A book composed of the collected teachings of Guru Nanak.
Technically speaking, Adi Granth means "original book," but is generally referred to as the "Holy Book."
It is the "Bible" of the Sikh religion, and part of the prayers that make up the daily devotion of every Sikh.
The beauty of Nanak's spiritual philosophy is in its straight forward simplicity.
Hindu influences are also evident.
His overriding goal was to reveal an underlying harmony between the Muslim and Hindu ways.
He sought to get down to the roots by discarding the externals.
Nanak rejected all dogma, all scriptures; he rejected the caste system and everything even suggestive of idolatry.
After cleansing all that was left was the all-important core.
Nanak declared that there is one God.
Salvation consists in the soul's escape from samara, the cycle of birth and death. This is accomplished by the total destruction of Self-love, and that is accomplished through the total submission to the will of God.
The perfect universally way to achieve total submission is through Nam Jaap, the constant repetition of the Divine Name.
Nam Jaap will slowly, but steadily, clear away all the impurities of Self-love. Nam Jaap, daily prayer, and service to the community - these three rules were the common core of worship that Nanak distilled from the teachings of Islam and Hinduism.

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Aesthetics

From Greek aisth tikos, of sense perception, from aisth ta, perceptible things.
The study of beauty.
The branch of philosophy that deals with the nature and expression of beauty, as in the fine arts.
In Kantian philosophy, the branch of metaphysics concerned with the laws of perception.

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ashram - (ashrama)

The tightly spiritual knit community of a guru and his disciples.
In the West referred to as "ashram."
Originally the term ashram meant only the community itself - a community that was usually on the move. The ashram wandered about in the mountains of forest, acquiring their meager needs from the bounty of nature, or occasionally, from begging. Unlike its status nowadays, begging was perfectly respectable during the time of the Upanishads; it was considered a noble act to share one's food with the holy men.
During the rainy season, the community would have settle down in one place. India's myriad of rivers, swollen by monsoon rains, made travel virtually impossible. Over time, many of these communities acquired donations of land and gradually gave up their wandering ways. Thus in time, the word ashrama came to refer to the place - the "hermitage" - of a particular guru and his disciples.

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atman

Being Brahman and thus spirit is eternal and can never die.
The doctrine of Brahman-Atman is the quintessential (purest & most perfect form) feature of Vedanta.
The philosophy holds that at the core of your being - and at the core of every other sentient beings (the beings that exhibit consciousness or at least have the potential for consciousness) - atman.
Atman is not a creation of Brahman; atman is Brahman.
The Brahman-Atman, although individualized in each sentient being is Brahman.
Atman is the true inner Self of each sentient being - hence the powerful verse from the Chandogya Upanishad that ends with the Sanskrit words Tat tsvam asi! ("You are That!"). The word "That" refers to the ultimate, unspeakable reality of Brahman.
You are That! You are Brahman! You are not a creature of Brahman; you are Brahman! To really know this, to discover and know the atman within oneself, is the ultimate goal of life. Nothing else compares in significance.
The Self - the indwelling conscious core of every sentient being - is known by the term atman, which is derived from an early root word that means, "to breathe." In many ancient cultures, the principle of life - the soul - was associated with the breath. This is understandable; a baby seems to come to life when it takes its first breath and remains vital and warm throughout life so long as it continues to breathing. "Breath" is also the meaning of the Latin spiritus, from which is derived our word "spirit."
Atman, then is Brahman! Prakriti, though the appropriate forms of maya, provides the means through which Brahman (purusha) can enter directly into its lila.
But atman is Brahman. This cannot be stressed too strongly: atman is not part of Brahman; Brahman is pure spirit and cannot be divided into parts, Atman is not a role of Brahman. Atman is Brahman.
The conscious core of my being (and all sentient beings) is the Brahman-Atman. This is the Self, which, participating in the nature of purusha, is the purest spirit, eternal, and non-acting.
Atman (purusha) is the conscious subject of all that the ego (prakriti) does and experiences. Atman is the "hear-er" of what is heard, "see-er" of what is seen, and "think-er" of what is thought.
In the normal course of development, the atman (pure consciousness) becomes entranced, as it were, with the ego role of which it is the conscious subject. So entranced, so enchanted does it become, that it gets absorbed in the game, going so far as to falsely identify with the ego role that it observes. This is the understandable, but fatal, mistake that we all make early in the game. By the way of a very loose analogy, we may compare the relationship of atman and ego to the viewing of a film in which the camera gives you the impression that you are seeing the action through the eyes of the main character. If you get absorbed in the action, you might feel that you were the one in danger. In your entrancement, you have identified with experience. In like manner, when the atman falsely identifies its being with that of the ego role, all of the troubles of the world are the result. To reveal this error, and to correct it, is the central thrust of Vedanta philosophy.
Also, death has no reality; there can be no such thing as death. Brahman cannot die; Brahman is eternal. And atman is Brahman. Therefore, the real enduring me cannot die. Only the role - the ego - can die.

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avatara - (avataras)

Referring to the incarnations of Vishnu.
According to belief, Vishnu has played this all-important role in the Bhagavad ten times over the ages.

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axiology

Greek axios, worth;
Value or worth.
Worth-ness.
What humans value.
The study of the nature of values and value judgments.

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Bhagavad Gita - Poem

Part of a larger poem the Mahabharata written in Sanskrit.
74,000 versus grew to 106,000 versus.
15 times the length of the Bible (Old and New Testament Combined)
Sage Vyasa - Believed to have written the Epic poem.
Many writer and editors worked on the text.
The Epic.
Source of 1000's of beliefs, folklore's, traditional stories and legends.

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Bhakti

The passionate worship of a personal savior was the chosen way of many Hindu men and women.
A tradition whose roots reach back into pre-Vedic times.
According to Ramanuja, the highest form of Bhakti is the worship repetition of the name of God.

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Bhakti Yoga

The way of devotion.
According to Krishna, the way of devotion is the greatest yoga of all, greater than Karma and kingly Raja Yoga.
Loving devotion and service to a personal savior are what distinguishes Bhakti.

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Brahma

Third member of the Trimurti.
In the Trimurti, Brahma stood between Vishnu and Shiva.
Brahma represents the state of equilibrium and balance between Shiva and Vishnu.
Most important of all the gods.
Brahma is derived from the Sanskrit root brih, which means "to grow."
Brahma is the designated creator God of the world.
The creative power of Brahma is an ongoing reality that not only brought the world existence in the first place, but also continues to act every day in the power of generation; the constant emergence of new life is the creative power of Brahma at work.
Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are all one. They are usually pictured as the face of Brahma face forward, Vishnu face right, and Shiva face left.

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Brahman

Brahman alone is Absolute Truth.
Brahman alone is real.
Atman is Brahman and that ultimate goal of life is the realization of the identity of the atman and Brahman.
Brahman is pure existence, the source of all that Is.
Brahman is the Fact of Existence.
Brahman projects and rules the universe.
Mystic Brahman alone is REAL - All is Brahman.
Being/Oneness/One and only without a Second.
Supreme non-dual Reality.

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Brahmin (Caste)

A special group of individuals, call them priests of shamans, become the custodians of the sacred rites and tradition of the community, who are held in the highest esteem.
The Brahmins were the priests. It was their job to make contact with the gods. So long as they succeeded in making contact and getting the desired results reasonably often, they would be held in high esteem. Their importance was second to none.
The Brahmins were responsible for knowing all the sacrificial rituals in order to contact the gods.
What gave real, sacred power to the ritual ceremony were the prayers spoken by the Brahmin priests. Throughout the entire ceremony, the priests would loudly and passionately call upon the gods to witness and accept the sacrifice, to hear their prayers.
The Vedas became the book of prayers that the Brahmin priests recited.

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Buddhism

A heterodox darshana.
Split off from Hinduism.
An alternative philosophy to Hinduism.
A reform movement.
The teachings of Gautama Shakyamuni, who would later become known as the Buddha, "The Awakened One."
Buddha was an itinerant guru of the 6th century BCE, who experienced a profound mystical intuition of truth, while in his thirties and dedicated the rest of his life to traveling about North India teaching his way of liberation to as many as who would listen.
Buddhism denied the validity of such traditional values as the caste in Hinduism and the infallibility of the Vedas and questioning even the reality of atman.

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Charvaka

A heterodox darshana.
The polar opposite of Jaina.
Far from withdrawing from the world and embracing the privations of an ascetic life the followers of Charvaka held that the present enjoyment of life is the only real value that exists.
Charvaka is a thoroughgoing materialist philosophy of life.
Nothing else exists; sense of perception alone is real.
The wise person is the one who knows this and devotes his or her energies to the pursuit of pleasurable situations and the avoidance of painful situations.
Charvaka held, very simply, that the good life is to be found in the pursuit of happiness and the avoidance of suffering. Presumably, that was not meant to be interpreted as the pursuit of gluttonous Self-indulgence; Charvaka was more Epicurean than hedonist.
Good actions, born of compassion, conduce to happiness; bad actions, born of Selfishness, result in unhappiness.
In other words, learn from experience to do what works.
Charvaka was very pragmatic.

