Class notes from August to December, 2014
Dharma & the World, Moral & Ethical Life
These teachings of the dharma are the solution to all the problems of the world. To have Religion, you have to have some philosophy — not philosophy that is about argument and debate, but that which shows the way towards a time-tested practice that realizes its tenets.
If you are satisfied with moral and ethical life, you probably do not have devotion to God yet. Those who seek out the dharma teachings want to see God, not go to heaven. This is the big difference between salvation and Liberation.
The word "pitri," in Sanskrit, means the ancestors. Humorously, then, Lord Buddha was looking into a different pitri dish than science is looking at — that of the ancestors, their whereabouts, and their cycles of bondage to rebirth in physical form.
It is good to be born in the third chakra, but do not die in that chakra. The third chakra is a great byway where the ancestors and humans are constantly trading places. Aspire to a higher chakra.
The main difference between a Seer and a worldly person is that the Seer sees the world as unreal and the worldly see it all as real. The Seer renounces it and is free and peaceful, while the worldly person gets dragged from birth to death and death to rebirth in suffering.
Some words in Sanskrit are most pointed, most telling. Chaya means "shadow play," referring to the soul's constant tendency of hiding from the Light and pretending to be what it is not. Some beings may think this to be most fun, most clever, but they should know that to play constantly in these dream lives pales in comparison to the Bliss of being Brahman, or even of meeting Ishvara face to face......
Just as when we eat food and it becomes part of our organs, circulatory system, blood, flesh, etc., like that, when we get the dharma teachings circulating in our thoughts, they become part of our mind.
When we put our minds on the teachings of the dharma the curtain of maya begins to thin out. There can be no darkness around a sun.