NATURE OF FOREVER

Immortality, according to Vedanta, is not a continuity of existence in time, since it is beyond time, space, and causation, but is a superconscious state that occurs when the individual soul, the Atman, awakens into its source, the Godhead, Brahman.

Nothing of the egoic, empirical self, of the "earth suit" as Aja Thomas, a Vedic priest, calls it, enters eternity.  We don't have to worry about "What will I do with all that time?" or "Will I see my aunt Tilly?" or even "Will I know God there?"  No "I" survives to face such matters.

It is the Atman that carries over, and the Atman is not an individual but consciousness, a consciousness that has no personality.  It is awareness only.  Watching, witnessing, is all the Atman does.

At the same time, it is spirit, which is infinite bliss, joy, and peace, qualities which after all draw us to it, which make us want to meditate upon it and to help it realize its destiny, which is immortality.

WE ARE ALL MISFITS

There are people who start out doing one thing in life only to find that it's something else that is really their calling.  Until they yield to this calling, they feel like, and are, misfits.

We all have an inner voice calling to us.  Due to all the commotion in our lives, however, all the people, things, and events pulling at us from every direction, we can't or won't hear it.

Eventually, though, we have a revelation.  It may come while we are watching the sun descend in an autumn sky or while pondering the sea lapping at a rocky shore, or even while just standing on a street corner. 

We see now that what we have been doing with our lives is false, that we have missed the mark, and that we'd better rethink this whole thing.

This is because the purpose of human life is spiritual awakening.  Everything other than this is ultimately unsatisfying.  The problem is that we are looking in the wrong place for fulfillment.  We are listening to the wrong voice.

AFTEREFFECT

When you have fulfilled your destiny spiritually, when you have awakened, you find suddenly an increased awareness of time passing, which has an ominous feel to it.  Every sunrise feels now like the last one, every sunset the final one too. 

As well, time passes faster seemingly, in a time compression.  You feel like you are on a train that is speeding ever faster down the track, and it is heading straight for a precipice, a drop off in the dark distance which looks to be upon you in another hour, or is it in another minute?  The train's fate is your fate.

Alas, though, you are not going to go over that precipice because you are already over it.  You are not your mind any longer.

BEYOND THE WEB

There is something else going on here, beyond the web of seeming, beyond appearances.  It is happening behind the scenes where we cannot see it.

This something is a grand expansion, in the same way that the universe is expanding grandly, to a greater and greater presence.

Yet it is more than just presence.  It is Presence.

This Presence has a purpose, contrary to those who insist that nothing here has a purpose.

A microcosm of this is the journey of the Atman through many lifetimes to its destiny, which is to awaken into its source, which is this selfsame Presence.

Presence itself, in its expansion, is an awakening, which is its purpose.

SIGN OF THE TIMES

The University of Southern California has just reported that it has received a $3.24 million gift from the Dharma Civilization Foundation to create the first chairs of Hindu studies in the United States.

The Los Angeles-based Dharma Civilization Foundation promotes study of the Dharmic religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism.

The USC School of Religion will use the funds to establish two new positions, the Swami Vivekananda Visiting Faculty in Hindu Studies, and the Dharma Civilization Foundation Chair in Hindu Studies.

Already, the USC Dean of Religious Life is the nation's first university chaplain from a Hindu background, and the Chair of USC School of Religion is an ordained Buddhist priest.

ALL YOU EVER HAVE

All you ever have is Now, one breath, one heartbeat at a time.

There is not past. “Bring out the past and show it to me,” the Buddha said.  All there is, is memory.

There is no future. “Bring out the future and show it to me,” the Buddha said.  All there is, is anticipation, planning, expectation.

The present moment is all there is.  Remembering the past and planning for the future are done now, in the present.

“All we have is now,” Marcus Aurelius reminds us.

In his book The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle writes, "Realize deeply that the present moment is all that you ever have.  Make the Now the primary focus of your life."

Alan Watts said, “There’s no place to be but here and now. There’s no way to be anywhere else.” Watts added, “Interestingly, time is moving, yet there is only now.”

WHAT YOU ARE NOT

You are not your body.  As long as you identify with your body, you can never be content.  How can you be?  The body is in a constant state of change so therefore is not one thing.  Forever, until it perishes, it is many things happening all at once.  It can't be pinned down.