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Confucianism

Reestablishing order to society. Natural order.
Return to tradition and norms.
Institution of the family because the society is an extension of the family.
Aristocracy's role should be based on talent, compassion, and commitment to serving the needs of the common people.
Emphasis on cultivation of the Self.
Considered transformative power set by the leaders as the ideal.
In Confucianism, the character of the "new man", which the achievement of Junzi is at the heart and soul of the Confucian system.
The family is the rock foundation of the social order, the beginning and the end of all. Also, it is the model for the entire society. Confucius viewed the whole society as being one great family. Values learned in one's family were simply to be extended to the broader society as one matured.

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cosmogony

Greek kosmogoni`a; ko`smos the world + root of gi`gnesthai to be born: cf. F. cosmogonie.] The creation of the world or universe; a theory or account of such creation; as, the poetical cosmogony of Hesoid; the cosmogonies of Thales, Anaxagoras, and Plato.
The creation of the world or universe; a theory or account of such creation; as, the poetical cosmogony of Hesoid; the cosmogonies of Thales, Anaxagoras, and Plato.
A traditional mythical or legendary story account of the creation of the universe.
Pictorial story of Creation.
Tracing creation of a few primordial elements, Earth/Water/Air/Fire.

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Cosmogony of the Vedas

Less male chauvinistic view of creation.
No male God or another human male being (as in the Bible, the Koran, etc.)
In the beginning was the One, the Ultimate Reality, which took the form of a golden cosmic egg, or embryo. The embryo became the earth and sky, the most fundamental dual aspects of the one reality.
Prithivi - The Earth - mother of all.
Sometimes we see a religion emerging from earlier Philosophy.
Confucianism/Daoism
The Vedic - Earth (female) - the female counterpart of Prithivi.
Dyaus - Air (male) - the male counterpart of Prithivi, derived from the Sanskrit root div, which means to shine.
From Dyaus and Prithivi were born the gods and all other living beings, including mankind.
Rita - inner law of creation.
Hindu Philosophy arose from Theism when Cosmology replaced Cosmogony.

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Cosmology

Greek: ko`smos the world + -logy: cf. F. cosmologie.] The science of the world or universe; or a treatise
Relating to the structure and parts of the system of creation, the elements of bodies, the modifications of material things,
The laws of motion, and the order and course of nature.
The study of the visible universe.
Astrophysics, Mathematics.
The study of the physical universe considered as a totality of phenomena in time and space.
The astrophysical study of the history, structure, and constituent dynamics of the universe.
A specific theory or model of this structure and these dynamics.
The metaphysical study and astrophysical study of the origin, structure, nature of the universe, and the evolution of the universe.
The study of the physical universe.
Inquiries into the nature of the universe.
Modern philosophy cosmologists from the theories from Astrophysics & draw metaphysical conclusions.
Rational acceptance of the marthas (created by Shankara)
Mathra is a monastery that, at the same time, is something like a college.
Mathra in addition to offering the usual monastic disciplines, a mathra places strong emphasis on scholarly pursuits.
Cosmos=Universe
Theoretical analysis of the nature of the universe.

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Dao

The original meaning of the word was �Way� or �road.�
For Confucius the word refers to the right way of conduct. The right way to live.
A very early derived meaning of Dao referred to the grand way in which the heavens revolve around the earth. The central pole of this revolution was seen to be the seat of the power of Dao, from which flowed continuously the creative force that ordered not only the movements of the heavenly bodies around itself, but all of the activities of nature.
Over time, the concept of Dao became more and more abstract. Dao came to be regarded as the impersonal and infinite force, cosmic in scope that stood behind the being and the unfolding of the natural order.
There can be seen interesting parallelisms between the Chinese concept of Dao and the Indian concept of Dharma (Brahman-Dharma).
The underlying reality that gives meaning to all that is.
The play of Dao is seen to be spontaneous and harmonious.

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Dao De Jing - (Tao Te Ching)

A book of 5000 Chinese characters arranged in 82 short chapters described as versus. The word Jing refers to the fact that the work was regarded as a classic. Dao and De refer to what the work was about. Also known as the Lao Zi (Lao Tzu), the name of its alleged author.
contains the fundamental teachings of Philosophical Daoism.

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Daoism - (Taoism)

Is founded on the deep love of nature, a love of harmony and organic wholeness of nature. Mankind, human society, is seen to be an integral part of the natural order, and as such, human life is potentially a perfect expression of the play of Dao.
Humans, unfortunately have the ability to get out of sync with the harmony of Dao, and when they do all hell breaks loose. All suffering and tribulations of human life are the consequence of human society straying from the �way,� the Dao.
To the Daoist, restoring humanity�s proper harmony within the natural order thus, becomes the only matter of real importance.
This is the fundamental view of Daoism.

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Darshana

A school of philosophical thought.
Six distinct "orthodox" schools of Hindu thought, known as the astika darshana, took form.
The 6 are:
- Vedanta
- Samkhya
- Yoga
- Purva Mimamsa
- Vaisheshika
- Niyaya
A coherent philosophical system.

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Darshana Yoga

Yoking of the mind & body.
Orthodox liberation of Self by harnessing one to God.
Anchoring to God, binding of ones Self.
Accommodate primarily of the seeker.

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Is the "virtue" generated by the activity of wu wei.
The simple life of a craft-person can be an excellent expression of de. The special faculties of human intelligence are not an aberration of nature; human society doesn't have to be in conflict with Dao. The woodworker, the farmer, the child rearer � each working naturally and spontaneously at his or her craft � are fully in harmony with Dao, at least potentially.
Like the Confucians, the Daoists believed that the solution depended on the fashioning of a "new person," a person of de.

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Dharma

Derived from the Sanskrit dhar, which means, "to hold". Is the inner law of creation that upholds nature.
Is the inner law of Brahman that causes the evolution of the universe to unfold in an orderly and harmonious way.
Dharma is what gives unity and harmony to all nature.
Refers to transcendental Natural Law and also, oral law.
Dharma is the orderly evolution of the universe and is the play of Brahman.

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Dharana

Indicates an Indian thought assumed Humans could obtain a sighting or seeing of the mystical vision.
Of metaphysical truth.
Dharana is an ongoing condition of consciousness in which restless activity of the thinking mind has been brought under control and the person is free to be totally aware of the present moment as it unfolds.
Dharana is closely associated with ekagrata, which means "one-pointed-ness," a habit of focusing one's consciousness on the reality of the moment.

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Dhyana

Extremely important word in the evolution of Eastern thought.
It is the parent of the Chinese word "Chan," which in turn was the parent of the Japanese word "Zen."
In it Self, dhyana refers to the practice of meditation and the state of mind of one who practices meditation.
Patanjali describes four stages of Dhyana, the fourth being synonymous with Samadhi.

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Dualism

Matter and spirit are real and separate.
The view that the world consists of or is explicable as two fundamental entities, such as mind and matter.

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Epistemology

Greek epist m , knowledge (from epistasthai, epist -, to understand : epi-, epi- + histasthai, middle voice of histanai, to place, determine; see st - in Indo-European Roots) + -logy.
Study of the nature of knowledge.
Is Human knowledge Objective or Subjective?
The branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity.

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Ethics

The study of the general nature of morals and of the specific moral choices to be made by a person; moral philosophy.
The studies of what we consider values.
What is right or wrong for the individual.
The study of the general nature of morals and the specific moral choices to be made by a person.
The study of Human Duty; the body of rules of duty drawn from science; a particular system of principles and rules concerning duty, whether true or false; rules of practice in respect to a single class of human actions.

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Fallacy of Reification

Logical error when absolute concept is treated as a REAL THING.
An abstraction treated as an independent existing thing.

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Guru

A holy man who has attracted a following of disciples was called a guru. A guru is the leader of the spiritual community - its guide and teacher. The title is conferred out of respect by the disciples, never by the man himself.
Typically before death, the guru would appoint a successor, thus the continuity was assured.

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Ghandi

To his shame, his followers called him Mahatma (Great Soul).
Had not read the Gita until 2nd yr. in Law School.
Had a tremendous impact on him.
Most important part to him was the end of the 2nd part, 18th verse:
- "What is an Enlightened Person really like?"
- Krishna's reply is the essential truth of Gita.
- Pg. 68 Highlight/1944Translation.
- Awakened = Luminescence = Enlightened.
Famous "Walk to the Sea". Anyone who cared to join him was allowed to walk with him. India was still under British Rule and was being overcharged for the consumption of Salt. The Indians felt they were being used because in such a hot climate salt was essential and because India was its largest customer the people felt they were being taken. (Similar to the Boston Tea Party). Ghandi's intention was to walk to the sea and extract salt from the salt water. Stared out with 75 followers and at the end had 1000's following him. British Law prohibited extracting salt from the seawater, but in an act of civil disobedience Ghandi did so anyway.

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Hare Krishna

**Krishna**

Sect. Origin in 1148 by Mystic of Calcutta
A.C. Bhakti Vedanta - Was loving devotion of God.
Most popular during the 1960's in the West.
Liberation from regular employment.
Krishna is an avatar divine reincarnation of Vishnu.
Krishna means "Black" or "Dark Blue" often in paintings and illustrations Krishna is a young man in his middle teens and blue.
- Referring to the Universe.
Chant calls people to teachings of Krishna.
- End War, Food for All
- No way to achieve.
- Hare Krishna, by repetition 1028 times a day - a mantra.
- Kept count by beads around the neck.
- 108 sets - 16 times.

