D A Y 3

COMPARATIVE

RELIGIONS

COMPLEXITY OF RELIGIONS:VARIOUS DIMENSIONS TO A RELIGIOUS LIFE

Experiential

The felt experience.

Doctrinal

The beliefs.

Ethical

How to act. Right and

wrong.

Social

Being with others.

Rituals/Practices

Repeated acts, often to worship or express

reverence.

Material

Architecture, art, sacred items.

Mythic

A culture’s foundational story of the nature of the human condition.

OUR APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING

RELIGIONS

Understanding a religion is like working with a puzzle:

“Two men are found dead in their cabin in the woods. The forest around them has been burned down, but the cabin has not. How did they die?”

We need to focus on finding the proper context/mythos before we have any hope of really

understanding it.

MYTHOS OF HINDUISM

BrahmanUltimate reality; underlying ground of all existence.

Characteristics?

“Sat-chit-ananda”

MYTHOS OF HINDUISM

What do people really want?

Sat-chit-anada

MYTHOS OF HINDUISM

Yoga School vs. Advaita Vedanta

Why do we want sat-chit-ananda?

How do we achieve it?

REVIEW: YOGA SCHOOL OF

PHILOSOPHY

Yoga:

“Yoke”; to attach, to unite.

Reality: DualisticMaterial (prakriti) & Spiritual (purusha)

Moksha:Freeing ourselves from the material so that we can reunite with spiritual.

Realizing that our deepest self IS Brahman.

REVIEW: YOGA SCHOOL OF

PHILOSOPHY

Yoga:

“Yoke”; to attach, to unite.

How to Reunite?4 primary types: feeling, doing, experiencing, intuiting.

One of the first personality typologies.

THE FOUR YOGAS

Groups

In your own words, summarize the four yogas written about in your readings for today.

Explain how each of these yogas may lead to reunification with Brahman. (*Hint one of the yogasmay be much more difficult to explain than the others.)

BHAKTI YOGA

The Way to God through Love/Devotion

(Reuniting with Brahman Emotionally)

• Has countless followers.

• Usually expressed or practiced through: • Devotions to a personal deity.

• Rituals & festivals.

• Pilgrimages.

• Even Cow Veneration (and vegetarianism)

• Why so popular?

FOR A BRIEF LOOK AT HINDU DEITIES:

TRIMURTI

The PuranasDivine stories, primarily of the divine Trimurti.

ShivaThe “destroyer” or

“transformer”Associated with fire

and dance.

VishnuThe “maintainer” or

“preserver” Associated with water.

BrahmaThe “creator”.

Associated with earth.

FOR A BRIEF LOOK AT HINDU DEITIES:

VISHNU

FOR A BRIEF LOOK AT HINDU DEITIES:

SHIVA

FOR A BRIEF LOOK AT HINDU DEITIES:

BRAHMA

Not worshipped much. No holidays. Not much art.

Several stories have him cursed.

FOR A BRIEF LOOK AT HINDU DEITIES:

GANESH (SON OF SHIVA AND PARVATI)

Overcoming Obstacles

FOR A BRIEF LOOK AT HINDU DEITIES:

DEVI

The Great Goddess

• Many manifestations:

• Mother

• Protector

• Deity of wealth

• Powerful Slayer - Kali

BHAKTI YOGA

1. Why so many deities?

2. How does Bhakti Yoga help achieve Moksha?

3. Why worship a deity vs. Brahman?

BHAKTI YOGA

The Way to God through Love/Devotion

Hard to express love to the “ground of all being”

Easier to express it to somebody or something.

BHAKTI YOGA

The Way to God through Love/Devotion

Hard to express love to the “ground of all being”

Easier to express it to somebody or something.

BHAKTI YOGA

The Way to God through Love/Devotion

Hard to express love to the “ground of all being”

Easier to express it to somebody or something.

BHAKTI YOGA

How might you practice (or already practice) Bhakti Yoga?

KARMA YOGA

The Way to God through Work

(Reuniting by Doing Brahman’s Will).

• Maybe most common approach.

• Performing your dharma (duty), with detachment from the outcome.

• Often done along with other yogas (i.e. bhakti)

Q: “How do I know what my dharma is?

YOUR DHARMA:

1. STAGES OF LIFE

Q: But what occupation shall I have? What specific work?

YOUR DHARMA:

2. STATIONS OF LIFE (CASTE)

• Based on Law of Manu.

• Based on the

concept of

reincarnation.

• Caste system has

decayed.

But what occupation shall I have? What specific work?“The one that you were born to do.” – What does this mean to you?

KARMA YOGA

1. How does Karma Yoga help achieve Moshka?

• Doing something without attachment to outcome helps separate “you” from your “ego”.

• Doing something for Brahman helps bring you to experience something greater than yourself.

2. What else could it mean to do your “dharma”?

RAJA YOGA

The way to God through psychophysical mastery

(Reuniting Through Meditative Experience).

• The royal path of meditation.

• Like a king can maintain control over his kingdom, we can reunite with Brahman by controlling our inner Kingdom.

RAJA YOGA

The 4 Layers of the Self

Body

Conscious Mind

Unconscious Mind

The Ground of all Being

Through meditative practices can overcome the limitations of the first 3 layers in order to reunite with Brahman.