Western religions believe that you ARE the body. This is among the reasons behind burial.  You need your body in the resurrection.  This, of course, is absurd, for when you die your body turns to dust.  A lot of good dust will do you in the afterlife.

You body, if anything, is a possession.   "I have a body," you say.  We are aware of our body, as when we feel well and when we feel poorly.

A saying these days is, "we are not a physical person having a spiritual experience, but rather a spiritual being having a material experience."  In Vedanta temples, students hear again and again, every day, "You are NOT the body, you are Spirit," a message that works its way into their consciousness until, in time and in some way, they know it to be true.  This is where spiritual life really begins, actually.

After a person has heard this message enough and has absorbed it, then he must make it a living reality. He does this by consistently inquiring, "Am I this body? What is this 'I AM'?"  One normally is fully aware OF his body, his senses, and his mind, but then he has to turn this awareness around to that which IS awareness.  A person has to be Aware of Awareness itself, in other words. This is what Ramana Maharshi referred to as abiding in the Self, which is pure consciousness. 

Our time here is limited.  Not one moment of it can be bought back, not for millions, billions, or trillions of dollars. Why waste the time we have here in believing we are our body, and trying to satisfy our senses, which, after all, even the most common animal can do.  Better to do that which only the human being (the homo sapien--man who knows he knows) can do.  Don't be what you are not but what you are.

(Vedic priest Aja Thomas was the source in part of this posting.)

SWAMIJI AND MAHARAJ

Vivekananda and Brahmananda, or "Swamiji" and "Maharaj," as they were known more familiarly, were the natural leaders of the Ramakrishna Order of Vedanta, the organization that formed soon after the death of Ramakrishna.  Both were at this time twenty-three years old and had been friends since early boyhood.

Vivekananda, handsome and athletic, embodied physical and intellectual energy.  He was impulsive, ardent, sceptical, and impatient of all hypocrisy, conservatism, or sloth.  Vedanta had not come to him easily.  Questioning Ramakrishna at every step, he accepted nothing on trust, without the test of personal experience. 

Vivekananda was well-read in western philosophy and science, and was inspired by the doctrines of Keshab Sen,  a westernized Bengali reformer who lived between 1834 and 1884.  Vivekananda brought to his religious life that most valuable quality:  intellectual doubt.  If he had never visited Ramakrishna at the temples at Dakshineswar, he might well have become one of India's foremost national leaders.

Brahmananda was a more mysterious figure, whom few knew intimately, and those few confessed to how little they knew of him.  Still, he was a very great mystic and saint, whose wisdom and love seemed superhuman. 

Indeed, Brahmananda's brother disciples did not hesitate comparing him to Ramakrishna himself.  "Whatever Maharaj tells you," one of them said, "comes directly from God."  In 1902, Brahmananda was elected head of the Ramakrishna Order, a position he held until his death in 1922.  An excellent biographical essay entitled "The Eternal Companion" was written by his disciple Swami Prabhavananda.

BHIKKU BODHI

Born Jeffrey Block in Brooklyn, New York in 1944, Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Theravada Buddhist monk. 

In 1966, while still Jeffrey Block, he obtained a B.A. degree in philosophy from Brooklyn College, and then, in 1972, a Ph.D. degree in philosophy from Claremont Graduate School.

In 1967, while in graduate school, he was ordained as a novice monk in the Vietnamese Mahayana order. In 1972, after graduation, he traveled to Sri Lanka where, under Ven. Ananda Maitreya, he received novice ordination, and, in 1973, he received full ordination in a Theravada order.  He was now Bhikku Bodhi.

In 1984, succeeding co-founder Ven. Nyanaponika Thera, he was appointed English-language editor of the Buddhist Publication Society (BPS, Sri Lanka) and, in 1988, became its president.  In 2002, he retired from the society's editorship while still remaining its president.

In 2000, at the United Nations' first official Vesak celebration, he gave the keynote address.  He currently teaches at Bodhi Monastery in Lafayette, New Jersey, and at Chuang Yen Monastery in Carmel, New York, and is the chairman of the Yin Shun Foundation.