The full mantra is the following:

hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa
kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare
hare rāma hare rāma
rāma rāma hare hare

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Hatha Yoga

The yoga of highly specialized breathing and bodily exercises seen as the way to condition and control the physical Self.
Hatha is viewed as a companion of the yoga of meditation, and it was assumed that the student would learn its skills under the personal supervision of the master.
Hatha prepares the individual for the richest possible experience in mediation.
Within the Yoga Sutras, Hatha is the root of all yoga. Without Hatha, there can be no Raja yoga.

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Henotheism

Greek heno- (from heis, hen-, one. See sem-1 in Indo-European Roots) + Greek theos, god; see dh s- in Indo-European Roots + -ism.
Belief in one god without denying the existence of others.
Primitive religion in which each of several divinities is regarded as independent, and is worshiped without reference to the rest.

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Heterodox Darshana

Rejected the Vedas.
- Buddhism
- Jainism
- Charvaka

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Hinduism

Indigenous religious system of the religion of India.
Not of Indian origin/Persian - of Sinhu - of Sanskrit, Sinhu River.
All of North India - Hindustan (Land of Rivers).
Invasion by the Greeks - Alexander the Great made the word India.
Hindustani - major dialect of Hinduism.
Characterized by worship of Brahman, the Single Supreme Being, acceptance of the Betas as divine revelation.
Religion of Aryan-Indian population.
Assimilation of Divine Culture.
Orally transmitted Chants & hymns, the Vedas, oldest written text.
Exact date of origin unknown.
Still meno by Brahmin Priests today.
Hinduism had no single founder, no single authority of orthodoxy.
Does not have a unified set of doctrines.
Veda - given different interpretations by different Dhashans.
Regarded as a tradition in thought.
Transmitted from generation to generation for 3000 yrs.
A tradition of thought, not a single system of thought.
Wide variety of religious 7 philosophical thought.
Oldest sacred one of the Vedas.
Most ancient writings of Hinduism & Indo-European writings.
Basis of their religion in the highest authority.
Acceptance of Vedas as basis to understand true nature of reality.

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Humanism

A system of thought that centers on humans and their values, capacities, and worth.
Concern with the interests, needs, and welfare of humans.
The study of the humanities; learning in the liberal arts.
The study of the humanities; polite learning.

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Indra

First among the gods mentioned in the Vedas.
Indra was responsible for warring and "making things happen."
Indra was an awesome god, much like Zeus in the Greek pantheon.
Indra was identified with great strength and sexual powers, and thus was often associated symbolically with the stallion or the bull.
Indra carried the vajra with him as a symbol of his power.
The vajra has often been identified as a thunderbolt, but in fact is a short metal rod with a trident head at both ends.
Indra's origins go far back into tribal past. He was regarded as a great warrior god, and he was also believed to be tremendously generous if you found him in the right mood.
Many were the sacrifices performed to Indra beseeching him to grant numerous sons and to increase one's material welfare.
Most important of all was the need of Indra's help during the time of drought.
During such times, the sacrificial fires would light the sky.
Indra was believed to be able to destroy the power of Vritri, the demon who caused drought.
It was Indra who brought the monsoon rains on which everything in life depended.
Indra was also particularly fond of the soma experience.

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Intuitionism

The theory that truth or certain truths are known by intuition rather than reason.
The theory that external objects of perception are immediately known to be real by intuition.
The theory that ethical principles are known to be valid through intuition.
The view that the subject matter of mathematics consists of the mental or symbolic constructions of mathematicians rather than independent and timeless abstractions, as is held in Platonism.

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Nature of Intuition

Key element of the mystical experience.
An immediate consciousness awareness w/o sense perception or reason.
Philosophy instead of reason or senses is the most reliable form of knowledge.
Direct awareness.

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Jainism

A heterodox darshana.
Split off from Hinduism.
An alternative philosophy to Hinduism.
A reform movement, of extreme asceticism.
Associated with Mahavira, an ascetic monk who was born during the first half of the 6th century BCE. Mahavira is believed to be a contemporary of Buddha.
Jain is derived from the word jinas which means "the victors," battling against the world of worldly attachments.
Jaina accepted moksha and samsara.
Jaina is solidly dualist system of thought.
Reality is two-fold, consisting of jiva (spirit) and ajiva (non-spirit, or in other words, the world.)
Jains reject the concept of maya; the world is not an illusion, but real. Both jiva and ajiva are real, irreducible, and eternal. Because they are eternal, there is no need for a creator god, and none is proposed, for which reason Jaina is sometimes said to be atheistic.
According to Jaina, the materialistic world is in a state of constant change, but it is not meaningless or haphazard change. The change that we see is part of a vast, eternal cycling, with each cycle lasting for eons. Towards the end of the cycle, everything begins to deteriorate into chaos, but order will restore itself in the next turn of the wheel. The present stage is a deteriorating stage, which explains the disorder and suffering that exists in the world.
The reason for this as follows: Ideally jiva and ajiva are completely separate, as they should be. But in the state of the deteriorating stage of the cycle, jiva comes into contact with ajiva (the material world), therein lies the trouble and suffering.

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Ji - (Chi)

The third fundamental element in the theoretical basis of Religious Daoism: the concept of ji.
The Daoists ji is similar to the Hindu concept of prana; both refer to a vital energy that permeates all of space and is responsible for life.
As with prana, the amount, or fullness, of ji can vary in a given individual.
The greater the fullness of ji, the stronger are the health and vitality of that person; the depletion of ji was believed to result in sickness and ultimately, death.
Given this belief, it's easy to see why followers of Religious Daoism gave much attention to practices that were designed to increase and retain healthy levels of ji.
In the context of Religious Daoism, ji was believed to result from the interplay of yin and yang could lead to the understanding of how to generate and control ji.
Here too, there is an interesting similarity to Hindu practices, particularly Hatha and Tantric Yoga.
This brings us back to that most important and fascinating aspect of Religious Daoism: the quest for immortality. Given that vital energy is identical to ji, and that ji could be controlled (or so they believed) through an application of perfect understanding of the operation of yin and yang, it was predictable, to say the least, that certain of the Fang Shih would seek to become experts in the art of extending life. What began as an interest in extending life became an all-out effort to find the secret to immortality.

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Jnana Yoga

The way of special mystical and philosophical knowledge.
The way of philosophical inquiry.

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Junzi

In Confucianism, the character of the �new man�, which the achievement of Junzi is at the heart and soul of the Confucian system.
Confucius would institute an actual system of education, which would be based on the study of classical Chinese literature designed to produce the new man of Junzi.
It would create a superior man of humanistic learning, of refined personal manners, and with the will to govern wisely and compassionately.
Potentially this system would be open to anyone, anyone who showed promise would be accepted no matter what their rank in society.

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Kali

One of the four individual consorts of Shiva.
Kali is associated with death and destruction, but out of that rises the potential for renewal.
She (Kali) is pictured as wild and hideously ugly, with fangs for teeth and a naked, withering body.
Kali carries a severed head in one hand and a staff topped with a human skull in the other.

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Kami

Refers to the spirit of the thing, that which gives it its awe-aspiring character.
The kami, as spirit, resides within the place or thing, but is capable of moving about freely.
In the ancient Japanese tradition of Shinto, the concept of divinity was definitely not limited to celestial gods and goddesses with superhuman powers.
Indeed, there were some of those � many, in fact � but a great many divine beings were not of humanlike form at all.
Trees, mountains, and rivers could be divine beings, and so, too, could natural events, such as thunderstorms and earthquakes.
Many animals were seen as divine.
In fact, anything at all that held the power to aspire a sense of awe and mystery was easily seen as possessed of the divine nature.
The spirits of such things, whether earthly objects or heavenly beings, were known as kami.
It may be said that "kami" is essentially an expression used by early Japanese people to classify experiences that evoked sentiments of caution and mystery in the presence of the manifestation of the strange and marvelous."
The shrine is the sacred place where the kami dwells.
There, the community would gather from time to time in order to venerate the kami with ritual and sacrifice.

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Karma

Particular rebirth is determined by karma, which has accumulated by the atman in the previous lives.
Karma must not be confused with a system of reward and punishment. Karma is a natural outcome of the play of Dharma.
Karma is purely cause and effect.
Karma has nothing to do with morality.
It's simply the natural play of cause and effect.
At the time of the ego's death, the state of one's karma is carried over into the next life and determines the character of the next rebirth.
Sufficient negative karma at the time of death can even result in the atman falling backward and being reborn in a lower level of sentient life.
[Aside: Excellent example of this is the comedy series: "The Black Adder, ... , ... , The Black Adder goes Forth," by Rowan Atkinson, where the character the Black Adder starts out as a Prince and because of his devious deeds, upon each rebirth, the Adder is reborn to lower social status than he had in his previous life. The Adder never learns his lesson, so in each new life he returns to a lower level of social status.]
Refers to the spirit of the thing, that which gives it its awe-aspiring character.
[Aside: The concept of Karma is bears similarities to Plato's theory of life. Plato believed that one who goes through this life several times. The object was to purify to the point that one was removed from the wheel of life to be returned to the "Place of the Forms." The object being that a person is constantly dies and is reborn, returned to Earth, until they finally learned. "The place of the forms is similar to the concept of heaven, but is never described as such. In the Place of the Forms, exist the pillars of perfect concepts of "Justice, Beauty, ... (should be five) and once the person has finally learned, will be removed for the cycle of life and will reside in the Place of the Forms."]

