Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I am starting this thread per MQ’s suggestion in another thread - Quotes by Hindu Teachers. Vedantic, philosophical, quotes are often terse and tightly packed with meaning, subtexts, and intertextuality with reference to other texts, vedas, upanishad, the Gita, etc
It is worth unfolding the meaning with help from those teachers, if you are willing to walk this path.
In order to gain a clear perspective, I suggest that one tries to first understand clearly and remove all misunderstandings about the text itself, before attempting to question its validity. One may have to set aside Abrahamic connotations and thought, and approach with an open mind, fresh eyes, and curiosity. If done that way you may find the exercise useful and enlightening. If you approach with the aim to merely find ways to invalidate it, you would lose an opportunity to gain a perspective that might have been helpful for you, and fail in your attempt anyway. These thoughts have stood the test of time and they hold verifiable truth and have done so for many around the world, from all walks of life.
Welcome to an earnest attempt at unfoldment of spirituality.
“When the mind is observed and analyzed carefully
It becomes clear that there is no such thing as the mind
This path to knowing is available for all.”
— Upadesa Sara. V 17
— Ramana Maharishi
The subject of what mind is, and that it is not, is extensively analyzed in Vedanta. There are three states of being -awake, dream, deep sleep. The mind exists only in the first two state. It is completely gone in deep sleep, when the body is inert. Yet we wake up and we know we slept for hours, and slept well. Something that can be absent for hours, cease to exist, cannot be real. And to know what is unreal, we should know what what is real. That which exists at all times and in all states is real. The awareness that we are aware, that we know, is what is real.
One should first
Accomplish himself
Before he
Starts teaching others.
Sukyamuni Buddha
Sure, Siddhartha was a Hindu when he became the realized, a muni, the buddha. He was not even that interested in teaching, he showed the way to end suffering.
Good idea cb.
I'm going to start with something simple from an old scripture, the Bhagavad Gita - Krishna is talking mostly to a student named Arjuna.
Krishna can be googled.
“He who has let go of hatred who treats all beings with kindness and compassion,
who is always serene, unmoved by pain or pleasure, free of the “I” and “mine,” self-controlled,
firm and patient, his whole mind focused on me —that is the man I love best.”
“There is nothing equal to God, nor is there anything superior to Him.”
Good idea cb.
I'm going to start with something simple from an old scripture, the Bhagavad Gita - Krishna is talking mostly to a student named Arjuna.
Krishna can be googled.
“He who has let go of hatred who treats all beings with kindness and compassion,
who is always serene, unmoved by pain or pleasure, free of the “I” and “mine,” self-controlled,
firm and patient, his whole mind focused on me —that is the man I love best.”
“There is nothing equal to God, nor is there anything superior to Him.”
Nothing simple about that, Miss H! It is the pathway to arrive at Krishna Consciousness.
Cultivating a mind that is unattached to hate or desire, centered on kindness and compassion, that neither suffers pain nor rejoices in pleasure, is free of the ego as the doer, is contented in the Self and seeks nothing, is a mind that is free and in bliss.
May we all be blessed so.
(a) The only real Existence, which alone is — everything else exists inasmuch as it reflects that real Existence.
(b) It is the only Knower — the only Self-luminous — the Light of consciousness. Everything else shines by light borrowed from It. Everything else knows inasmuch as it reflects Its knowing.
(c) It is the only Blessedness — as in It there is no want. It comprehends all — is the essence of all.
It is Sat-Chit-Ânanda.
(d) It has no parts, no attributes, neither pleasure nor pain, nor is it matter nor mind. It is the Supreme, Infinite, Impersonal Self in everything, the Infinite Ego of the Universe.
(e) It is the Reality in me, in thee, and in everything — therefore,
Hinduism arrives at what the Self/Consciousness Atma is by steps of negation, by eliminating what Atma is not. Of all our faculties, all of which are Not Atma, the mind has the most powerful grip on us. Combined with the intellect it takes over as the Ego, the Doer, as the Jiva who transacts with the world and suffers the cycle of birth and death. The release from this cycle, Moksha, requires understanding of the bondage that the Jiva is under, and how to release it to attain liberation.
Atma is the Seer of all, but is never seen. It is always the subject, never the object.
How to eliminate the mind as Not-Atma? The mind is made of thoughts. Every object the mind sees it pervades it and makes it into an object-thought. Seeing a lotus becomes a lotus thought. These thoughts change every second.
We know these thoughts, we see them. What can be seen, object, cannot be the Self/Atma the Seer, the subject. As the mind is always available to us as thought objects, which change and so with a beginning and an end, it can never be the Atma. The Seer is never Seen.
~ Vivekachudamani verse 185
~ Commentary by Swami Dayananda Saraswati
Good idea cb.
I'm going to start with something simple from an old scripture, the Bhagavad Gita - Krishna is talking mostly to a student named Arjuna.
Krishna can be googled.
“He who has let go of hatred who treats all beings with kindness and compassion,
who is always serene, unmoved by pain or pleasure, free of the “I” and “mine,” self-controlled,
firm and patient, his whole mind focused on me —that is the man I love best.”
“There is nothing equal to God, nor is there anything superior to Him.”
Please explain to this sincerely curious, and respectful Christian, what that last sentence means.
As I'm sure you know, it is anathema to the abrahamic traditions.
The rest to me ( so far ) seems to be simply different jargon.
Please please accept my apology. I read that last sentence incorrectly.
I'm working with one blurry eyeball for a while ( long story ) and I just read it wrong.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It is the pathway to arrive at Krishna Consciousness. 
Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