Bhikkhu Bodhi is founder of the organisation "Buddhist Global Relief," which is fighting hunger across the world.

Bhikku Bodhi has authored many publications and teaches several on-line courses.  He recorded a well-regarded ten-part lecture series entitled Introduction to Buddhism that has become public domain and can be downloaded for free on the Internet.

NEKKHAMMA

Nekkhamma is a Pali word translated as "renunciation," or "the pleasure of renunciation." It conveys specifically "giving up the world and leading a holy life," and "freedom from lust, craving and desires."

Nekkhamma is the first practice associated with "Right Intention," in Buddhism's Noble Eightfold Path.  In the Theravada list of ten perfections, nekkhamma is the third practice of "perfection," and involves non-attachment (detachment).

Worldly desires based on craving, cruelty to living beings based on anger, and the misdirection of one's own path through ignorance, are all destroyed by real renunciation.

Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Theravada Buddhist monk who was appointed the second president of the Buddhist Publication Society and who has edited and authored several publications concerning Theravada Buddhism.  He describes the various and ultimate benefits of nekkhamma:

"Contemplating the dukkha (suffering) inherent in desire is one way to incline the mind to renunciation. Another way is to contemplate directly the benefits flowing from renunciation. To move from desire to renunciation is not, as might be imagined, to move from happiness to grief, from abundance to destitution. It is to pass from gross, entangling pleasures to an exalted happiness and peace, from a condition of servitude to one of self-mastery. Desire ultimately breeds fear and sorrow, but renunciation gives fearlessness and joy."

DETACHMENT

"Detachment" is a key concept in Zen Buddhism.  It is defined by the technical Chinese term "wú niàn," which literally means "no thought."  This does not mean the literal absence of thought, but rather the state of being "unstained" by thought.

Detachment is being disengaged from one's thoughts. It is to separate oneself from one's thoughts and opinions in order to not be harmed mentally and emotionally by them.

The Vedantist view of detachment is based on the understanding that existence is transient, impermanent.  The solution is to live in the moment, so that one does not worry about the past and the future.  It is detachment from the past and the future.

This concept of detachment is cited extensively in Puranic and Vedic literature.  The Bhagavad Gita states, for example, "One who performs his duty without attachment, surrendering the results unto the Supreme Lord, is unaffected by sinful action, as the lotus is untouched by water."

In Buddhist and Vedantist texts alike the opposite of detachment is upādāna, translated, as seen in the previous quote, as "attachment."  Attachment is the reluctance or inability to practice detachment, and is considered the primary obstacle to a serene and fulfilled life.

SAMADHI VS. SATORI

Zen Buddhists say that satori is not samadhi but a stage beyond.  They explain that samadhi is essentially the unification of consciousness, whereas satori is an awakening from such a state. 

Satori, they say, comes suddenly and momentarily, and if it continues for more than an instant, it is not satori.  This is the view in the Lin-chi and Rinzai schools.  The Tsao Tsung and the Soto schools support a more gradually developing satori.

All schools of Zen concur that satori described in mental or emotional terms is not satori.  The experience is beyond communication and explanation. 

Satori, whether it comes suddenly or gradually, is an experience that is repeated.  This brings maturity to the practitioner over time.  The initial experience, known as kensho, is the most important, it is said.

But then, samadhi is also repeated, sometimes daily or even hourly for a lifetime, as with Sri Ramakrishna.  Samadhi, like satori, defies description, for it is unlike any other human experience.

VARIETIES OF SAMADHI

"A superconscious state in which an individual experiences his identity with the ultimate Reality, Brahman," is the general definition of samadhi.  However, there are technical variations of it depending upon whether it is in Vedanta philosophy or in Yoga philosophy.

Savikalpa samadhi in Vedanta philosophy is the first stage of transcendental consciousness and is where the distinction between subject and object persists.  The spiritual aspirant in this state may have a mystic vision, with or without form.

Nirvikalpa samadhi means, literally, "changeless samadhi," and in Vedanta philosophy refers to the transcendental state of consciousness wherein the spiritual aspirant becomes completely absorbed in Brahman, so that all sense of duality is erased.

Savichara samadhi in Yoga philosophy refers to the state in which the mind achieves identity with a subtle object of concentration, which includes name, quality, and knowledge.