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Karma Yoga

Is the path of right action.
It deals with the kind of behavior- that is, lifestyle - that is appropriate for the one who seeks to become a liberated man or woman.
The path of Karma Yoga is directed at one thing; the obsessive attachment to the welfare of the private Self. It seeks to overcome this attachment by redirecting the purpose of action to that which the individual is but a part.
What it comes down to is a redefining of "Self," a coming to see that the private ego-Self is an illusion; the real Self is the entire community, ultimately all humankind. When one identifies with the whole community, he can be entirely "Selfish" so to speak, and the welfare of all will be served.
Karma Yoga is sometimes refered to as the yoga of Selfless Service. "Selfless Service" does not mean "good deeds" - it refers simply to action that in some way is of real value to the community. This could be just about anything. "Selfness" means simply that the action is not ego bound.
"Selfless Service" refers to any kind of action in which one loses oneself, so long as that action is beneficial to the community. Thus, the path of Karma yoga is open to everyone! Anyone who works in a field that he or she loves and whose work is of value to the larger community is, in fact, a Karma yogi. It is only love that dissolves the grip of ego.
The separation between action and reward is precisely what Karma Yoga seeks to overcome.

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Krishna

The mystical incarnation of the God Vishnu.
Compassionate and loving God, is a favorite among the Hindus.
Krishna is an avatar divine reincarnation of Vishnu.
Krishna means "Black" or "Dark Blue" often in paintings and illustrations will be blue.
- Referring to the Universe.
In the Bhagavad Gita ("Song of the Lord"/Discourse/Chant), Krishna and Arjuna dialogue on the battlefield before a battle.
Krishna explains to Arjuna the teachings of yoga.
Krishna's role in the Bhagavad Gita will be to instruct Arjuna in the ancient teachings of yoga. The word yoga was derived from the Sanskrit root yui, which originally meant, "to bind things together." The English word "yoke," as in "to yoke oxen," is a cognate of yoga. One who seriously practices yoga is called a yogi. There is some speculation that in its original meaning, yogi referred to a man who trained the semi-wild horses and harnessed them (yoked them) to the war chariot that he himself would drive into battle. In other words, he was the charioteer. The profession became a powerful symbol for yoga, which demanded that the yogi harness the wild horses of his own nature and drive the chariot of his person into the battle against Self-will and ignorance.

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Legalists

Han Fei Zi was the principle spokesman for a group known collectively as the Legalists.
The legalist saw written law as a powerful instrument by means of which ruling authority could exercise control over the whole society.
The legalists were authoritarian in the extreme. A better word might be "totalitarian."
They argued, this was a strong and healthy alternative to the chaos and corruption of the time.

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In its original meaning, the word li meant "sacrifice," but over time it came to refer more broadly to an elaborate set of procedures and protocol that governed the celebration of religious rituals, including the offering of sacrifice and the honoring of ancestors.
Li was the operative procedure that regulated intercourse between the world of men and the world of spirits.
As such, li was extremely important to the whole society.
Gradually the formal manners of li had expanded from this core religious position to embrace as well the formal matters that regulated social intercourse between members of the feudal nobility.
By the time of li had become something similar to the ceremonial code of chivalry that later evolved within the feudal nobility of medieval Europe.
It was an elaborate system of customs and manners that specified the ways in which noblemen would relate to one another in some formal situations; in other words, li was tantamount to court etiquette, including such things as what is said, how one said it, how one dressed, how one stood or bowed, whether one carried a sword � indeed; everything.
There was never any guesswork, never any embarrassment or offense; everything was spelled out by the formal customs of li.
In effect, what Confucius proposed was to extend the scope of li to the entire social order.
Li was not merely to regulate the relations of noblemen or of persons participating in religious celebrations; li was to become an external way of regulating all relations.
All of the elements of social intercourse � for everyone � would be structured in certain ritualized manners.
Many modern readers, particularly Westerners, probably find the whole concept of li somewhat repugnant; it seems to make daily life so formal, and it rigidly divides the social order into elitist ranks of authority and privilege.
But remember that the world of Confucius was nothing like the world of today.
He was not egalitarian in any sense of the word.
People of his time accepted the ranking of the social order as a natural and inevitable.
The important thing was not to abolish ranking from society, but to bring harmony and peace to the complex interrelationships that ranking afforded.
Confucius saw the customs of li as a marvelous way of achieving that end.
In the Confucian system, then, li became a refined set of manners designed to regulate the personal interactions arising out of the various social relationships. Most important, li supported and upheld this system of relationships, which Confucius believed to be the essence of a healthy social structure.
To a certain extent, all societies have customs and manners that are deemed appropriate for certain relationships. The Confucian system went far beyond the formalities used when working with one's boss or the personnel of a military: Li was the superficial expression of a whole philosophy of social organization. However, Confucius would have been the first to insist that it was the principle of li � honor and respect for dignity of the other person � that gave li its value. Practicing the external manifestations of li was worthless if it lacked a sincere heart. If it were only a matter of superficial display, Confucius had no use for it at all.
Confucius's vision of a healthy society was built on the foundation of order. The five cardinal relationships, which he believed inherent in the nature of human society, were the expression of that order. And li, the well-regulated system of relationships among members of society, assured that the harmonious order of society would be maintained in daily life. Together, li, and the five cardinal relationships provided the framework for a healthy social order. Separately, they were ineffectual, an orderly, but basically lifeless, arrangement.

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Linga

The sacred symbol of the reproductive powers of Shiva.
A simple upright shaft, rounded at the top, that represents the erect phallus, the male sex organ.
A stylized stone pedestal representing the erect phallus.
It remains to this day an essential part of all temples and shrines dedicated to Shiva.
The linga is the natural symbol of fertility, for procreative power, which is exactly what made Shiva the Preserver an all important god.
The linga is usually found in association with yoni, a round base, made of wood or stone, into whose center the linga is inserted. The yoni, a round base, made of wood or stone, whose center the linga is inserted. The yoni represents the female sex organ; together the two form a completeness of the dual male-female character of nature.

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Logic

From Latin logica, from Greek logik (tekhn), (art) of reasoning, logic, feminine of logikos, of reasoning, from logos, reason. See leg- in Indo-European Roots.
The study of the principles of reasoning, especially of the structure of propositions as distinguished from their content and of method and validity in deductive reasoning.
A system of reasoning: Aristotle's logic.
A mode of reasoning.
Valid reasoning: Your paper lacks the logic to prove your thesis.
A mode of reasoning.
The relationship between elements and between an element and the whole in a set of objects, individuals, principles, or elements: There's certain logic to the Motion of rush hour Traffic.

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Lun Yu

Collections of aphorisms written down and preserved by the disciples of Confucius.
We know this work as the "Analects of Confucius."
One of the basic sources of information about Confucius, his life, his teachings.

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Mahabharata

The great history of mankind.
A vast piece of literature that seems everything that makes up the culture of India is somehow included.
An epic.
The story of descendants of King Bharata.
Krishna and Ajuna's, conversation on the battlefield, in the Gita, is clairvoyancy seen and heard by the author.
In Bhagavad Gita, all in verse.
Part of the Mahabharata.
Nature and attributes of God.
Exposition of Vedic Philosophy.
Gita - "The Song of God."
Revealed by God to human kind.
Teaching for divine connotations.
Viasa - God given truths of baited scriptures.
Profoundly influenced India.
Between 500-200 BCE.
Gita not originally part of the Mahabharata.
Seemed to exist independently before being incorporated.
The body is simply appearance, gain or loss is illusionary.
Caste System - Natural Order.
- Priest
- Warrior
- Merchant
- Worker
These MUST be accepted/ the way of Spiritual Growth.
Can only go forward from where we are.
Accept the consequences of being who you are.
Atman is Brahman - one & the same with Brahman.
All is & will be Brahman - The Ultimate Reality.
- Existence in Self-Being.
- In all beings & objects.
- Can never be defined or expressed.
Until the universe is eliminated, all that can be seen or sensed, Brahman cannot be observed.
All men are born into illusion.
Matter changes - Krishna is all/everything.
Kill & can be killed are false. No man can kill or be killed according to Krishna.

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Maharishi

A rishi is a seer, an especially learned holy man who has become the teacher of others.
An unusually brilliant rishi is called a maharishi (literally, a "great teacher".)

