Hinduism

I. A Little History

I. A Little History • Originally recorded in poems • Tradition was transmitted orally over generations • No writing prior to 4th century BC • Early Hindu religion - caste system (divides people according to their occupations, probably had a racial component) • No known founding fathers • (religion of a certain people - the Aryans—who were polytheists)

II. What People Want Lay it out

II. What People Want (a) Basic Principle (b) The Four Basic Wants

II. What People Want (a) Basic Principle

II. What People Want (a) Basic Principle *You can have what you want* (whatever you want). • We each have God in us, so we are in some sense God - or the God head. • The 'God head' is undifferentiated spiritual "stuff." You and I have both flesh & blood in us, but we are still different people. Flesh & blood is undifferentiated "stuff." • "I bow to the God within you." • Mystical experience = experience yourself as being God.

II. What People Want (b) The Four Basic Wants

II. What People Want (b) The Four Basic Wants 1) *Pleasure* • Nothing wrong with it (doesn't denounce it) • But, too trivial to satisfy us in the long-run, because it involves only ourselves 2) *Worldly Success* • Wealth, fame, power • Again, nothing wrong with it • Furthermore, satisfactions last longer than those of pleasure because they're social • Nonetheless . . . (a) competitive & hence precarious; (b) can never be fully satisfied (can never get enough of it); (c) eventually, like, pleasure, comes to seem trivial, because it is self-centered; & (d) it doesn't last forever - people die, and they can't take worldly success with them. -(1) + (2) = *The Path of Desire* 3) *Duty* (or service) • Based on the wish to serve others • Brings self-respect & praise from others • We can never fully succeed at service because humanity is imperfect and cannot be perfected by us 4) *Liberation* • Infinite *being*, infinite *knowledge*, & infinite *joy*. • Also involves complete release from human limitations • Obstacles to Liberation o On joy: limited by (1) pain; & (2) frustrated desire. Intensity of pain is largely due to the fear which accompanies it. Hence it can be overcome or at least alleviated by psychological means. Frustrated desire can be overcome by the elimination or personal or self-centered desires (detachment from the finite self, or attachment to the world as a whole). Cease to identify yourself with the finite self which has desires; or, identify your desires with those of the whole universe. [taking a God-like approach] o On knowledge: can be overcome through mystical experience; you get a certain insight into how the world is. -(3) + (4) = *The Path of Renunciation*

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (a) Principles & Definitions A. *Yoga*

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (a) Principles & Definitions A. *Yoga* -defined generally, *yoga* is a method of training designed to lead to integration or union -*hatha yoga* - an authentic yoga that was originally practiced as a preliminary to spiritual yoga, but has largely lost this connection (so Smith says little about it) -Spiritually, though, *yogas* are designed to unite the human spirit with the God who lies concealed in its deepest recesses

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (a) Principles & Definitions B. Personality Types

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (a) Principles & Definitions B. Personality Types -What is distinctive in Hinduism is the amount of attention it has devoted to identifying basic spiritual personality types & the disciplines that are most likely to work for each. Hence there are multiple paths to God - namely, 4, corresponding to roughly 4 spiritual personality types - (i) *reflective*; (ii) *emotional*; (iii) *active*; & (iv) *experimentally inclined*. -For each of these personality types Hinduism prescribes a distinct yoga that is designed to capitalize on the type's distinctive strength

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (a) Principles & Definitions C. Moral Preliminaries

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (a) Principles & Definitions C. Moral Preliminaries -All 4 paths begin with moral preliminaries. As the aim of the yogas is to render the surface self transparent to its underlying divinity, it must first be cleansed of its gross impurities -The first step of every yoga, therefore, involves the cultivation of such habits as non-injury, truthfulness, non-stealing, self-control, cleanliness, contentment, self-discipline, & a compelling desire to reach the goal

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God Lay it out

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (a) Principles & definitions A. *Yoga* -*Hatha yoga* B. Personality Types C. Moral Preliminaries (b) *Jnana Yoga* - The Way to God through *Knowledge* A. Listening B. Thinking C. Identification of Self with the Eternal (c) *Bhatkti Yoga* - The Way to God through *Love* A. Myths, Symbols, Images, & Rituals B. *Japam* C. *Ringing the Changes on Love* D. *The Worship of One's Chosen Ideal* (d) *Karma Yoga* - The Way to God through *Work* A. *jnana* mode (knowledge) B. *bhakti* mode (service) (e) *Raja Yoga* - The Way to God through *Psychophysical Exercises* A. The Experiments B. Postulates C. 8 steps

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (b) *Jnaha yoga* - The Way to God through *Knowledge*