Nirvichara samadhi is a term in Yoga philosophy referring to the state in which the mind achieves identity with a subtle object of concentration, minus name, quality, and knowledge.

Nirbija samadhi means, literally, "seedless samadhi," and in Yoga philosophy refers to the state in which all thought-waves are entirely stilled and all sense of duality ceases.

WHAT IS A SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE?

What exactly is a spiritual experience?

A spiritual experience can only properly be assessed by its intensity, which is to say by the intensity of its after-effect on the experiencer.

Attempting to analyze the circumstances of the event in an effort to decide whether it was spiritual or not is a waste of time, for some quite external cause, such as certain drugs or an illness may have been behind it. 

Some will want to know whether the experience was an hallucination, but it is better to ask what the experience has left one with, now that it is over.  A true spiritual experience, even one that is not particularly intense, must at least slightly affect the experiencer for the rest of his life.

The highest spiritual experiences can only be known in "samadhi."  Samadhi is quite unlike the other states of consciousness--waking, dreaming, and dreamless sleep--for it is really a kind of superconsciousness.  In samadhi, a person knows his absolute identity with the Atman, who he really is.

THE BRAHMIN

In his book Ramakrishna and His Disciples, Christopher Isherwood describes the caste system as it existed in India at the time of Ramakrishna (1836-1886 ). His discussion of the priestly caste, whose members were and are still called Brahmins, is particularly interesting.

Isherwood says that originally the Brahmin was much more than a priest.  According to the Bhagavad-Gita, he must be the seer of the community, the man through whom the community maintains its spirituality. 

In India, the religious ideal has always been to obtain knowledge of the Atman, the divine nature within man, through direct experience.  Such revelation has never been the property of a Church, as in the West.  It is not towards any religious body but towards the individual seer, the knower of the Atman, that the community turns for guidance. 

That enlightenment can actually be obtained by an individual, that the Atman can really be known in the sense of self-knowledge, is the fundamental proposition of the Hindu religion. 

How can the Atman be known?  By meditation and self-disciplines which open the eye of the spirit.  Therefore, Isherwood says, the Brahmin must be chaste, austere, truthful through and through, and compassionate towards all living creatures.

The Brahmin's faith in the Atman must be based on direct self-knowledge, not credulity.  He may be a scholar and interpreter of the sacred books, but his interpretations must be drawn from his own experience, not merely from academic knowledge of former commentators.

NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ

"In reality, there is no death because you are not the body. Let the body be there or not be there, your existence is always there; it is eternal."

"Discover all that you are not -- body, feelings, thoughts, time, space, this or that -- nothing, concrete or abstract, which you perceive can be you. The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive."

"There is nothing to practice. To know yourself, be yourself. To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that. Just be. Let your true nature emerge. Don't disturb your mind with seeking."

These are among the sayings of Nisargadatta Maharaj, an Indian spiritual teacher and guru who lived in Mumbai between 1897 and 1981.  He was born Maruti Shivrampant Kambli and became renowned for his teachings of Advaita (Non-dualistic) Vedanta.

With his direct and minimalistic explanation of non-dualism, he is considered the most prominent teacher of Advaita since Ramana Maharshi.

He gained worldwide recognition and followers with the 1973 publication of his most famous and widely translated book, I Am That, an English translation of his talks by Maurice Frydman.

FEELING ALIENATED

"It is as if this body belongs to someone else."  "I don't feel comfortable in my own skin."  "It doesn't feel like my life." 

Feeling alienated from oneself is something that we have all experienced.  The perception can occur at any time, but happens most often when the mind is turned deeply inward, into the ground consciousness that is the Atman.

Covering the Atman are five sheaths called kosha.  They are located one within the other and are what we experience as our selves.  Starting with the outermost sheath, they are:

(1) The Annamaya-kosha, which is the base physical sheath.  It is nourished by food.

(2) The Pranamaya-kosha, which is the subtle or vital sheath.  It vitalizes and holds together body and mind.  As long as the vital principle is present in the organism, life continues.  This sheath manifests itself as breath. 

(3) The Manomaya-kosha, which is the sheath of the mind.  It receives sense impressions. 