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Maithuna

It was the climax so to speak) of a long and elaborate tantric meditation exercise known, appropriately, as the Maithuna Meditation.
Although intensely physical � involving the body, the emotions, and the mind � the maithuna was not all meant to be an erotic experience in the sense that sex normally is, but rather, was as a powerful vehicle involving the whole person that, used properly, could transport the sadhaka into a transcendent state of consciousness in which he or she could experience � or better still, become � the unity, the oneness behind the illusion of polarities.
This viewpoint is best exemplified in the Maithuna Meditation exercise, which could easily take up the better part of a whole day. On the appointed day, the sadhaka would rise early to bathe and perform a variety of other ritual observances and offerings, including much chanting of prescribed versus. At the proper time, the sadhaka imbibed a liquid concoction of Indicus cannabis (a highly potent variety of hemp) known as vijaya. Following this, the sadhaka would use rice powder to trace a mandala on the ground, within which he would perform further offerings and chants. In the final part of the exercise, the sadhaka would ritually approach the "Five M's": madya (liquor), mamsa (meat), matsya (fish), mudra (roasted grain), and maithuna (sexual intercourse). The significance of these items is that they were specifically forbidden to the disciple in the orthodox Hindu tradition. So you might say that, by indulging in them, the sadhaka was flaunting his rejection of the traditional way. In another way, though these things represent some of the most basic and natural elements of life. Why shouldn't they be celebrated? Also, it was believed that the three foods in the group, together with the liquor, were aphrodisiacs and would thus be very helpful to the sadhaka when joined with his female partner (the shakti). The sexual finale might last for a very long time, during which it was necessary for him to maintain an erection. It's interesting to the modern student of the subject that, with the possible exception of wine, the first four M's have no aphrodisiac properties at all. By contrast, the vijaya did indeed have that effect.
The grand finale of the Maithuna Meditation was the maithuna itself. The prescribed posture for maithuna was the yogic position pictured in the yab-yum. The male sadhaka would sit, back upright with legs crossed, and the female, his shakti would take her position in his lap, with her legs and arms folded around him. Interestingly, in this position the male is capable of almost no movement at all, but the woman is capable of a great range of movements. It is she, in fact, who generates all of the action. This is in keeping with the symbolism, in which the male represents the passive principle and the female, the active.
In the Hindu Tantric tradition, the discharge of semen was expected to occur. It was the ultimate perfection of the whole long procedure. In the Vajrayana tradition, however, discharge was most definitely not supposed to occur. It was believed that the discharge of semen would squander the vital energy of the sadhaka just at the time he needed every bit of it to break through to transcendental awareness. Retention of the semen (bija) thus became the sine qua non of perfection in the performance of this sadhana.
In the historical evolution of Tantra, two schools of practice developed. In one, called "right-handed Tantra," the sex act and other physical elements came to be represented only symbolically in the sadhana exercises. This was especially true in Buddhist Tantra.
The other school, the so-called "left-handed Tantra," continued to include actual physical experiences in sadhana. Whether one or the other is right, or more right, though, it would seem that right-handed Tantra pretty much has the field to itself � but not entirely.

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Maya

The entire myriad forms ("things") that make up the constantly changing character of nature.
This evolutionary unfolding of forms is maya.
Derived from the very best basic Sanskrit word ma, which provided for such English words as "matter" and "measure."
In Vedic times maya referred to the (seemingly) magic powers of the gods.
Maya refers to both the creative power of Brahman and to what it is that appears to be created.
The unfolding of the myriad of forms of nature, the countless, ever changing things that make up the world around us.
It is the particular way in which Brahman manifests itself in its creative action.
The totality of the "things" (including sense impressions and thoughts) of the material world.
2 types of Maya can be seen:
- Sentient Beings - the ones that exhibit consciousness (or at least exhibit the potential for consciousness.
- Insentient Beings - the ones that do not exhibit consciousness. (A rock for example.)

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Moksha

Moksha is Perfect, final awakening.
Mystical Experience.
The Ultimate Goal.
Knowledge of Brahman.
In moksha, the ego - the illusion of the separate Self - dissolves into the sea of peace that is Brahman.
The awakened man or woman - the person in whom the atman has broken through to experience of moksha - lives daily life in a state of perfect peace, free from fear and suffering. Such a person is free to see himself in all and all in himself.
Liberating oneself entirely of all Selfish desires was the essential precondition of moksha.
The attainment of moksha means release from the great wheel of samsara - from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.
In moksha, the atman awakens fully to its Brahman nature. Like a river returning to the sea, the atman - liberated from avidya - awakens perfectly to its Brahman identity.
According to the Upanishads, is that ultimate object of life is the attainment of moksha.

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Monism

Maya is simply an illusion (matter); Spirit alone is ultimately real.

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Minak

Escape from the cycle of death and rebirth.
Is to be totally submitted to God.

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Nature of Brahman

Not accessible to the thinking mind.
Only the Moksha - Mystical Experience can it be achieved.
No equivalent in Islam/Judaism/Christianity which all of these religions are Dualism's.
Brahman has no qualities - Absence of Essence itself - Such-ness itself.
Monistic Vedanta - Ishsada, because the human mind cannot grasp Brahman.
Ishsada/Jesus/Allah.
Human need for Ishvara - Brahman is Quality-less. Pure Existence.
Pg. 38 Read Carefully.
Brahman is Is-ness itself.

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Nature of Intuition

Key element of the mystical experience.
An immediate consciousness awareness w/o sense perception or reason.
Philosophy instead of reason or senses is the most reliable form of knowledge.
Direct awareness.

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Mysticism

1 kind of intuition.
Experience has a direct intuitive doctrine which holds through intuition can have absolute truth, unity, ultimate reality, awareness of God.
W/o the use of reason or senses.
Enlightenment or awakening found in all Asian philosophy & religion.
Only through mystical experience cam one reach the highest...
Typically have a theological view involved a religious or mystical experience.
Wide variety of view.

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Mystical Experience

Is the most reliable source of knowledge, Except for Confucianism.
Mystical Experience & awakening the distinctive definition characteristic of philosophy/religion of thought.
A definition distinct feature of eastern philosophy only by mystical experience can one come to know the truth of reality.
The Oneness with all being.
To know the absolute truth.
What is really true & exist can only be known by mystical experience.

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Nam Jaap

From the Sikh religion.
The perfect universally available way to achieve total submission is through Nam Jaap, the constant repetition of the Divine Name.
Nam Jaap will slowly, but steadily, clear away all the impurities of Self-love. Nam Jaap, daily prayer, and service to the community - these three rules were the common core of worship that Nanak distilled from the teachings of Islam and Hinduism.

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Neo-Confucianism

1236 C.E. - neo-Confucianism resulted from what started out as an effort to reform Confucianism by going back to the purity of the original sources, Confucius himself and Mencius. But there is a problem in this approach; pure Confucianism, however admirable it might be as a system of social philosophy, would simply not be able to compete head to head with Buddhism, which had become a total philosophy of life, dealing with areas - metaphysics, for example - that had never been a part of Confucian thinking. If Confucians were to restore the primacy of Confucianism, they would have to match what Buddhism offered. This they promised to do and more.
If they were to meet the challenge of Buddhism, the Confucians would have to read into Confucian classics that stretched their original meaning. It came down to an effort to make over Confucianism into something of a "secular religion." The net result was a hybrid of traditional Confucian teaching, some recast elements of Buddhism, and even bits of Religious Daoism. Taking parts from here and there, the Confucians produced what was really a brand-new creature - a revamped breed of Confucianism that would remain an important part of Chinese culture until the beginning of the twentieth century.
Buddhism was entrenched among the masses of the common people, and that wasn't going to change one bit. Among the educated upper classes of Chinese society, though, Confucianism did reestablish a place of importance. Up to the time of the communist revolution, it was largely true that Buddhism was of the masses, but Confucianism was the way of the aristocracy.

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Solemn resonance.
By chanting the practitioner will achieve moksha, the awareness of Brahman, the Ultimate Reality.
Chanted to establish a connection with the powers of the Universe.
Ideal, eternal, inaudible sounds are significant part of the universe, when visualized or spoken; these ideal sounds are significant part of the Universe itself.
Anything can be accomplished if you know the correct mantra.
Forms to protect against animals, humans, at right time, right way, right mantra must be intoned the right way.
Language preceded Hinduism.
Can be seen in the same thought & Hinduism.
- Symbol of spiritual knowledge.
- Not a maja word/not even considered a word.
- Manifestation of Spiritual Power.
- Sign of one's assent to Enlightenment.
- Opens and closes all of the Vedas.
- The sound of this specific entity.
  
  OM in Buddhism:
- A special mantra sound.
- The absolute/The Relative & how interrelated.
- Goddess Kali uttered this sound as she gave birth to the universe.

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Ontology

Being-ness.
Nature of existence.
Objects or states of affair.
That department of the science of metaphysics which investigates and explains the nature and essential properties and relations of all beings, such as, or the principles and causes of being.
The branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of being.
The metaphysical study of the nature of being and existence.
A systematic account of Existence.

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Philosophical Daoism

(Dao Jia) Deals with the problem of what sort of person is best suited to rule, and how should that person go about ruling his subjects.
Is founded on the deep love of nature, a love of harmony and organic wholeness of nature. Mankind, human society, is seen to be an integral part of the natural order, and as such, human life is potentially a perfect expression of the play of Dao.
Humans, unfortunately have the ability to get out of sync with the harmony of Dao, and when they do all hell breaks loose. All suffering and tribulations of human life are the consequence of human society straying from the "way," the Dao.
To the Daoist, restoring humanity's proper harmony within the natural order thus, becomes the only matter of real importance.
This is the fundamental view of Daoism.
Wu Wei literally means "non-action", in the sense of "not forcing," but in the more everyday sense, it suggests flowing freely, going with the current.
The ongoing expression of Dao.
Refers to the way nature acts - perfectly, spontaneously, not forcing or trying to control anything.
The spontaneous, mindless activity with which nature succeeds most admirably in accomplishing her ends.
It is not strictly a passive concept; actually, it expresses a lively interplay.
Is the way of living of a man or woman who is in harmony with the Dao - accepting, yielding, always flexible; wu wei is more like bamboo than oak, more like water than rock. The oak and the rock may seem to be stronger, but in the long run, bamboo and water will win out every time; they can spring back.
Wu wei has to do with the flow of Dao; de refers to what that flow produces.
Example: the way the grass grows, naturally and spontaneously, is a wonderful expression of wu wei in action, but the power of the earth and the seeds to germinate and grow as grass is de.