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (b) *Jnana yoga* - The Way to God through *Knowledge* Designed for the spiritual personality type that is primarily *reflective* - the minds of such individuals animate their lives. For people thus given to knowing, Hinduism proposes a series of demonstrations that are designed to convince the thinker that she possesses more than her finite self so that her sense of self will shift to a deeper level. The key to the project is *discrimination*, the power to distinguish between the surface self that crowds the foreground of attention & the larger self that is out of sight. Cultivating this power proceeds through 3 stages. A. Listening -Through *listening* to sages, scriptures, & treatises, the aspirant is introduced to the prospect that her essential being is Being itself. B. Thinking -By prolonged, intense reflection, that which the first step introduced as a hypothesis must assume life. The *Atman* (God within) must change from concept to realization. A number of lines of reflection are proposed for this project; e.g., the aspirant may be advised to examine our everyday language & ponder its implications - What is this 'I' that posses my body & mind, but is not their equivalent? C. Identification of Self with the Eternal -If the yogi is successful, such reflections will eventually induce a lively sense of the infinite Self that underlies one's transient, finite self. The 2 will become increasingly distinct in one's mind, separating like water & oil where formerly they mixed like water & mild. One is then ready for the third step on the path of knowledge, which consists in shifting her self-identification to the infinite. To accomplish this shift, it helps to think of her skin-encapsulated ego in the third person.

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (c) *Bhakti yoga* - The Way to God through *Love*

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (c) *Bhakti yoga* - The Way to God through *Love* -Designed for the spiritual personality type that is primarily *emotional* - those to whom feelings are more real than thoughts. The aim of *bhakti yoga* is to direct toward God the love that lies at the base of every heart. Contrary to jnana yoga, the bhakta will reject all suggestions that the God one loves is oneself, even one's deepest Self, & insist on God's otherness. The bhakta will strive not to identify with God, but to adore God with every element of his or her being. -All that aspirants have to do in this yoga is to love God dearly--not just claim such love, but love God in fact; love God only (other things being loved in relation to God); & love God for ulterior reason (not even from the desire for liberation, or to be loved in return) but for love's sake alone. A. Myths, Symbols, Images, & Rituals -Matchmakers whose vocation is to introduce the human heart to what they represent but themselves are not. The value of these things lies in their power to recall our minds from the world's distractions to the thought of God & God's love. B. *Japam* -the practice of repeating God's name. The frequent service of the lips imperceptibly becomes a genuine appeal of the heart. C. *Ringing the Changes on Love* -puts to religious use the fact that love assumes different nuances according to the relationship involve - e.g., the love of the parent for the child carries overtones of protectiveness, whereas a child's love includes dependence; friendship vs. conjugal love. Hinduism holds that all these modes have their place in strengthening the love of God and encourages bhaktas to make use of them all. D. *Worship of God in the Form of One's Chosen Ideal* -the representation selected will be one's *ishta*, or adopted form of the divine. The bhakta need not shun other forms, but this one will never be displaced & will always enjoy a special place in her heart. The ideal form for most people will be one of God's incarnations, for God can be loved most readily in human form because our hearts are already attuned to loving people.

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (d) *Karma yoga* - The Way to God through *Work*

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (d) *Karma yoga* - The Way to God through *Work* Intended for persons of *active bent*. To such people Hinduism says, You don't have to retire to a cloister to realize God. Throw yourself into your with everything you have, in a way that will bring the highest rewards. How this is to be done depends on the other component's in the worker's nature - whether the yogi approaches work intellectually or in the spirit of love. *Jnana* mode for the former; *bhakti* mode for the latter. -both are engaged in a radical reducing diet, designed to starve the finite ego by depriving it of the consequences of action on which it feeds. A. *Jnana* mode -Work can be a vehicle for self-transcendence. The various types of work we do can also be pondered with respect to the inner desires they reinforce, and with respect to how those reinforcements separate the worker from the Divine. -work performed in detachment from the empirical self - drawing a line between a finite self that acts, on the one hand, and on the other the eternal Self that observes the action. -Identifying with the Eternal, the worker works; but as the deeds are being performed by the empirical self, the True Self has nothing to do with them. This shrinks the ego over time. B. *Bhakti* mode -Work for God's sake instead of their own - works for a different reason than the intellectually inclined, out of *dedication*. Each task becomes a sacred ritual, lovingly fulfilled as a living sacrifice to God's glory. Eventually, the yogi's actions no longer swell the ego.