(4) The Vijnanamaya-kosha, which is the sheath of intellect.  It is the faculty that discriminates or wills. 

(5)  Lastly, the Anandamaya-kosha, or the sheath of bliss, which is the ego or causal body.  It is called the sheath of bliss because it is nearest the blissful Atman. 

The Atman remains separate from the sheaths and unaffected by their properties.  Still, it is aware of the sheaths, and it is in these moments of awareness that a person feels most alienated from himself.

WHO OR WHAT IS DOING IT?

Who or what is living life?

Life is living life, and it has its own agenda.

Its agenda is the resolution of opposites. 

The push of night leads to the pull of day.  The pull of day leads to the push of night.  The push of birth leads to the pull of death.  The pull of death leads to the push of birth.  War becomes peace.  Peace becomes war.  Every opposite is resolved by its counterpart in this way, in a never-ending cycle.

Never-ending except, that is, for the individual who awakens.  Such a person has broken free of the life of opposites and vanishes into the oneness that is God.

LEARN TO BE GRATEFUL

When we are grateful we are surrendering to someone or something other than ourselves.  For that one moment, the "I," "me," "mine," "my story" self  has stepped back from everything it has heretofore considered important and focused on the "other," be it another person, another thing, or God.  There's great benefit in this, spiritually.

LIFE AND DESTINY IN BUDDHISM

In his book Man's Religions, John B. Noss sums up the Buddha's conception of life and destiny this way:

"Wherever we observe it, the living world, whether about us or within ourselves, is constantly in flux, in a state of endless becoming; there is no central, planning world-self, no sovereign Person in the heavens holding all together in unity; there is only the ultimate impersonal unity of Being itself, whose peace enfolds the individual self when it ceases to call itself "I" and dissolves in the featureless purity of Nirvana, as a drop of spray is merged in its mother sea.  The permanency of the world is an illusion, and this holds true of the empirical ego; there remain for human experience only processes of change and decay, of becoming and passing away, of appearing and disappearing." 

WHAT ATHEISM ACCOMPLISHES

Buddhists are atheists.  Mind you, some of them allow themselves wiggle room by saying that they are agnostics.  Most, though, given a choice, will say little on the matter.  They'll just say that the existence of God is in the realm of speculative philosophy and therefore has nothing to do with their central concern which is ending people's suffering. 

Buddhists believe that the key to eliminating suffering is avoiding attachment.  Attachment results in frustration, when, for example, what we are attached to is late to appear, if it appears at all, or only partly appears, and otherwise is unsatisfactory in some way, and believing in God is the heaviest attachment of them all, hence a supreme source of frustration and suffering.

What atheism accomplishes, therefore, not only for Buddhists but for all atheists, is that it uncomplicates their lives.  Atheists, including Buddhists, are not forever looking over their shoulder wondering whether they are on good terms with God, or even, for that matter, whether they are connected with Him at all.  Denying the existence of God has its advantages for sure.

KNOWING WHERE YOU ARE GOING

This title, "Knowing where you are going," may also be stated as, "Knowing where you are headed."  Do you control your destiny, as the first title implies, or does your destiny happen quite apart from you, as implied in the second title?

To begin with, which destiny are we talking about exactly, personal destiny or destiny of the spiritual kind?  In the case of personal destiny, you might become a great statesman, a champion boxer, or maybe an award-winning chef, or possibly an average mechanic, a typical bookkeeper, or even a skid row drug addict.  You might get married and have lots of kids, or you may be perfectly happy remaining single.

Your spiritual destiny, however, is different matter.  Here, we all share the same destiny.  Even though the particulars of that destiny, the how, when, and where of it, will vary, the end result will be exactly the same for everyone.  We are all destined to "awaken," and, according to Vedanta, this awakening is the doing of the Atman within each of us.  The Atman awakens into its counterpart the Brahman in an inevitable manner.  More than one lifetime may be required for it to come about, but it will occur eventually.

This is not to say that we have no responsibility in the matter.  Our task is to create a favorable environment for the event, which means meditating at least twice a day, along with what is called "recollection," which is simply recalling God,  Atman/Brahman,  throughout the day.  As we do this, the Atman grows ever stronger within us, ever more present, until at last it realizes its destiny which is union with Brahman.  This is where we are all headed.

