In studying the Eastern religions of Hinduism and Buddism, we learn some strange things. 

 

According to the Hindus, in the beginning, somewhere, somehow, a god named skambha made a golden embryo, and out of that golden embryo came thirty-three gods.   all of those gods recognized that krysna, shiva, and brahman were the chief gods. 

 

the whole universe and everything in it hangs on a cosmic wheel that just keeps going round and round and round.

 

the hindu scriptures ask where man came from, but give no definite answer.   we all just find ourselves just riding this cosmic wheel. 

 

did y ou know that, in the hindu religion, there are no commandments? not even a commandment against murder.

 

that's because, with the constant re-incarnation of the undying soul, it is really nothing to worry about.   both murderer and his victim will crawl into another body before long, and live another lifetime. 

 

the only trouble with that is, if you do rotten things in your present incarnation, you will wind up with rotten things happening to you in your next incarnation.

 

of course, in your next incarnation, you won't remember what it was you did in your last incarnation that brought you all the trouble in your present incarnation.

 

the power that pays you back good or bad for the good or bad you did in your past lives, is called karma, and you just can't get rid of it, so don't even try.

 

According to the Hindu teaching, this state of things is totally unchangable and unfixable. so don't even try that, either.

 

this view of things is called fatalism and nihilism. the hindu religion tells people, give up, put up with pain, detach yourself from all desire for good things,   and accept the idea that nothing is ever going to get any better.

 

in kapilavastu, south nepal, india, somewhere between the years 563 and 483 BC, a man was born who would look at this state of helpless hopelessness, and get the idea that he might be able to do something about it. his name was gautama suddhartha. he was the son of the raja, the head of the warrior clan called sakya. he married at age 16, after winning his wife in some kind of contest.   his father expected him to be a warrior like the rest of the clan.    the caste system did not allow much choice to a person, as to what he would do with his life.

 

the story goes that one day, he was riding in his chariot. in one afternoon, he saw an aged man, a sick man, and a dead man being carried to funeral. the sight of this suffering disturbed him.   he asked his driver the meaning of what he saw.   all the driver could tell him was, this comes to all men.   this answer did not satisfy him.   he asked himself the question,isn't there something a man can do, to make things better?   this was quite a radical idea. hadn't krysna, the god-charioteer, told arjuna the warrior, put up with pain. put up with cold, put up with dissappointment. put up with death. there's nothing can be done to fix things.

 

 young gautama left home,started wandering, trying to find answers to life. he went to hindu school, but the teachings of the brahmans did not satisfy him.

 

for one thing, he questioned the caste system. that was another radical idea.

 

he spent six years meditating and fasting. he still didn't feel like he had the answers he was looking for.

 

so, the story goes,   he sat down under a tree, and vowed not to move, until he had attained supreme enlightenment.

 

in the book, the wisdom of buddism,page 15, it is related that he was tempted, assailed with all the remaining impurities of his human mind. he passed in review his former births, their cause, and consequent suffering. he shed the self which binds man to his limitations, and raised his consciousness to the very threshhold of that light which lies beyond all thought, all concept building, all duality.

 

finally, as all the earth was silent, in the moment of full moon, he broke thru the final barrier. self was merged in all-self. consciousness was now co-eval with the universe. a human mind, in full enlightenment, was utterly and limitlessly free.   for seven days he rested. I wonder where the teller of this account got those words? -and resisted the temptation of mara, the evil one, to keep to himself the knowledge of which would set men free. 

 

the term budda means enlightened. so now, gautama siddhartha became gautama budda, and started teaching around northeast india.

 

from that small beginning buddism spread across india to ceylon, central asia, china, japan, burma, tibet, thailand, cambodia, laos, vietnam. the estimated number of buddists worldwide goes as high as 500,000,000 people. many different types of buddism, with different practices and emphasis of teaching, have developed
over the centuries, from one culture and ethnic group to another. but the core teachings stay the same.

 

 buddism is different from other religions   in that it does not name a god or gods that need to be worshipped.  but its roots are in hinduism. it retains most of the hindu beliefs, such as re-incarnation,karma, sacrifices to the various same gods, and this endless cosmic wheel.

 

 funk and wagnall's encyclopedia says, in the strictest sense, buddism as a meditative experience, an attempt to communicate the contents of bodhi, b-o-d-h-i, enlightenment, and to teach how it may be obtained. bodhi, enlightenment, is a transformation of consciousness, similar to a mystical experience, in which man vividly feels himself to be released from the confines of his individual personality. buddism does not define what he discovers.