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (e) *Raja yoga* - The Way to God through *Psychophysical Exercises* B. Postulates

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (e) *Raja yoga* - The Way to God through *Psychophysical Exercises* B. Postulates -The hypothesis that underlines raja yoga is the Hindu doctrine of the human self. The theory postulates that the human self is a layered entity - there are 4 principal layers (in order of increasing depth): 1. Bodies 2. The Conscious Layer of Our Minds 3. The Realm of the Individual Subconscious (which has been built up through our individual histories) 4. Being Itself, infinite, unthwarted, eternal. ===> The purpose of *raja yoga* is to demonstrate the validity of this fourfold estimate of the human self by leading the inquirer to direct personal experience of "the beyond that is within." Its intent is to drive the psychic energy of the self to its deepest part to activate the lost continent of the true self. Rightly done, the yogi will be able to integrate the insights & experiences that come into view & will emerge with heightened self-knowledge & greater self-control.

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (e) *Raja yoga* - The Way to God through *Psychophysical Exercises* C. 8 steps

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (e) *Raja yoga* - The Way to God through *Psychophysical Exercises* C. 8 steps (of the experiment itself) The first 2 concern the moral preliminaries with which all 4 yogas begin. Together they constitute the *5 finger exercises of the human spirit* in anticipation of more intricate studies to come. 1. The practice of *5 abstentions*: from injury, lying, stealing, sensuality, & greed. 2. The practice of *5 observances*: cleanliness, contentment, self-control, studiousness, & contemplation of the divine. 3. Keep *the body* from distracting the mind as it concentrates, e.g., from itching or fidgeting. What is attempted is a bodily state midway between discomfort, which rouses & disturbs, & at the opposite pole a relaxation so complete that it sinks into drowsiness. The Hindu discoveries for achieving this balance are called *asanas* - postures of balance & ease. -Of the *asanas*, the one that has proved most important is the world-renowned *lotus positions* in which the yogi sits--ideally on a tiger skin, symbolizing energy, overlaid with a deerskin, symbolizing calm--with legs crossed in such a way that each foot rests sole up on its opposing thigh. The spine, with allowance for its natural curvature, is erect. Hands are placed, palms up, in the lap, one atop the other with thumbs touching lightly. 4. The purpose of the fourth step is to prevent disruptions of breathing through the *mastery of respiration*. A wide variety of exercises are prescribed toward this end; e.g., like learning to breathe in through one nostril & out the other. On the whole the exercises work toward *slowing the breath*, *evening it*, & *reducing the amount of air required*. 5. Turn the senses inward, whereas the tendency is to turn them outward. Turn the senses toward the Atman within. -close the doors of perception: (i) turn concentration from a chance occurrence into a power that is controlled; & (ii) raise the talent to a point where drumbeats in the same room can escape notice. 6. The yogi is now alone with his mind. Now he is to *concentrate his mind*. One begins by relaxing the mind to allow thoughts that need release to exorcize themselves from the subconscious. Then one selects something to concentrate on--e.g., the tip of one's nose--and practices keeping the mind on the object until success increases. 7. Concentration deepens into *meditation*, and the union between the two is tightened to the point where *separateness vanishes*. The duality of knower & known is resolved into a perfect unity. The self drops out of sight entirely. 8. *Samadhi* names the state in which the human mind is completely absorbed in God. In samadhi, all of the forms of the object being known fall away. THe mind continues to think, but of no thing. It has perfected the paradox of seeing the invisible.

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (e) *Raja yoga* - The Way to God through *Psychophysical Exercises* overview A. The Experiments

III. Yoga - Four Paths to God (e) *Raja yoga* - The Way to God through *Psychophysical Exercises* Designed for those who are of *scientific bent*. The approach calls for a strong suspicion that our true selves are more than we now realize & a passion to plumb their full extent. For those who possess these qualifications, *raja yoga* outlines a series of steps that are to be followed as rigorously as the steps of a physics experiment. A. The Experiments -Unlike most experiments in the natural sciences, those of raja yoga are on one's self, not external nature - experiments on one's mind. -The experiments take the form of practicing prescribed mental exercises & observing their subjective effects.

