and the kabbalistic tradition of the Hebrews, Scranton explores the thought processes that went into formulating the archetype themes and metaphors of the ancient symbolic system. He examines how commonly shared principles of creational science are reflected in key terms of the ancient languages. He discusses how the primal cosmology also transmitted key components of sacred science, such as sacred geometry, knowledge of material creation, and the nature of a nonmaterial universe--evidence for which lies in the orientation of ancient temples, the drama of initiations and rituals, and countless traditional myths. He analyzes how this shared knowledge relates to the processional year and the cycles of time known as the yugas. He also explores evidence of the concept of a non-material twin universe to our own--the “above” to our “below” in the famous alchemical and hermetic maxim. Through his extensive research into the interconnected wisdom of the ancients, Scranton shows that the forgotten instructional tradition at the source of this knowledge was deliberately encoded to survive for countless generations. By piecing it back together, we can discover the ancient plan for guiding humanity forward toward greater enlightenment.

Exploring the mystery of why so many ancient cultures, separated by time and distance, share remarkably similar cosmological philosophies and religious symbolism, Laird Scranton reveals how this shared creation tradition upholds the idea that ancient instruction gave birth to the great civilizations, each of which preserves fragments of the original knowledge. Looking at the many manifestations of this shared cosmological knowledge, including in the Dogon and Maori cultures and in ancient Egypt, Gobekli Tepe, Vedic India, Buddhism, the Tibetan Bon religion, and the kabbalistic tradition of the Hebrews, Scranton explores the thought processes that went into formulating the archetype themes and metaphors of the ancient symbolic system. He examines how commonly shared principles of creational science are reflected in key terms of the ancient languages. He discusses how the primal cosmology also transmitted key components of sacred science, such as sacred geometry, knowledge of material creation, and the nature of a nonmaterial universe--evidence for which lies in the orientation of ancient temples, the drama of initiations and rituals, and countless traditional myths. He analyzes how this shared knowledge relates to the precessional year and the cycles of time known as the yugas. He also explores evidence of the concept of a nonmaterial twin universe to our own--the “above” to our “below” in the famous alchemical and hermetic maxim. Through his extensive research into the interconnected wisdom of the ancients, Scranton shows that the forgotten instructional tradition at the source of this knowledge was deliberately encoded to survive for countless generations. By piecing it back together, we can discover the ancient plan for guiding humanity forward toward greater enlightenment.

Exploring the mystery of why so many ancient cultures, separated by time and distance, share remarkably similar cosmological philosophies and religious symbolism, Laird Scranton reveals how this shared creation tradition upholds the idea that ancient instruction gave birth to the great civilizations, each of which preserves fragments of the original knowledge.Looking at the many manifestations of this shared cosmological knowledge, including in the Dogon and Maori cultures and in ancient Egypt, Gobekli Tepe, Vedic India, Buddhism, the Tibetan Bon religion, and the kabbalistic tradition of the Hebrews, Scranton explores the thought processes that went into formulating the archetype themes and metaphors of the ancient symbolic system. He examines how commonly shared principles of creational science are reflected in key terms of the ancient languages. He discusses how the primal cosmology also transmitted key components of sacred science, such as sacred geometry, knowledge of material creation, and the nature of a nonmaterial universe--evidence for which lies in the orientation of ancient temples, the drama of initiations and rituals, and countless traditional myths. He analyzes how this shared knowledge relates to the processional year and the cycles of time known as the yugas. He also explores evidence of the concept of a non-material twin universe to our own--the “above” to our “below” in the famous alchemical and hermetic maxim.Through his extensive research into the interconnected wisdom of the ancients, Scranton shows that the forgotten instructional tradition at the source of this knowledge was deliberately encoded to survive for countless generations. By piecing it back together, we can discover the ancient plan for guiding humanity forward toward greater enlightenment.

Many kids are going through an unprecedented time of their life, many of them are away from their homes, studying remotely and facing adversities. In these times it is important to take a glimpse into the rich history of Vedic India.

Most histories of post-Vedic India start with Alexander the Great and then start with the story of North India under the Mauryas. But this story stays with Alexander's army. This episode explores the North-West of the Indian subcontinent, where South Asia meets Central Asia and West Asia - the region of Gandhara, the melting pot of the ancient world, where Indo-Greeks worshipped Greco-Indian gods. In the inaugural episode of Echoes of India, host Anirudh Kanisetti introduces us to Ancient India with a twist - hear the battles of Alexander, the debates of Buddhist monks, and a Sanskrit drama as we explore the genesis of Indian pluralism in the early centuries BCE. If you have questions for Anirudh, follow him on Twitter @AKanisetti or on Instagram @aniruddhadevaraya Notes, sources, credits and a transcript of the episode can be found at https://www.anirudhkanisetti.com/home/episode-1