 

 the ultimate reality of man and the world is beyond all intellectual comprehension.   one of the quotes attributed to gautama budda after he spent those years sitting under a tree, is,

 

"every rising thing is a ceasing thing".  Everything with an opposite, like up and down, cold and heat, dark and light, is described by the buddist as duality.

 

gautama budda is reported to have said, what is good? abstaining from killing is good. abstaining from theft is good. abstaining from sensuality is good. abstaining from falsehood is good. abstaining from slander is good. suppression of unkindness is good. abandoning of gossip is good. dismissing hatred is good. obedience to the truth is good. all these things are good.

 

 so far, so good. you can't sit under a tree all those years and not learn something.

 

there is in buddism, something called the noble eight-fold path, which names certain virtues, which should be practiced,  which are defined as the appropriate balance, in view, thought, speech, action, effort, mindfulness, and contemplation.

 

the buddist is expected to avoid taking any kind of life, including animal. he must also avoid alcohol, and stealing. the meditation practices that he undergoes are supposed to loose him from all sorts of craving for and attachment to, things. and an eventual reaching of nirvana, which is the state of supreme enlightenment. buddism defines experiences in groups. form, or matter. feelings, ideas, volitions, and consciousness. no permanent, independently existing self, can be obtained. we'll get back to that sentence in a minute.

 

there is in buddism a teaching called the seven points of wisdom. lets take a look at them.   number one. budda became budda when he became fully enlightened and aware. but, buddism never fully explains what you are supposed to be aware of.  number two. all is mind only. the universe is made up of a countless pair of oposites. pain and pleasure, cold and heat, etc. upon which all events and thoughts are founded. number three.

 

there is no self in man, which is unchanging, and his alone. the self, or soul, exists, as a convenient concept, to describe an ever changing bundle of characteristics, each the product of innumerable past causes, which moves, in the illusion of time, toward nirvana. matter has no lasting form. all forms are empty. each and every thing, and thought about it, is falsely imagined.   to believe in an abiding self is worse than illusion. what lies beyond which has immortal being as the soul of man? nothing. it is the folly which produces desire for this self, and its separative requirements, which is in turn, the cause of suffering.

 

a question and answer conversation is recorded between budda and a student. kutadanta said, you believe, oh, master, that beings are reborn. that they migrate in the evolution of life. and that subject to the laws of karma, we must reap what we sow. and yet you teach the non-existance of the soul. your disciples praise utter self extinction as the highest bliss of nirvana. if I am merely a compound of sensations, and ideas, and desires,   whither can I go at the dissillution of the body?

 

budda said, there is re-birth of character, but no transmigration of a self. your thought forms re-appear, but there is no ego-identity transferred. the stanza uttered by a teacher is reborn in the scholar who repeats the words. only thru ignorance and delusion do men indulge in the dream that souls are separate and self existant entities. your love of music can be reborn in a song bird. your meanness can be reborn in a frog. but there is no permanent, independently existing self.

 

 remember the philosopher Descarte? he declared, cogito, ergo sum. I think,   therefore, I am. that means I am self aware. I am aware of me. therefore I exist. to which budda replies, hold on there, mr. Descarte. that's not true. there's really no such thing as you.

 

point number four, still quoting from the wisdom of buddism. all things, all men, all events,are inter-related, and inter-defined. all life is one, tho its perishable forms are innumerable. tho this life be viewed as suchness, or the void, or as essence of mind, it is a factor common to all forms. point number five, causality. this is the term describing the buddist doctrine of cause and effect. everything that happens was caused by something else that happened.   but this endless progression of cause and effect thru out this illusional universe has no intelligent mind guiding it. it just happens. point number six. the way of budda is the middle way. between all extremes. between the extreme of over-indulgence on the one hand, and over-self punishment on the other. point number seven. look within, thou art budda.  this is the certainty that some day your search will in the end attain the awakening reached by the enlightened ones.

 

there is supposed to come that sudden awakening, that timeless moment, when the absolute and the relative are suddenly interdiffused beyond all difference. from thought, to no-thought. from individual mind to no-mind. this is the journey,   and the end is liberation from all fetters.

 

from the same "wisdom of buddism", page 138-139, under a heading, "n praise of the void", it says, just as when a tree is cut at the root, all the twigs and leaves wither away, so, all passions are extinguished by destroying the heresy of individual existance.

 

when we wade down to the core meaning of these quotes, we come to understand, they are trying to say, there is no self in man. you are just a piece of  the infinite consciousness, that got separated from the supreme all-mind, because of these illusions called time and physical matter.