IV. The *Stages* of Life A. Overview B. First Stage C. Second Stage D. Third Stage E. Final Stage

IV. The *Stages* of Life A. Overview -The proposition that *People are different* is central to Hinduism. In response to the question, *How should we live?*, Hinduism says that the answer depends not only on what kind of person you are but also on the stage of life you are in. B. 1st stage -that of the *student* -traditionally, this stage began after the rite of initiation, between the ages of 8 & 12. It lasted for 12 years, during which the student typically lived in the home of the teacher, rendering service for instruction received. -life's prime responsibility at this stage is to *learn* -The successful student was not to emerge a walking encyclopedia; rather, *habits were to be cultivated, character acquired*. More like an apprenticeship in which information became incarnated in skill. C. 2nd stage -that of the *householder* -began with marriage -There are 3 fronts on which interests & energies can play with satisfaction: *family*, *vocation*, & *the community to which one belongs*. This is the time for *satisfying the first 3 human wants: pleasure, through marriage & family primarily; success, through vocation; & duty, through civic participation.* -when these activities begin to grow repetitious & stale (if they ever do), it is for the individual to move on to the third stage. D. 3rd stage -that of *retirement* -withdraw from the social obligations one was thus far shouldering with a will -the time for working out a *philosophy*, and then working that philosophy into a way of life E. Final stage -wherein the goal is actually reached. The state of the *sannyasin*, one who neither hates nor loves anything. -time & place have lost their hold -the sannyasin's wish it to remain a complete nonentity on the surface in order to be joined to all at root. -with no fixed place on earth, no obligations, no goal, no belongings, the expectations of body are nothing. -it's time to begin one's *true adult education, to discover who one is & what life is about*.

What kind of world does Hinduism say we have? *Summary*

In sum: To the question, "What kind of world do we have?", Hinduism answers: 1. A *multiple world* that includes innumerable galaxies horizontally, innumerable tiers vertically, & innumerable cycles temporally. 2. A *moral world* in which the law of *karma* is never suspended. 3. A *middling world* that will never replace paradise as the spirit's destination. 4. A world that is *maya*, deceptively tricky in passing off its multiplicity, materiality, & dualities as ultimate when they are actually provisional. 5. A training ground on which people can develop their highest capacities. 6. A world that is *lila*, the play of the Divide in its Cosmic Dance--untiring, unending, resistless, yet ultimately beneficent, with a grace born of infinite vitality.

V. The *Stations* of Life A. The Hindu Concept of *Caste*

V. The *Stations* of Life A. The Hindu Concept of *Caste* -People are different. This fact of life has implications for *the station the individual should occupy in the social order.* -A society is divided into *4 groups*: seers, administrators, producers, & followers.

V. The *Stations* of Life Lay em out

V. The *Stations* of Life A. The Hindu Concept of *Caste* B. Perversions C. The Four Groups D. Equalities & Inequalities

V. The *Stations* of Life B. Perversions

V. The *Stations* of Life B. Perversions Perversions entered in time, however the 4 groups originated. 1. A 5th group - of *outcastes* or *untouchables* - appeared. -lowest social group -should be regarded as the basic perversion to which the caste system succumbed. 2. The proliferation of castes into subcastes, of which there are today over 3,000. 3. Proscriptions against intermarriage & interdining (i.e., between different castes) came to complicate social intercourse enormously. 4. Privileges entered the system, with higher castes benefiting at the expense of the lower. 5. caste became hereditary - one remained in the caste into which one was born. ***With these charges in mind, contemporary defenders of caste ask for recognition that people fall into the 4 groups *based on the ways that they can best contribute to society & develop their own potentialities*.

V. The *Stations* of Life C. The 4 groups

V. The *Stations* of Life C. The 4 groups 1. *brahmins* or seers. Reflective, with a passion to understand & a keen intuitive grasp of the values that matter most in human life, these are the civilization's *intellectual & spiritual leaders*. 2. The *kshatriyas* are *born administrators*, with a genius for orchestrating people & projects in ways that makes the most of available human talent. 3. The *vaishyas*, or producers - artisans & farmers - skillful in creating the material things on which life depends. 4. *shudras* - followers, servants, or unskilled laborers. If these people had to carve out a career for themselves, they would founder. Their attention spans are relatively short, which makes them unwilling to sacrifice a great deal in the way of present gains for the sake of future rewards. Under supervision, however, they are capable of hard work & devoted service. Such people are better off, & actually happier, working for others than being on their own.

V. The *Stations* of Life D. Equalities & Inequalities

V. The *Stations* of Life D. Equalities & Inequalities -Between castes there was no equality, but within each caste the individual's rights were safer than if he or she had been forced to fend alone in the world at large. Each caste was *self-governing*, & in trouble one could be sure of being tried by one's peers. Within each caste their was *equality, opportunity, & social assurance*. -inequalities between the castes themselves was aimed for due compensation for services rendered. -In salary & social power, therefore, the second caste, the administrators, rightly stood supreme; in honor & psychological power, the *brahmins*. But only (according to the ideal) because their responsibilities were proportionately greater.