RAJA YOGA DEMONSTRATIONS

RAJA YOGA DEMONSTRATIONS

RAJA YOGA DEMONSTRATIONS

RAJA YOGA DEMONSTRATIONS

RAJA YOGA

Beyond Physical Limitations

Body

Conscious Mind

Unconscious Mind

The Ground of all Being

Physical Limitations

Concentrative Limitations

Emotional Limitations

RAJA YOGA

Many Different Practices

To overcome Limitations of Physical Self

Raja Yoga

Hatha Yoga:

Physical Energy

Mantra Yoga:

Psychological Energy

Tantric Yoga:

Sexual Energy

H O U R 4

COMPARATIVE

RELIGIONS

JNANA YOGA

The Way to God through Knowledge

(Reuniting through the intellect)

• To know Brahman through intuitive understanding.

• Meditating/study of Sacred texts.

• Through intellectual exercise.

• Guru teachings.

• The hardest path, but quickest.

JNANA YOGA

What does it look like?

JNANA YOGA

What does it look like?

• Within the Mahabarata Epic

• The conversations between Arjuna & Krishna

• Most influential literature in Hinduism.

Gandhi: “dictionary for life”

JNANA YOGA

What Does it Look Like?

Groups 2-3

What’s Arjuna’s dilemma? (pg 2-6)

What is Sri Krishna’s response? (pg10-11)

• Pg 10: “Death is certain for the born. Rebirth is certain for the dead. You should not grieve for what is unavoidable.”

• Pg 11: “Even if you consider this from the standpoint of your own caste-duty, you out not hesitate; for, to a warrior, there is nothing nobler than a righteous war.”

JNANA YOGA

What Does it Look Like?

Contemplating Pg 13

“In the calm of self-surrender you can free yourself from the bondage of virtue and vice during this very

life. Devote yourself, therefore, to reaching union with Brahman. To unite the heart with Brahman and then to

act: that is the secret of non-attached work.”

JNANA YOGA

What Does it Look Like?

Contemplating Pg 13

What is it saying?

JNANA YOGA

What Does it Look Like?

Contemplating Pg 13

JNANA YOGA

What Does it Look Like?

Contemplating Pg 13

JNANA YOGA

What Does it Look Like?

Pg 8: “The truly wise mourn neither for the living nor for the dead.”

Pg 8: “There was never a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor any of these kings. Nor is there a future in which we shall cease to be.”

Pg 9: “That which is non-existent can never come into being, and that which is can never cease to be.”

Pg 11: “Realize that pleasure pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, are all one and the same: then go into battle.”

Pg 12: “You must be free from the pairs of opposites. Poise your mind in tranquility.”

THE BIG PICTURE

Born

LiveDie

Brahman

• One impersonal Ultimate Reality -BrahmanBrahmanBrahmanBrahman

• Your deepest self, soul – AtmanAtmanAtmanAtman

• Atman is continually born into this limitedlimitedlimitedlimited world lifetime after lifetime -Wheel of Wheel of Wheel of Wheel of SamsaraSamsaraSamsaraSamsara

• Each successive birth condition determined by our actions and level of realization of our previous lifetime. - KarmaKarmaKarmaKarma

• Trapped in Samsara because we have false, illusory perception of reality – MayaMayaMayaMaya

• We can escape the Wheel of Samsara once we “awaken” to the self-realization that we are it: Atman is Brahman. - MokshaMokshaMokshaMoksha

THE BIG PICTURE

Can you think of an analogy that you’re familiar with to represent these ideas?

A MODERN ANALOGY

Why do we want sat-chit-ananda? How do we achieve it?

Yoga School vs. Advaita Vedanta

But, why don’t I feel like Brahman?Bothered by physical ailments, emotional conflicts

with people,… quizzes!

THE BIG PICTURE

Born

LiveDie

Brahman For Yoga School:For Yoga School:For Yoga School:For Yoga School:

Maya Maya Maya Maya is the illusion that we are primarily material, that this

world is all there is.

• We can escape the Wheel of Samsara once we “awaken” to the self-realization that we are more than physicalmore than physicalmore than physicalmore than physical.

THE BIG PICTURE

Born

LiveDie

Brahman For For For For AdvaitaAdvaitaAdvaitaAdvaita VedantaVedantaVedantaVedanta

MayaMayaMayaMaya is the illusion that there is a distinction between material

and spiritual.

• We can escape the Wheel of Samsara once we “awaken” to the self-realization that we are all there isall there isall there isall there is.

THE BIG PICTURE

Born

LiveDie

Brahman

For For For For AdvaitaAdvaitaAdvaitaAdvaita VedantaVedantaVedantaVedanta

MayaMayaMayaMaya is the illusion that there is a distinction between material

and spiritual.

• We can escape the Wheel of Samsara once we “awaken” to the self-realization that we are all there isall there isall there isall there is.

THE BIG PICTURE

Born

LiveDie

Brahman

For For For For AdvaitaAdvaitaAdvaitaAdvaita VedantaVedantaVedantaVedanta

• Unlike the Yoga School, Vedanta is “non-dualistic”

• Believes in “Monisim”

• Practice: What is reality?• Neti Neti.

THE MAIN DIFFERENCE:

HOW TO ACHIEVE MOSHKA

Yoga School vs. Advaita Vedanta

Detachment from the material.

Realization:There is no material & spiritual.

Only Brahman.

THE BIG PICTURE

Born

LiveDie

Brahman •Why would we, Brahman, choose to do this?

WHAT’S THE CORE?

(EVEN IN NON-RELIGIOUS TERMS)

• What is the Ultimate• Brahman

• Human Condition?• Trapped in Maya

• How to Transcend the Human Condition?• Moksha through self-realization.

• What’s the key idea to you?• Authenticity• There’s more to you than you know.• Unity/identity with all people and things.

• Do you see similarities with any religions you’re familiar with?