The Fifth of “7 Ways to take a Deep Breath”: We Give and Receive with an Open Hand   Have you ever noticed that we both give and receive with an open hand?  This is the fifth of "7 Ways to Take a Deep Breath". I'm Adela, and this is "Just Breathe.... You Are Enough".  Together we will deepen our connection with ourselves, strengthen our relations with others, and to re-think together how we connect with our world. Thank you for joining us for the fifth of  “7 Ways to Take a Deep Breath” as we explore together the practice of gratitude. In my role as a scholar, my area of research is the oldest Sanskrit text of the Indian subcontinent. It dates from 1500 "before the common era",  or 1500 BC. This begins the time period in Indian history, called Vedic India.  It spans the thousand years from 1500 BCE to 500 BCE, which is the lifetime of the Buddha.   During this thousand years, India will go through its earliest phases of shaping their view of the  world.  The mindfulness practices of Buddhist and other Indian traditions, including yoga practice, develop as a consequence of that worldview.  Perhaps the most basic plea in this ancient, mystical, visionary poetry is the wish of the human addressing the god saying, "Please receive what it is that I have to give, and then please give me that which I need to be able to continue to give." "Please receive from me the offering that I make at the ritual. Please receive from me my songs and hymns of praise.  Then please allow me to receive:   vitality, wealth, children, safety, shelter, long life, everything that I need to be able to continue to give. It's a cyclical process of giving and receiving.  The place where these two meet is an open hand. Please receive what I have to give. Please allow me to receive what I need to be able to continue to give. There is, for these old poets, the understanding that often what we are looking for we already have. We can notice that because we, as humans, participate in a cycle of a giving and receiving, of offering and having, a coming and going. The open hand – which permits us to receive and to give – is trained through the practice of generosity. Generosity is the first of the Buddhist "paramitas", or transcendent actions.  The word in Tibetan is “jinpa”:  it is a common Tibetan Buddhist monastic name. In the Vedic, or ancient Indian period, they would say that we as humans are born with debt, "I am born with: a debt to the gods to give offerings; a debt to ancient visionaries to learn sacred knowledge; a debt to the ancestors to have children; and a debt to my fellow humans to offer hospitality, or generosity.” The defining quality of our humanity, as described in many of these old stories, is that only humans are able to give and also to be that which is given. So, we train in generosity.  In one old Buddhist practice, you put a stone in one hand, and you open the palm of the other hand. Then,  you gently toss the stone from one hand to the other, from one hand to the other. Can you receive? Can you let go? Can you receive? Can you let go? Another the way to practice generosity - this opening of how to give and how to receive - is to increase our awareness for the gratitude we feel for what we already have.  This practice of gratitude increases our sense of delight, well-being, and prosperity. It can include gratitude for material things, and also for things that don't have a physical form.  I take great delight, for example, in beauty. The fifth of “7 Ways to Take a Deep Breath” is to engage in the practice of gratitude. Can we appreciate what we have that increases our sense of joyfulness? Can we notice what we have that makes us feel content and fulfilled?   It can include – but it doesn't have to be - the big stuff.   So what am I grateful for today?   I just had a wonderful conversation with a work colleague. I'm so grateful to be working with her. I'm so happy for the flowers on my deck this summer. I am grateful for the amazing colors Canadian leaves as we turn the seasons towards fall.  I am grateful for the opportunity to connect with you by means of our conversations together. I could make a longer list, but four is a very good place to start.  That is the invitation here.  If you wish, when you're ready, if you like, you could experiment. Is it an open note file on your cell phone. Maybe it’s sending an email to yourself.  Maybe you would like to pick a time in the day to do that:  before you break for lunch; while you drink your first coffee.    Find some tremendously convenient way where you can write down 4 things that you are grateful for as a daily self-care practice. Maybe it's on the back pages of the doodle pad that you have when you sit inside of meetings.  Maybe it's a page in the back of that school notebook where you can write something when your teachers are boring. Write down four things that I'm grateful for today, and do the same thing tomorrow, and the same thing tomorrow, and the same thing tomorrow. Part of what happens when we create increase our ability to be grateful is that we begin to open more fully to participate in the recycle of receiving and giving.   We tune our antenna to the inherent abundance of life itself. We can open even further – further relax that open palm - when we appreciate what it is that we have.  Only humans can give and also be that which is given. The quality of the relationship that you have with the outside world directly relates to the quality of relationship you have with yourself.  For a free list of the full menu of “7 Ways to Take a Deep Breath”, come see us at “justbreatheyouareenough.com”. I'm Adela, and you've been listening to Just Breathe....You Are Enough™.  You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. If you haven't yet, please subscribe, rate and review this podcast. Join us next time, and thank you for listening.  Copyright © 2018, Adela Sandness  

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.]