VI. The Hindu Concept of God

VI. The Hindu Concept of God -the name the Hindus give to the supreme reality is *Brahman*. The chief attributes to be linked with the name are *sat*, *chit*, & *ananda*; God is *being*, *awareness*, & *bliss*. Utter reality, utter consciousness, & utterly beyond all possibility of frustration. -God conceived as in *bhatki yoga* - God as parent, lovingly merciful, omniscient, almighty, our eternal contemporary, the companion who understands - is called *Saguna Brahman*, or *God-with-attributes* as distinct from the philosophers' more abstract *Nirguna Brahman*, or *God-without-attributes*. The former is called a *transpersonal* conception of God, and the latter a *personal* conception of God, in the language of theology. -Hinduism encourages the devotee to conceive of Brahman as either personal or transpersonal, depending on which carries the most exalted meaning for the mind in question.

VII. The Hindu Concept of the Nature & Destiny of Human Beings

VII. The Hindu Concept of the Nature & Destiny of Human Beings 1. *Jivas* - individual souls - entered the world mysteriously, in a way that is not fully explicable. -They begin as the souls of the simplest forms of life, but they do not vanish with the death of their original bodies. -An individual *jiva* passes through a sequence of bodies - a process known as *reincarnation* or *transmigration of the soul*. 2. When the soul has graduated into a *human body*, the soul has reached self-consciousness, & with this estate comes *freedom*, *responsibility*, & *effort*. The mechanism that ties these new acquisitions together is the *law of Karma* - the *moral law of cause & effect*. -The present condition of each interior life - how happy it is, how confused or serene, how much it sees - is an exact product of what it has wanted & done in the past; equally, its present thoughts & decisions are determining its future experiences. Each act that is directed upon the world has its equal & opposite reaction on oneself. -The idea of *karma* and the completely moral universe it implies carries *two important psychological corollaries*: (a) It commits the Hindu who understands it to *complete personal responsibility*. Everybody gets exactly what is deserved. (b) the idea of a moral universe *closes the door on chance or accident*. Those words are simply covers for ignorance. 3. What the soul wants (a) When it first enters a human body, a *jiva* wants nothing more than to taste the sense delights its new physical equipment makes possible. (b) with repetition, however, even the most ecstatic of such delights grows monotonous, whereupon the *jiva* turns to *social conquests* to escape boredom. These conquests - the various modes of wealth, fame, & power - can hold the individual's interest for a considerable time; the stakes are high & their attainment richly gratifying. (c) eventually, however, this entire program is seen for what is is - a game. As long as it holds one's interest, it satisfied. But when the novelty wears off, he or she begins to yearn for something new & more deeply satisfying - *Duty*. (d) *The Atman is the sole ground of human existence & awareness*. In the end it is God's radiating warmth that melts the soul's icecap, turning it into a pure capacity for God. What happens next is uncertain.

VIII. Cosmology

VIII. Cosmology -Periodically, the cosmos collapses into a Night of Brahma, & all phenomenal being is returned to a state of pure potentiality. Thus, like a gigantic accordion, the world swells out & is drawn back in. This oscillation is built into the scheme of things; the universe had no beginning will have no end. -Our world is a *middle world*. Not only does it hand midway between the heavens above & the hells below; it is also middle in the send of being middling, a world in which good & evil, pleasure & pain, knowledge & ignorance, interweave in about equal proportions. & this is the way it will remain. All talk of social progress, of cleaning up the world--in short, all dreams of utopia--are not just doomed to disappointment; they misjudge the world's purpose, which is not to rival paradise but to provide a training ground for the human spirit. -If we ask about the world's metaphysical status, we shall have to continue the distinction we have watched divide Hinduism on every major issue thus far; namely, the one between *the dual & the non-dual points of view*. -On *the conduct of life*, this is the distinction between jnana & bhatki yoga -one the *doctrine of God* it divides the personal from the transpersonal view -on the issue of salvation it divides those who anticipate merging with God from those who aspire to God's company in the beatific mission. ==> On *cosmology* an extension of the same line divides those who regard the world as being from the highest perspective unreal from those who believe it to be real in every sense: (a) For the *dualist* the natural world is as real as God is, while of course being infinitely less exalted. God, individual souls, & nature are distinct kinds of beings, none of which can be reduced to the others. (b) *Non-dualists*, on the other hand, distinguish *3 modes of consciousness under which the world can appear*: 1. *hallucination*; such appearances are corrected by further perceptions, including those of other people. 2. *the world as it normally appears to the human senses* - called *maya*. a psychological construct like a dream. There is something tricky about the world. 3. *the world as it appears to yogis who have risen to a state of superconsciousness. -strictly speaking, there is no world; there is but one reality. the non-dualist claims that (3) is the most accurate of the three perspectives.