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Philosophy

(philine- the love of, sophy - wisdom), the love of wisdom.
The rational inquiry in comprehensive principles of reality or some sector of reality, human value, most general truths of other truths;
- Ethics
- Science
Rational search for comprehensive rationale.
Search for the most general truths or laws that provide a reasoned reality.
Study of correct reasoning.

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Pluralism

The doctrine that reality is composed of many ultimate substances.
The belief that no single explanatory system or view of reality can account for all the phenomena of life.

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Polytheism

From Greek polutheos, polytheistic: polu-, poly- + theos, god; see dh s- in Indo-European Roots.
The worship of or belief in more than one god.

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Prakriti

The basic substance of matter and energy existed, but had not yet taken any definite form. It was still just primal "stuff," full of un-actualized potential. This primal essence is called prakriti.
Prakriti may be thought of as being ultimately the simplest state of matter and energy - the power that generates materiality in its primal state.
Brahman's act was the expression of itself as prakriti and from the very first moment of time, prakriti, being imbued with the character of Dharma, became involved in the process of movement and change that we envision as the evolution of the universe.
From the modern we could say that prakriti took the form of primal energy that "froze out" into the elementary particles of nature. According to this view, a quark is a form of prakriti, so is a photon.
Prakriti is not static: It is constantly responds to the forces of nature, and out of this dynamic come all the forms which we recognize as the world around us.
To sum it up, the Dharma evolution of the universe began in a state of undifferentiated material reality. We call that state prakriti.
The female aspect of nature.
Prakriti (the raw material of maya,) being a manifestation of Brahman, is matter.
The role of prakriti is to free purusha.

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Prana

Refers to vital energy that is taken into the body through breathing (and w/o there would be no life.)

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Purusha

"Pure consciousness" refers to transcendent, infinite awareness. It is in itself totally inactive.
The male aspect of nature.
Purusha is therefore the conscious essence of Brahman, revealed directly in maya - this is, in those forms of maya (sentient beings) which are sufficiently evolved to allow purusha.
Your body is one of the forms of maya as purusha, and purusha is perfect and undivided; that is to say, purusha is universal, one and the same as Brahman itself - it is not divided into discrete parts.
Purusha is purely spiritual reality of Brahman itself and is One.

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Raja Yoga

Royal Yoga, King of Yoga's.
The yoga of meditation.
In general, identical to yoga of Patangama.
Liberation of one's Self bringing body, will, and mind under control by the name of Patanjali who lived during 2BCE.
Most influential of the Darshanas is Vedanta, which offers experience of Philosophy of the Upanishads.
Most philosophical importance of the Vedanta.

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Ramanuja

A resident scholar of the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at Sriangam in the south of India in 11CE.
The highest form of Bhakti is the worship repetition of the name of God.
Loving devotion to the personal god.
Claimed just as a mantra, the highest form of loving devotion to God, was the loving repetition of the name of God.

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Religion

Latin: Regale - bound to one thing to another thing. Nautical usage: The mooring of a ship; to bound by anchor, cable, or rope.
A personal commitment.
Image of a person secured or tied to something.
Personally bound to something, commitment to something; to an ultimate Supreme power; devotional worship of the Supreme; acts of worship bind him to the Supreme.
Devotional practices by which a person commits himself to the ultimate powers of the Supreme Being.
Cause, nature, and purpose of the Universe; often has a moral code for human conduct, especially when the religious system is lead by a Super Human Power.
A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship.

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Religious Daoism - (Dao Jiao)

The lexicon of Daoism was adopted by the shamanistic "religious" element within Chinese society, giving the impression that the two were really one tradition. Undoubtedly, there were some common points, but the Daoism of Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi was clearly distinct from the shamanistic tradition and the cult of immortality. Some would argue that Daoism was hijacked in order to lend respectability to the more decidedly religious tradition. In any case, during the time of the early Han dynasty, as the shamanistic tradition coalesced into something of a native Chinese religion, the terminology of Daoism became widely used. These new "Daoists" - referred to in modern times as Religious Daoists or Magical Daoists - even went so far as to claim spiritual descent from Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi, both of whom were defied. Thus the history of Daoism divides into two quite different traditions; Philosophical Daoism and Religious Daoism.
The spirit of yin and yang were a feature and principle of Religious Daoism. The principle of yin and yang has profoundly influenced the development of Chinese philosophical thought and enjoys wide popularity in modern times.
All of nature exhibits a wonderful harmony that results from the inter-working of the basic forces of nature, which Daoists refer to as yin and yang. The movement of Dao is manifest in the interplay of yin and yang. Derived originally from the Chinese words for moon and sun, yin and yang stand symbolically for the dual forces of nature that are the most elementary of all. Yin, the passive force, associated with the feminine principle, is the force that maintains and regulated things and events. Yang, the active force, associated with the male principle, is the force that initiates action. A modern expression of yin and yang is energy and entropy. Radiant energy is yang, entropy is yin. One doesn't exist without the other, nor is anything ever purely an expression of one as opposed to the other. Even male and female are a mixture of the two, in which one is merely dominant. The play of yin and yang is always a mix - a dance, as it were. Yang thrusts a volcanic eruption out of the earth. At the same moment, yin goes to work, confining the explosion and giving definition to the new mountain that is formed. Over the course of time, patient yin, in the form of erosive forces, will gradually wear the mountain back to the level plain from whence it all began.
Everything is like that; you and I are like that. Yang keeps trying out new forms of being, and yin is always there to gradually dismantle them. Thus does the unfolding of nature progress through time. Eventually, the force of yin will return the entire universe to the state of amorphous dust from which it began. But this is not an ultimate victory of yin over yang, because yang is ever there, ready when the time is right to start the game all over again with a new Big Bang. (Similarity between the Daoist concept of yin and yang and the Hindu concept of the gunas. Some things are universal.)
Daoists do not see yin as being in conflict with yang; that is, it's not yin versus yang. It is very important to understand this. In the West, we're accustomed to seeing life in terms of great dichotomies - good versus evil, man against nature. The superior force must win out over the inferior. This is not the Daoist view at all. Yin and yang complement each other. They are more like positive and negative than good and evil. The goal is to achieve balance and harmony, not to conquer the natural world and bead it to our purposes, but rather to go with the natural world, finding the "way" that achieves harmony with the whole. What a world of difference there is in these two attitudes.
For a more complete analysis of yin and yang consult Yi Jing (I Ching-"The Book of Changes) an intriguing work for ancient China.
Third fundamental element in the theoretical basis of Religious Daoism is the concept of Ji (Chi). The Daoist ji is similar to the Hindu concept of prana; both refer to vital energy that permeates all of space and is responsible for life. As with prana, the amount, or fullness, of ji can vary in a given individual. The greater the fullness of ji, the stronger are the health and vitality of that person; the depletion of ji was believed to result in sickness and, ultimately, death. Given this belief, it's easy to see why followers of Religious Daoism gave much attention to the practices that were designed to increase and retain healthy levels of ji. In the context of Religious Daoism, ji was believed to result from the interplay of yin and yang, at least under the right conditions. Therefore, a study of the operation of yin and yang could lead to the understanding of how to generate and control ji. Here too, there is an interesting similarity to Hindu practices, particularly Hatha and Tantric Yoga.
The most important and fascination aspect of Religious Daoism: the quest for immortality. Given that vital energy is identical to ji, and that ji could be controlled through an application of perfect understanding of the operation of yin and yang, it was predictable that certain of the Fang Shih would seek to become experts in the art of extending life. What began as an interest in extending life became an all-out effort to find the secret to immortality.
More common was the belief that it was possible to actually replenish ji, although that was certainly not an easy thing to do. Activity did indeed reduce the original supply of ji, and some could simply leak away through bad mental and physical habits, but special steps could be taken o restore one's ji and thus achieve longer life, and maybe - just maybe - it was still possible for the really dedicated to achieve immortality. Followers of this approach developed a body of practices designed not only to maximize the body's store of ji, but also to facilitate its optimum distribution and use by the body and mind. Religious Daoism's earlier interest in yogic techniques experienced a strong revival. Diet became a matter of prime importance, as did various breathing exercises. So, too, did a variety of Tantric-like exercises in sexual yoga. It was believed that sexual arousal increased ji, but, at least in the male, that increase was more than dissipated in the act of ejaculation. Therefore, as in Tantra, veritable science developed around the techniques for generating arousal, but retaining semen. Some practices, such as the last mentioned, would appear to be outlandish in the eyes of modern health science, but much of what these stalwarts practiced did undoubtedly contribute to better health and therefore to longer life.
Religious Daoism borrowed heavily from Buddhism, its rival, but it gave as much as it took. Daoism was destined to exert a tremendous influence on the development of Buddhism in China. The easy naturalness of Daoism would help to bring Buddhism "down to earth" to ground Buddhism more deeply in a love of nature and, especially, in a love for the need of a healthy human society to live in harmony with the Natural Order. Daoism helped soften some of the still-too-sacred and ritualistic edges of Indian Buddhism; in other words, it made Buddhism more "human". This would become especially obvious in the tradition we know as Chan Buddhism, the Chinese predecessor of Zen Buddhism.