 

 remember point number three? there is no self in man.   to believe in an abiding self is worse than an illusion. how does the wisdom of buddism describe it?

 

 gautama broke thru the final barrier. self was merged in all-self. consciousness was now co-eval with the universe. point number four. all of life is one. point number seven, a development of the mind, which leads by slow and weary steps, to that sudden awakening, that timeless moment, where the absolute and relative are interdiffused beyond all difference. from thought to no-thought. from individual mind to no-mind. in praise of the void- all passions are extinguished by destroying the heresy
of individual existance.   in the introduction of the "wisdom of buddism", it is said of gautama budda, that he attained supreme enlightenment by fusing his consciousness with the budda principle within, which is in turn, a reflection of the absolute all-mind. the enlightenment concept works on three levels. cosmic, mystical, and human. as to the nature of that achievment, we shall know it when we achieve it, and not before. when the last barriers of thought, the last stain of duality have been trancended, we shall, in a moment beyond time, beyond all error, KNOW.

 

we end the quote to ask the question, what is it that we are supposed to know, and how do we know if we know what we are supposed to know? the book "wisdom of buddism" does not answer the question.

 

I guess they don't know. 

 

 this state of mind called enlightenment is supposed to be reached by the practice of yoga. this is a form of mental concentration which is to be practiced while the body is assuming a variety of strange positions. in the book, "the three pillars of zen", page 350, we are warned against something called the cave of satan, described as a pit of pseudo-emancipation, in a stage of the experience called zazen, and one experiences absolute serenity, and is bedeviled into believing it to be self-realization. three pillars of zen, page 362. we are deluded, or led astray, by our senses, which include the intellect and its discriminating thoughts.  when the masters say, all phenomena are illusory, they mean, that compared with mind itself,   the world, apprehended by the senses is such a partial and limited aspect of truth, that it is dreamlike. end quote.

 

 to my understanding, these words say, don't believe your lying eyes. the whole universe is a dream.

 

three pillars of zen, page 41. the practictioner is taught to ignore normal sounds and sights and distractions, as tho they are not there. after you ignore the normal sights and sounds, you are warned about makyo. these are illusions, hallucinations, and fantasies. all the various forms of yoga have the same goal. to create this mental condition called enlightenment, to touch the mind to this condition called nirvana. more and more this nirvana appears to be an induced altered state of consciousness  that can more quickly be obtained with a drug overdose.

 

we go to the book, yoga, by alain danielion, to explain hatha yoga. it is the aim of yoga to control vital energies, starting with the breath, and bring all of our vital and emotive reaction under the control of our consciousness. page 24. there is no one aspect of manifestation which does not imply all the others, because of the fundamental, all pervading dualities,

 

hence the principle, that which is here is everywhere, that which is not here is no where.

 

between the limited powerless individual, and the limitless all-powerful, universal being, is that in the universal being, everything co-exists, where as the individual is made up of isolated elements. when we are able to weld together the separated elements  which form our being, we become identical with the universal being.

 

 page 25. the yogi must at every stage follow a course distinct from that of the sensory perceptions and cerebral activities, which are the normal field of human investigation, and, silencing his mind,he turns his attention inward.

 

 isn't silencing the mind a dangerous practice?

 

what is the purpose of these strange postures?

 

 to the buddist, there are certain spiritual energies
that flow in special sections of the body. these sections are called chakras. each posture is an attempt to get in touch with a specific chakra. still page 25. these subtle centers of the body, are in fact, regions of the brain,  linked with different parts of the body. by concentrating his attention on these subtle centers, the yogi enters the unknown regions of the brain. page 26. these observances, sitting postures, breath control.

 

withdrawal of the mind from outer objects, brings about the dissolution of the mind into the object of its contemplation.

 

excuse me! the dissolution of the mind?

 

 then, this mind is supposed to sit motionless, like a lamp in a windless place,in union with the self, which does not exist as an independent entity. the practitioner ties himself up in these impossible postures, to remain motionless for the largest part of three hours that he can manage, and with deliberately   programmed mental exercise, brings about a self-induced hypnotic state which closely resembles a drug overdose.

 

 with his mind in this state, he claims to have touched the void, a void is a big empty place- reached nirvana, and become integrated and indistinguishable from the supreme being. the physical world is a dream. an illusion. nirvana is a void. a great empty place. and you have no abiding self. 

 

so it sounds like we have a nobody, taking a journey thru an illusion, to find a nothing.

 

they call this enlightenment. but they can't describe this enlightenment, to anyone, or explain what about it is enlightening. 

