The biggest difference between Buddhism and Hinduism.

[atanu]

Friend atanu,

There is consciousness in both the duality rather the core of either duality is consciousness and to be just the consciousness is not to side with either but be both and neither or be this or that; it is TOTAL and pure consciousness.
Try and follow the ying/yang principle and you may understand.
This has come out as an extension of the dharma.
Love & rgds

Thank you friend

I think one must master one's tradition -- at least that is what was taught to me. Different teachers address needs of different grades of Mind.

TOTAL and pure consciousness, is known to Hindus as Pragnya Ghana Sarvesvara -- Lord of All whereto we merge in deep sleep. Mind does not see/know anything here because of absolute homogeneity. But the Atman (from which the Mind arises) is the owner of this and Seer of this. So, to know the TOTAL and pure consciousness, in which nothing is known, one must know its owner and Seer. At present this is the over-riding goal for this mind.
.......................

In another way. TOTAL and pure consciousness of the deep sleep is the revealed (born) consciousness. Whereas the Atman itself is the unborn which reveals the consciousness. In both Buddhism and in Hinduism the ultimate goal is the UNBORN, which is beyond word and mind.

Om

 

[bhaktajan]

deep sleep is the revealed circumstance of one of the means that allows ghostly possession.


"PURE CONSCIOUSNESS in deep sleep" is IMPOSSIBLE! NO SUCH THING.

My Classical/Traditional "Mantra-Meditation" one practices focus of the conscious mind . . . and after alot of practice, on one lucky day, when the mantra falls away, there is a momentary witnessing of "PURE CONSCIOUSNESS"; aka, THE CONSCIOUS MIND FINDS ITSELF without distracting thoughts, nor, memories . . . thus, "PURE CONSCIOUSNESS"™ is made aware of it's Self as "PURE CONSCIOUSNESS" untinged ob on-going thoughts [but this initial insight is just momentary . . . because the mind will be distracted by stimuli and thoughts and memories immediately as the mantra chanter realises that they have stopped 'Chanting the mantra'].

"PURE CONSCIOUSNESS is simply one's regular consciousness
WITHOUT ANY PRESENT STIMULI NOR PRESENT PRE-OCCUPYING THOUGHTS ---when this "PURE CONSCIOUSNESS" is constant 24/7 [even while daily 'chopping wood and carrying water'] it is called 'samadhi'.

For all the sentient souls in material bodies subject to 'samsara' (cycle of birth & death); especailly Humans on this terrestrial Planetary system, I salute you [Salute. derived from salude, Health]:

Classical Silent Mantra Meditation

Classic old-time 20 min Silent Meditation:

1 - Sit alone quietly, eyes closed, wait a moment . . . then

2 - Silently repeat a short mantra(mono-syllabic is Okay) or prayer-mantra.

3 - Repeat step #2 for 20 minutes*.

4 - At finish, direct attention to any points of discomfort in the body. End.


*During step #2-3, the mind will wander away from the task of the mantra repeatition. When that happens, simple return to repeating the mantra.

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Notes:

A Mantra is meant for repetition during sitting-silent meditation [if recited aloud, there is no difference except that the environs can benefit too].

The mantra is a tool for focusing the minds wandering tendency.
The practice of mantra usage is aprt and parcel of 'devotionals' ---not attempts at magic.

If the meaning of each word of each mantra were known as well as one's native tongue, then it would be clear WHY to repeat a mantra.

Practice yoga & meditation ... and naturally one will have a mantra to recite as part of the "meditation" discipline.

By recitation of a mantra:
1 - The mind stops "jumping from thought-to-thought" [this takes repeated practice]---and thus, the mind becomes 'mind-full' while being 'without any particular though-in-mind' ---when the above yogic practice is near-perfected, this state becomes a state of conscious awareness without focusing on any thoughts: non-thought-filled awarness [aka, being in the zone]. The sense of being an individual conscious soul is all that is left whenever the mantra stops being repeated . . . then the mind's thoghts & the body's stimulai kick back in ---and one returns to the hustle & bustle state of regular walking/talking/work life. The empty state of no-thoughts while being fully aware and thus, temporarily without desires [ergo, thoughts] is a blissfull state. Why? Because it is without anxiety regarding loss and distress or gain or impositions of any kind.

This state that is attained through practiced sitting meditation is a means to know Brahman-Realisation. The Soul is made of Brahman (consciousness) and when the Mind stops pre-occuping itself with thinking about desires and plans et al ---it can sense itself.

2 - After "Brahman"-Realisation is steady in it's understanding and ramifications (ie: A sample of Brahman selected from any place and time and distance is NO different from any other sampling; IOW Brahman is absolute in all regards.) So, since the soul is a part and parcel of brahman ---each soul in You & I & all Creatures is the same brahman ---except that each point of light (an individual soul) is indivisable and each soul is its own insoluble POV. Each soul is an individual entities all onto its own; each soul is part and parcel of Param-atma, the Supreme Soul. God the personage is the Supreme Soul with a name fame form personality paraphenalia entourage and pastimes in a place Eternal transcendental (no influence of passing time, ie: Creation/maintainance/dissolution) to the material manifest cosmos the we souls in this material world see and enjoy during each life time as time goes by.

3 - After the above is understood 'as absolute' and that all lessons are learnt by disciplic chain of succession, we engage in the lessons taught by Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita. That even in the most ghastly circumstances, perform your duty and seek no reward beyond your lot in life as a means of transcending the mundane world ---as a devotional penence to The Supreme Personality of Godhead, from whom all personality arises to engage the souls in pastimes ... either in timeless heaven or in the temporal material world of repeated births and death.

the maha-mantra:

hare krishna hare krishna
krishna krishna hare hare
hare rama hare rama
rama rama hare hare

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PLEASE NOTE:
Mantras are not a 'requisition forms',
Mantras are not incantations ---Mantras are not for fullfilling base desires or whimsical wonder-lusts ---Mantras are prayers to focus the attention away from external stimulai and thus meant to bring the meditator in union with the soul ['soul' rather than the gross-level body & material elements].