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Ren - (Jen)

Core concept of Confucius philosophy.
The golden nugget at the absolute heart of the entire Confucian system. The best we can do in translating the word to English would be "human-heartedness."
It was not enough for a man to be refined and altruistic: Most importantly by far was that he be a man of ren; this was the real spirit of junzi. Indeed, the Superior Man was the embodiment of ren. Ren is sincere feeling and caring for others; ren is gladly putting others first; in a word, ren is compassion - human-heartedness.
The man of ren is always happy; common man is always sad.
Ren is a natural feeling that comes directly and spontaneously from the human heart. Every normal person has deep-seated warm and compassionate feelings about himself. By looking deeply inward, we can discover this core of love and learn to extend it gradually outward to embrace others - ultimately, all others. It begins with the immediate family and expands to include the greater family of the whole community.

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Sadhanas

The actual work involved in climbing the mountain consists in a variety of psycho-experimental exercises collectively called sadhanas.
It is through the execution of sadhanas that the guru steers the development of the sadhaka.
Sadhanas come in many different varieties, but all are grounded on the traditional yogic exercises, especially Kundalini Yoga, and all are designed to prepare the sadhaka for the experience of powerful psychic states.
The sadhaka is skillfully guided to discover the real nature of his or her mind by exploring all possible psychic states.

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Sadhu

From Sanskrit word sadhu meaning right, holy.
In Hinduism, an ascetic holy man.
Hindu society held great respect for those rare few who were strong enough to give up everything and take on the harsh life of the renunciate, dedicating themselves to the search for transcendental truth. Such a person paid a high price, but the reward was a perfect inner peace that passed beyond pleasure and pain. The sadhu escaped from the net of suffering and knew "the joy of perfect freedom."

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Samadhi

Through the practice of meditation, the aspirant learns to control the mind, strip down the layers of ego, and ultimately, achieve the state of consciousness, the Unitive State.
A philosophical minded person elevated to the state of samadhi, within which the mystical experience of knowledge of Brahman could occur.
The ultimate goal is the creation of that state of consciousness is known as samadhi.
The ultimate goal of the practice of yoga.
The Self alone is all that remains, pure and simple. This state of consciousness is called samadhi.

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Samadhi

Through the practice of meditation, the aspirant learns to control the mind, strip down the layers of ego, and ultimately, achieve the state of consciousness, the Unitive State.
A philosophical minded person elevated to the state of samadhi, within which the mystical experience of knowledge of Brahman could occur.
The ultimate goal is the creation of that state of consciousness is known as samadhi.
The ultimate goal of the practice of yoga.
The Self alone is all that remains, pure and simple. This state of consciousness is called samadhi.

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Samsara

A doctrine.
The ever-turning cycle or wheel of birth, death, and rebirth.
The slow progress of the Brahman-Atman to ever higher levels of consciousness through the procession of successive rebirths.
Samsara is Brahman's long quest for ultimate perfect rediscovery of Self.

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Sanskrit

Classic Language of the Hindus.
Used in Poetic, Philosophy, and Religion.
There is no philosophical definition in the Western sense of the word.
Closest Dharana - Literally means "seeing." A world view vision or school of thought reveals.
An important character of Indian Philosophy.
The ancient language that the Vedas are written in.

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Sanyasin

Some few men were willing to give up everything and totally dedicate their lives to a search for spiritual enlightenment. Ordinarily, such men took the vow of sanyas and were known as sanyasins, or renuciates, because they were willing to renounce everything - all material wealth, family, even their caste status - and go off into the wilderness, living like hermits in order to dedicate their lives to the all-consuming search for transcendental knowledge. The wilderness was essential because the sanyasins had voluntarily become literally outcastes and also because they wanted to get far away form the lures and distractions of ordinary life.

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Satyagraha

Means "holding fast to the truth." Embracing it and not letting go for any reason.
Gandhi's philosophy is associated with two closely related terms; satyagraha and ahimsa, usually translated as "passive resistance" and "nonviolence," respectively.

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Several Types of Yoga

Meditation/comprehensive service/loving devotion to God/Philosophical Inquiry/Breathing & Physical exercises.

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Shakti

The yoni, the representation of the female sex organ, represents his shakti - that is, his association with the female consort, the embodiment of the female nature.
Shiva is often depicted in association with his shakti.
Shiva, in union with his Shakti, forms a cosmic wholeness.
Shakti is expressed in personal form in the nature of four goddesses, which could be seen as four separate individuals or as the four basic modes of the principle of shakti.

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Shankara

A great Indian Scholar in the 8th century BCE.
Believed in non-dualism.
Brahman is real, the world is an illusion.
The True Inner Self is identical with Brahman.
The ultimate goal of life is to realize the identity between True Inner Self & Ultimate Reality.
Rejected Dualism for religious reasons.
He could not agree with the loving worship of a personal god. Argued against Moksha. If God and self are the same, then the personal worship of god becomes non-sensical worship of Self.
The world and everything in it is REAL.
Brahman is Oneness is qualified in the sense that equality is attributed.
Quality of Plurality of all individual beings of the world.
World REALLY exists, but not separate from Brahman, but a manifestation of Brahman.

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Shinto

The "shin" of Shinto is derived from an old word, jin, which carried the meaning of deity, or god. And the "to" of Shinto is a descendent of the Chinese dao, meaning "way". Thus the simplest form, Shinto means "way of the gods.
Proper definition of Shinto would be "the way of the kami." The way of the spirit of the thing.
Due to the close association of kami with natural phenomena, Shinto is sometimes described as a "natural religion."

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Shinto

Second god of the Trimurti.
Identified for the reproductive power.
Shiva eventually dismantles and dissolves creation.
At the end of the world, Shiva dances the "dance of death." Initiating the great fire that would consume everything, returning existence to the empty void, the pure unified consciousness of Brahma, from which it had emerged in the first place.
Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are all one. They are usually pictures as the face of Brahma face forward, Vishnu face right, and Shiva face left.

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Sikhism

Nanak was the founder of the Sikh religion, followers of which are those dignified turbaned Indians in seemingly all parts of the world. His overriding goal was to reveal an underlying harmony between the Muslim and Hindu ways.
Adi Granth, a book composed of the teachings of Guru Nanak, Adi Granth means, "the original book," but is referred to as the "Holy Book." It is the bible of the Sikh religion.
Sikhism rejects all the externals, all the dogma, and all the scriptures; rejects the caste system and everything even suggestive of idolatry. What is left is the all-important core. - - There is but one God.
Salvation consists in the soul's escape from samsara, the cycle of birth and death. This is accomplished by the total destruction of Self-love, and that is accomplished through total submission to the will of God.
The perfect, universally accepted way to achieve total submission is through Nam Jaap - the constant repetition of the Divine Name. Nam Jaap will slowly, but steadily, clear away all the impurities of Self-love. Nam Jaap, daily prayer, and service to the community - these three rules were the common core of worship that Nanak distilled from the teachings of Islam and Hinduism.

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Social Philosophy

The common good for all.
The means by which common good may be maximized.

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Soma

Was a drug, a powerful drug that produced states of ecstasy and of wildly expanded consciousness.
Soma went out of use after the Vedic age, and the source of the plant may have become extinct.
The Brahmin priests loved their soma and so did the gods. Liberal consumption of soma was part of virtually every sacrifice, There was a great ritual in its preparation as well as in its consumption, and all of it lovingly detailed in the Rig-Veda. The Brahmins alone were entitled to use soma, although some of the precious liquid was shared with the gods, presumably by being dripped into the fire.
Use of soma predates the Aryans in India.
The soma plant was considered sacred, and the name was implied not only to the plant, but also to the god, Soma, who was the personification of the spirit of the plant.
After a person drank soma, the spirit temporarily inhabited the person, taking over his consciousness. The Brahmin priests were convinced that soma was a vehicle. The vehicle that could take them spiritually to the place where contact with the gods was possible.
In the incredible ecstasy of soma, they were themselves like gods; soma made it possible for them to share in the divine mode of being, or so they believed. Thus it was soma that became the heart of the ritual, the vital link between gods and men.
The Brahmin priests believed that soma produced a state of mind in which they could commune directly with the gods.