GIVING IT UP TO GET IT

The life stage of the renouncer within Vedanta is called sannyasa, and is considered the highest and concluding stage of the ashram (stages of life) system.  The other stages include:  celibate student life or brahmacharya, married householder life or garhasthya, the life of retirement and contemplation or vanaprastha, and then finally, again, monastic life or sannyasa. 

Sannyas, or final vows of renunciation, are traditionally taken by men or women over fifty or by young monks who wish to renounce worldly and materialistic pursuits so as to dedicate their lives to spiritual pursuits.

People in this stage of life develop vairāgya, or a state of dispassion and detachment from material life.   They renounce worldly thoughts and desires in order to spend the remainder of their lives in spiritual contemplation.  A male member of the sannyasa order is known as a sannyasin, a female as a sannyasini.

When entering this phase, a sannyasi symbolically casts his physical body into fire by wearing saffron robes.  This frees the soul while the body is still alive.  As a result, a sannyasi is not cremated after death as most Hindus are, but may instead be buried.

BRAHMAN CONSCIOUSNESS

Transcendental consciousness, the background, witnessing consciousness does not belong to us but to the Atman.  Indeed, it is the Atman, and since the Atman is Brahman, only one consciousness exists.

It is across this one consciousness, like a movie screen, that life occurs.  This has been described in Vedanta as the sport, play, or drama of the Brahman, in which the Brahman performs all the parts.

It is said that the Brahman does this in order to know itself, because it cannot know itself otherwise, only intuitionally.  In the same way that eyes cannot see themselves, the Brahman likewise cannot see itself, except with a mirror.  That mirror is this universe.  Us.

THE SELF THAT ISN'T

The "self" only appears to exist.  Since it is transient, in flux, constantly changing, and impermanent, it is an illusion.  It cannot be pinned down.

The self is in a state of becoming.  This is to say, it is forever becoming something else.  The person who walks into a room is not the same person who leaves that room five minutes later. 

The person has become someone else in that five minutes, having had new experiences there in the room, having gained new information about the room and the people there, but then also having undergone an additional five minutes of wear and tear on mind and body, having aged another five minutes, having moved five minutes closer to death.

Above all, the self is not separate from the rest of existence.  "No man is an island," as the English poet John Donne put it in his "Meditation XVII."   The self is part of a whole, one thread in a great tapestry.  Indeed, insofar as everything is Brahman, it is the whole.

BLINDERS

Life is not "my," "me," "mine," "my story," even though the egoic self insists that it is.  When we live life as "my," "me," "mine," it's like having blinders on.  We don't see the whole picture. 

A COINCIDENCE IS NOT JUST A COINCIDENCE

Coincidences happen to us all, on occasion, where we are left to exclaim, "Wow, what are the odds of that happening to me, and at this particular time and in this particular place?"  We end up just shrugging in amazement usually and leaving it at that. 

Sometimes, though, we attribute them to divine grace, to God looking after us, inspiring in us a renewed faith, possibly, in whatever our religion might be. 

But do we truly grasp the importance of what has happened to us, however we choose to explain it to ourselves?

If we accept coincidences as just a fluke, fine.  If, on the other hand, we are able to see from some distance, from perhaps years, that there is a pattern to how things have happened to us, to how, like a prevailing wind pushing a sailboat along a certain course, we have been directed toward a particular destination, a specific destiny, then we will have what may be the correct view.

Which is what?  That coincidences are not just coincidences, that there is something significant going on here.

AHIMSA

Ahimsa is a term meaning to do no harm. The word is derived from the Sanskrit root hims – to strike; himsa is injury or harm, a-himsa is the opposite of this, i.e. non harming or nonviolence.  It is an important tenet in both Buddhism and Vedanta.

Ahimsa means, specifically, kindness and non-violence towards all living things including animals.  It respects living beings as a unity, holding that all living things are connected.

Since the beginnings of the Buddhist community, monks and nuns have had to commit themselves to the Five Precepts of moral conduct, with the very first Precept being to not kill.  Lay persons are encouraged, but not obliged, to commit to any of the Precepts, even as, in both codes, the first rule is to abstain from taking the life of a sentient being. 