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one that is popular in jewish meditation is "Ribbono shel 'olam"

 

[bhaktajan]

Friend atanu,
Try and follow the ying/yang principle and you may understand.
This has come out as an extension of the dharma.
Love & rgds

Thank you friend

 

[zenzero]

Friend bhaktajan,

Yes agree that consciousness and pure consciousness are the same.
It is only for an understanding that we may use individual consciousness and universal consciousness till as you have mentioned the mantra drops and all is ONE.

That state of oneness once reached [even for a split second] is what is called DWIJA and from there on the journey actually begins; one starts living for the first time as till then he was in the hands of evolution being unconscious about his karma but after DWIJA one is slowly conscious of his karma and slowly they drop and one starts to become free till it is total and one is in nirvikalpa samadhi, or total freedom.

Love & rgds

 

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namasté bhaktajan,

I hope it is okay to join the conversation...

The meditation approach you offer is one of 3 ways (upāya-s) we find in Kaśmir Śaivism [ some call Trika Śaivism ].

This approach you offer is called āṇavopāya :
āṇu अणु = fine , minute , atomic is known as 'atom' - which is another name for the individual jiva. This upāya is the means whereby the āṇu or the individual jiva uses his own kāraṇa-s or instruments i.e. senses, prana and manas for self-realization. It includes disciplines concerning the regulation of prana, japa, concentration, meditation, etc.

There are another 2 ways also:
sāmbhavopāya (sāmbhava upāya) & śākopāya (shakti-upāya ).

More on this if there is interest.

praṇām

 

[zenzero]

Friend yajvan,

Welcome to RF!
Best Wishes.

Love & rgds

 

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namasté zenzero,

Friend yajvan,

Welcome to RF! Best Wishes.
Love & rgds

thank you,

praṇām

 

[bhaktajan]

That state of oneness once reached [even for a split second] is what is called DWIJA and from there on the journey actually begins; one starts living for the first time as till then he was in the hands of evolution being unconscious about his karma but after DWIJA one is slowly conscious of his karma and slowly they drop and one starts to become free till it is total and one is in nirvikalpa samadhi, or total freedom.

And Then . . . one returns the gracious favors bestowed to oneself, birth after birth in the cycle of samsara, for all the facilities of all those maya births & deaths & moments of happiness & distress & witnessing to epic events and common poignant personal events in our lives . . . for all those facilities graciously made available to us individual living/conscious BEINGS in our surjourn in Maya's material world . . . we reciprocate all we learnt in seperation from the Absolute-Truth, who is in His original transcendent abode outside of the manifest space & Time, and to that Owner/Benefactor of all desires since time-immemorial, we 'souls-in-the-material world, eventually, via the disciplic succession directly back Brahma back to MahaVishu back to Narayana back to Sankarsana back to Gopala-Krishna, the cowherd boyfriend of the Gopis and the playmate of the dairy-farm village of the Kingdom of od in Heaven beyond the material Cosmic enclosure known as the 'brahmanda'.

 

[zenzero]

Friend bhaktajan,

And Then . . . one returns the gracious favors bestowed to oneself, birth after birth in the cycle of samsara, for all the facilities of all those maya births & deaths & moments of happiness & distress & witnessing to epic events and common poignant personal events in our lives . . . for all those facilities graciously made available to us individual living/conscious BEINGS in our surjourn in Maya's material world . . . we reciprocate all we learnt in seperation from the Absolute-Truth, who is in His original transcendent abode outside of the manifest space & Time, and to that Owner/Benefactor of all desires since time-immemorial, we 'souls-in-the-material world, eventually, via the disciplic succession directly back Brahma back to MahaVishu back to Narayana back to Sankarsana back to Gopala-Krishna, the cowherd boyfriend of the Gopis and the playmate of the dairy-farm village of the Kingdom of od in Heaven beyond the material Cosmic enclosure known as the 'brahmanda'.

You are missing the point every time.
There has never been any separation my friend.
It is only that mind which again is part of that *whole* there is nothing which is outside the *whole* which makes it appear separate. When the form [individual] knows that the mind itself loses the energy to create that illusion / maya any longer.

Love & rgds

 

[Wannabe Yogi]

The core doctrine of Buddhism may be described in at least three separate ways, Madhuri. One of those involves the idea of "Anatta" (in Sanskrit, Anatman), "non-self" or "non-soul", couple with the ideas of impermanence and of vacuity. Another way is by stating that all that exists comes into being by a web of complex interdependency.

In that respect, Buddhism is very different from both Sanatana Dharma and from the Abrahamic Faiths. We do not believe that "individual people" do exist as such. Ultimately we are only manifestations of chains of cause and effect, and the sense of self is basically a functional illusion. We are not the same person along the day, much less beyond death.

I would say that Advaita Vedanta is very close to Buddhism in many ways. This is why Adi Sankara was called a crypto-Buddhist by many of his Hindu critics.

His teachings are that there is just ONE. This One we call Brahman.

 

[zenzero]

Friends,

Once again repeat the personal understanding that Buddhism is part of dharma which is sanatan and Gautama way evolved out of the prevailing practices and something evolved through him which was the non-self as the self or form is always a part of that *whole* and truth is that which is permanent and anything temporary is illusion or maya which the self or form is.
Evolution is CHANGE that is permanent.
CHANGE or EVOLUTION cannot be labelled as DIFFERENCES!

Love & rgds