 

 and if you, as you, don't really exist, who is it that is taking this journey along this illusion called time to this empty place called nirvana?

 

and if you don't exist, why bother going?

 

 it would appear that this much sought after enlightenment is just as much an illusion, as they say the rest of the universe is supposed to be.

 

Gautama Siddhartha Budda did not invent yoga. he only practiced it under that tree for six years. yoga was introduced in the hindu book, the bhagavad gita, and is associated with the god shiva, who is also addressed as yogeshwara, lord of yoga. shiva is also known as the destroyer. when jehova said, you shall have no other gods before me, he was aware that the other spiritual entities in the universe  that present themselves to humanity for worship, were very dangerous destructive forces that he had just cast out of heaven because of the rebellion of lucifer.

 

you want real enlightenment? you don't have to tie your body into a pretzel shape and zap your brain into a non-functioning state.

 

the most difficult posture you will have to take is to stare yourself down, nose to nose, and look yourself straight in the eye.

 

The Bible says, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathway. Isaiah 9;2. the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light. they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them, the light has shined. where does this light come from? john 18;12. jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. he that follows me shall not walk in darkness,  but have the light of life. psalm 27;1. the lord is my light and my salvation. 1 john 1;5. this is the message which we declare to you.

 

that god is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 2 corinthians 4;6. God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the face of jesus christ.

 

well, you ask, how do I get hold of this light?

 

 psalms 119;130. the entrance of thy word gives light. if you want to open your mind and soul to the true enlightenment of Jesus, you have to start with reading his word. let its light enter your mind and soul.

 

your first difficulty will be a certain amount of pain. when your natural eyes go from extreme dark to extreme light, they hurt, until they have adjusted to the light.  you will have this difficulty as the Lord's light begins to enter your soul, and drive out the dark.

 

what is the reason for this pain? the light of God is shining in the deep secret places of your soul. you are beginning to see and understand what what sin is. what unbelief and disobedience are. why sin is such an ugly thing in God's sight. and how it is such an ugly part of you.

 

you have always thought yourself to be a healthy person. but if a doctor has probed the hidden places of your body, and has told you you have a deadly disease, you hurt. you have always tried to be a good person. but now the light of God's word is shining on hidden places in your soul, to reveal this deadly spiritual disease called sin. this is the most dangerous time of your journey as you seek the lord's enlightenment.

 

 Jesus said, in john, 3;19,  this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. everyone that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light. but he that does truth comes to the light.

 

so you will be faced with a painful decision. do I run away from this enlightenment that is beginning to shine in my soul, and run back to the comfort of the dark?

 

or do I press on? do I endure the pain of God's light shining in my soul? do I endure the pain of looking myself right in the eye, and admitting to myself and jesus that my soul is hopeless and helpless without his redemption? can you endure the pain of looking Jesus Christ right in the face, and admitting, yes, you are the true God in the flesh, and I need you?

 

  this part of your enlightenment will bring tears.  you might shed them outwardly at an altar in your church. you might shed them inwardly in the privacy of your home on your pillow. but if you want the enlightenment, you must endure this pain.

 

 the buddist says, that when he reaches enlightenment, he bursts thru the bondage of his mind, to a place called the void--nirvana--a place of emptiness. what happens when you break thru to Christ's enlightenment, to recieve the forgiveness of sins, and his newness of life? you have endured the pain of seeing the sinfulness of your soul. you see Jesus Christ as the true God, and the only one who can redeem you. now what do you do?

 

 by an act of your will, which is at that moment empowered by the Spirit of God, you reach out your heart to Jesus. at that moment, He reaches out His heart to you.   you must speak to Jesus Christ directly. your own heart must form your own words. these words must declare your belief in him and your desire for forgiveness. 

 

Your soul has felt all alone, as tho you were lost at the end of a dark alley at midnight. but there will immediately come to your soul a river of peace, that seems to be flowing from a deep inner place, that you never even knew was there before.

 

 you might even feel something like a heavy load drop off your back. this is no vast, empty void. this is a brand new life. this is the knowledge that your sins are forgiven, and you belong to the redeemer. Now that I have this enlightenment from Jesus, and this river of peace flowing from the deep places of my soul, how do I keep it?  by daily reading the word of God. letting it shine in your soul. learning and following his instructions on how to live. you learn how to worship, and you learn how to praise, and that teaches you how to keep in daily, minute-to-minute communion with Jesus, as he keeps this river of peace flowing in your soul.

 

from Jesus comes the only true, lasting, enlightenment of the soul. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. if you follow me, you will not walk in darkness.