Buddhist monks are furthermore to avoid cutting or burning trees, since some sentient beings rely on them.  Monks and lay persons alike are permitted to eat meat and fish, on condition that the animal is not killed specifically for them.

Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi strongly believed in ahimsa, which included the avoidance of both verbal and physical violence.  Ahimsa recognizes self-defense when necessary, but stipulates that any kind of violence entails negative karmic consequences.

THE FIVE AND TEN BUDDHIST PRECEPTS

The Five Precepts constitute the basic Buddhist code of ethics.  They are undertaken by lay followers of the Buddha in the Theravada as well as in Mahayana traditions. The precepts in both traditions are essentially identical and are part of both lay Buddhist initiation and regular lay Buddhist devotional practices.  They are not formulated as imperatives, but as training rules that laypeople adopt voluntarily to facilitate their practice.

The late Dharma Master Yin-Shun listed the Five Precepts in concise terms:

1.Do not kill. (Unintentional killing is considered less offensive.)
2.Do not steal. (This includes misappropriating someone's property.)
3.Do not engage in improper sexual conduct. (This refers to sexual contact not sanctioned by secular laws, by the Buddhist monastic code, or by one's parents and guardians.)
4.Do not make false statements. (Included here is pretending to know something one doesn't.)
5.Do not drink alcohol.

The Ten Precepts represent the training rules for novice monks and novice nuns in Buddhism. They are used in most Buddhist schools.

1.Refrain from killing living things.
2.Refrain from stealing.
3.Refrain from unchastity, that is from sensuality, sexuality, and lust.
4.Refrain from lying.
5.Refrain from taking intoxicants.
6.Refrain from taking food at inappropriate times, that is after noon.
7.Refrain from singing, dancing, playing music or attending entertainment programs or performances.
8.Refrain from wearing perfume, cosmetics and garlands, i.e. decorative accessories.
9.Refrain from sitting on high chairs and sleeping on luxurious, soft beds.
10.Refrain from accepting money.

ENDING AT THE BEGINNING

A Zen monk once described life as the interval between bathtubs, between the bathtub in which the baby is washed after birth and the bathtub in which the corpse is washed before burial. 

Samuel Beckett, the novelist and playwright, wrote in his play Waiting for Godot, "They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more." 

Both of these images convey, starkly, the reality of life, but are also misleading.  For instance, life may be short but it is not a straight line.  Rather is it a cycle, a circuit where the finish line is the starting line.

We begin life by doing things, and then by doing more and more things, until we reach the end, where we find life undoing everything we've done.  The egoic self, for example, diminishes in importance to us, until, at the finish, it is completely unimportant.  Next, our possessions we no longer value, and then everything we've learned.

This shedding of the layers of life is a purging, a purification that occurs quite naturally as we prepare for the end, a conclusion that we do not fear, it turns out, because we have been there before.  We die in the same place where we were born.  It is form becoming formless once again, the manifested once more the unmanifested.  There is never nothing, just the cycle.

WHERE IS GOD IN THE MIND?

God is not in the front of the mind, in full view, but is just out of sight in the periphery, leaving some to conclude that He is shy.  God is not shy.  According to Vedanta, God is found in the fourth level of consciousness.  The levels, or states of consciousness, are waking consciousness, dreaming sleep, deep dreamless sleep, and then turiya, that pure intuitional consciousness also known as transcendental consciousness.  Here He is.

AUSTERITY IN VEDANTA

In Vedanta, the spiritual practice of conserving energy and directing it toward the realization of God is called austerity.  There are three types of true austerity according to the Bhagavad-Gita.  Swami Prabhavananda summarized them this way:

Worship of the higher powers, service to the teacher and to the wise, cleanliness, external and internal, straightforwardness, continence, and care not to injure any being, these things are known as the austerity of the body.

Speech which causes no vexation, and is true, and also agreeable and beneficial, and regular study of the Scriptures, these are said to constitute the austerity of speech.

Serenity of mind, kindliness, silence, self-control, honesty of motive, this is called the austerity of the mind.

The swami added that one point needs to be emphasized here.  We should never forget that the ideal of life is neither austerity nor renunciation, nor even meditation, but to know God, to be illumined within one's own soul.  The means must never be confused with the end.