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Date Posted: 11:32:36 11/10/02 Sun
Author: Bill-22Oct02
Subject: Re: Soul in Bhagavad Gita
In reply to: Anonymous-20Oct02 's message, "Re: Soul in Bhagavad Gita" on 11:31:57 11/10/02 Sun

If your referring to Buddha and Buddhism has not teaching there exists a soul, or in Hindu, the Atman, that's true. I puzzled over this, reasoning, how could Buddha attain enlightenment without recognizing the eternal soul, Atman, essence? Did he achieve a much higher state than the legions of realized beings that've come from Hinduism. Did his realization eclipse that of Jesus the Christ, who of course spoke freely of the soul. How could Buddha, find the same Liberation as the other masters and free beings, but deny the existence of the eternal existence, consciousness?

He in reply to what he'd achieved through his enlightenment, he said he'd "awakened." Another time when questioned as to how to state the essence of his teachings he said, "awareness."

How, then, can one achieve "awakening," or "awareness" without the corresponding faculty of existence? Something obviously transcending the temporal world would have to be in play for one to "awaken" to "awareness."

In Tibetan Buddhism there is much talk of "mind." Mind is what reincarnates, mind is essence, etc. etc. Without any essence it is clear there isn't any consciousness, hence any awareness of being. Therefore, it seems to me that Buddha was, referring to an essence through nirvana or extinguishment of the suffering self. Otherwise it seems to me why would anyone laboriously put themselves through the demanding meditation, self-restraint, moral strictures, charity etc., of his 8 fold path if there wasn't a "pay-off" in the end, namely the transcendence of the self, or consciousness of suffering, limited awareness. It would seem to be easier to just jump into a wild river if one wanted to escape in "nothingness" if death ends in the end of consciousness, existence.

From the Essence of Self Realization, the Wisdom of Paramhansa Yogananda as recorded by Kriyananda.

"You say that the goal of life is to find God," challenged a student of comparative religions. "Yet this belief is not universally held. The Buddhists, for example, don't even believe in God."

Yogananda replied, "Buddha was no atheist. His teachings, however, like those of every great master, had to offer correction to the misconceptions of his day. The people at that time were prone to let God do the work for them, spiritually speaking. Buddha therefore stressed the importance of man's own effort in the spiritual search."

"As the saying goes, 'The proof of the pudding is in the eating.' Those who deeply practice the Buddha's teachings, and not those who merely argue about them, achieve their goal. Achieving it, they find it to be the same as that of all the great religions: realization of the infinite Self, and freedom from the trammels of delusion.

"As for seeking agreement among all religions in the world," the Master continued, "it would be a mistake to suppose that all of them derive equally from the same level of divine insight."

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