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Systems of Hindu Philosophy

6 orthodoxies of the teachings of the Upanishads.
Commentaries on Veda Scriptures.
Sources of metaphysical.
Best known for theories of cosmic principle.
True Inner Self.
The relationships between Ultimate Reality & The Self.
All 6 lead to 1 reality on liberating of Self.
- Accepted authority the Vedas for ultimate reality.
- Each offer different theories, World, Reality, Self.
- It must be kept a quintessential nation.
- Being/Consciousness.
Views of only 2 Orthodox:
- Yoga (Best Known in the West)
- Vedanta
- Popular of Hindu and all other religions.
- A religious alternative to the Darshanas.
- The Hindu practice of devotional worship of a god.
- Focus on Vishnu & Shiva (Doctrines)

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Tantra

A religion that enormously influenced the evolution of both Hinduism and Buddhism.
The beginnings of Tantra as a definable tradition can be traced back to Buddhist communities of Northern India in the 6th century CE.
Tantra was a radical counter-movement in both Hinduism and Buddhism. Tantra may have retained much of the old and may even show evidence of some roots that go back to pre-Vedic times, but what was new was such departure from the orthodox, that Tantra was vigorously condemned by the traditionalists of both Hinduism and Buddhism.
The name "tantra" referred to the various texts that formed the scripture base of the movement. This Sanskrit word, taken originally from the weaving craft, refers literally to the weft, the strands that weave the yarn into a unified whole, a fabric. Tantra texts did the same sort of thing: They wove the various strands of the tradition into a unified whole, a philosophical system.
In Tantra, as in orthodox Hinduism (and Buddhism), the ultimate goal is the same: full awakening. Freedom from suffering of attachment. In more practical terms, we might say that the ultimate goal is the creation of that state of consciousness within which the awakening can arise. In traditional Hinduism, this state of consciousness is known as samadhi. To Tantarists this amounted to something much too passive, too body rejecting, too withdrawn from the fullness of human life.
In the metaphor of Mount Meru, the base is associated with the animal roots of human nature. This is where happiness is equated with the pleasures of the flesh: eating, drinking, copulation, etc. there's nothing wrong with that; it's neither moral nor immoral. It's just the way things are at the root. Where human consciousness is concerned however, the happiness is capable of ascending to a much higher states, but the base is where it starts.
What gave Tantra its special characteristic was its effort to involve the whole person in the adventure of spiritual growth, in place of the more traditional approach of Self-discipline and transcendence of desire. Tantra developed a host of ritual practices that embraced the body as an impedance to growth, rather tan renouncing desire, Tantra sought to harness the energy of desire and use it to generate higher states of awareness.

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Theism

Belief in the existence of a god or gods, especially belief in a personal God as creator and ruler of the world.
The doctrine or belief in the existence of a God or gods.

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Tirthankara

The leader of the Jains (literally, "one who finds the way across the river.")
According to Jain tradition, the first Tirthankara was a heroic figure named Rishaba, who was said to have lived for 8,400,000 years.
The historical record actually beings with Mahavira who was the one who brought the Jain sect out into the open.

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Trimurti

The Vedic Trimurti was the closely bound trinity of three gods - Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.
Trimurti is a Sanskrit word that means "threefold expression," in other words, trinity.
The joining of the Gods, Brahma who creates the world, Vishnu who preserves and protects the world, and Shiva who eventually dismantles and dissolves the world.
All three are necessary, and all three are closely related. That's why they are joined together into what is called the Trimurti.
The Trimurti, Brahma stood between Vishnu and Shiva.
Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are all one God. They are usually pictured as the face of Brahma face forward, Vishnu face right, and Shiva face left.

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Upanishads

Constitute most philosophical portion of the Vedas.
Divine revelation received by see-er's & mystics, 2500 years ago.
400 years before Socrates.
Direct immediate overwhelming religious experience.
Search for Truth.
Literal meaning is "sitting near devotedly."
Earnest discipline learning from teacher.
Secret teaching for those ready to receive.
108 had been preserved - few 100 to 1000's of words.
Prose & manner vary widely, narrative, exposition, and dialogs.
Important characteristics - Upanishad word of see-er's and mystics.
Recording mystical revelations.
Were not builders, but recorders of religious experience.

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Veda

Supreme God-given knowledge of Truth.
"Knowledge of Truth"
The Truth itself.
Sacred knowledge.
Divinely inspired knowledge.

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Vedas

Religious compositions that expressed the essential truths of Veda.
The sacred hymns chanted by the Brahmin priests at ritual events - were the means by which the truth of Veda was given concrete expression in words.
According to theory, it was the Aryans who created the Vedas.
The Vedas were composed in the ancient language known as Sanskrit.
Those who created the Vedas referred to themselves as "Arya," a Sanskrit word loosely translated into English as "noble." They were the noble ones - members of the ruling class within the feudal structure of the time.
The most beloved of the sacred chants were preserved in the great collections that were committed to memory by the Brahmins and passed on from generation to generation.
These collections became known as the Vedas, which laid out the prescription for the correct performance of ritual and also the correct way of addressing the gods. The Brahmins created the Vedas and the Brahmins used the Vedas to establish their all-important connection with the gods.

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Branch of Vedas

Hymns/Rules of Conduct.
Knowledge- knowledge of a higher God.
Ant. Rec. of mystical knowledge.
Primary source of religious guidance.
For the core of most sacred scriptures.

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Vedanta

The name for the fully developed school of thought that offered a comprehensive interpretation of the teaching of the Upanishads.
Brought together the philosophical system that would become the bedrock of Hindu thought.
A sub-school of thought.
#1 in the West - Non-dualism (not two) of Shankara's interpretation (monistic) his thought was that all reality is one.
#2 popular in India - Qualified/Modified Non-dualism of Moksha (Awakening).
Names of these schools signify different relationships according to school's hold with Reality and Self.

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Vishnu

The Vedic Trimurti was closely bound trinity of the three gods, Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.
Vishnu was the one of the minor deities in the Vedas, but by late Vedic times, the cult of Vishnu had grown enormously, and Vishnu was clearly on of the most popular of all the gods.
Shiva is the god paired with Vishnu in the great duality; they are equal in importance, if no everywhere in popularity.
Shiva was the "Destroyer" or the "Dissolver," in the sense that all things built up must eventually be dismantled.
Vishnu is claimed to be the "Preserver."

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Wu Wei

Literally means "nonaction", in the sense of "not forcing," but in the more everyday sense, it suggests flowing freely, going with the current.
The ongoing expression of Dao.
Refers to the way nature acts - perfectly, spontaneously, not forcing or trying to control anything.
The spontaneous, mindless activity with which nature succeeds most admirably in accomplishing her ends.
It is not strictly a passive concept; actually, it expresses a lively interplay.
Is the way of living of a man or woman who is in harmony with the Dao - accepting, yielding, always flexible; wu wei is more like bamboo than oak, more like water than rock. The oak and the rock may seem to be stronger, but in the long run, bamboo and water will win out every time; they can spring back.
Wu wei has to do with the flow of Dao; de refers to what that flow produces.
Example: the way the grass grows, naturally and spontaneously, is a wonderful expression of wu wei in action, but the power of the earth and the seeds to germinate and grow as grass is de.

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Yab-Yum

Literal meaning is "father and mother."
Sexual symbolism in Vajrayana Buddhism.
A depiction of a man and woman joined together in the ecstasy of sexual union. Typically, the couple represented are a Buddha, or Bodhisattva, and his female consort. They sit face-to-face in a yoga posture, their bodies intertwined. The theme of the Yab-Yum is very highly regarded; it appears over and over in sculpture and painting. Properly understood this is an extremely powerful theme that represents the state of perfect union.

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Yi Jing - (I Ching)

literally meaning "The Book of Changes".
The subject of the book is the ceaseless play of yin and yang.
It has developed into a guidebook that anyone could use to tap into the traditional wisdom of the culture and thereby acquire a kind of guidance for harmonizing one's life with the movement of Dao.
Consists of sixty-four sections, each of which has a name - such as "Following" or Deliverance" - and the short commentary dealing with the subject denoted by that name. The commentary is written in the form of personal advice and requires skillful interpretation.
One approaches the Yi Jing as one would a sage or an oracle: to receive its guidance. The advice may be in the form of an answer to a specific question or, more likely, general guidance relevant to harmonizing one's life with Dao.
There is a precise, time-honored method for consulting the Yi Jing. A simplified method involves the use of three coins, but the classic method employs a bunch of fifty yarrow stalks - lightweight straw-like sticks. These are cast onto the ground, and from the random arrangement that forms, a precise pattern of lines can be derived. Lines are either solid or broken (- or --). Solid lines represent yang, the male principle, broken lines represent yin, the female principle. Three lines, stacked one above the other, are called a trigram. A pair of trigram forms a hexagram. Given the various combinations of broken and unbroken lines, sixty-four different hexagrams are possible. Thus it is that each hexagram corresponds to one of sixty-four sections of the Yi Jing. It then remains only to look up the appropriate section and apply its commentary to the stated question. The process gets a bit more complicated than that, but in essence, that's all there is to it. The art of course, is in the interpretation. That calls for REAL wisdom.
Defenders of the Yi Jing argue that it is in no way to be confused with fortune-telling or fortune cookies; it is not magic, not a Chinese version of the ouija board. The Yi Jing, they maintain, evolved out of the same worldview that produced the "oracle bones" in ancient times; it is a conviction that the entire cosmos is one interconnected whole. One part affects all parts. The human mind is an internal state that reflects the external state of the universe. The sagely advice of the Yi Jing prods the mind to bring forth solutions to the seeming dilemmas of daily life. The hexagram is something like a Rorschach blot; the individual's own struggle for meaning, together with the ancient wisdom contained in the text, creates the guidance.

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Yoga

The word yoga was derived from the Sanskrit root yui, which originally meant, "to bind things together."
The English word "yoke," as in "to yoke oxen," is a cognate of yoga.
One who seriously practices yoga is called a yogi.
There is some speculation that in its original meaning, yogi referred to a man who trained the semi-wild horses and harnessed them (yoked them) to the war chariot that he himself would drive into battle.
In other words, he was the charioteer.
The profession became a powerful symbol for yoga, which demanded that the yogi harness the wild horses of his own nature and drive the chariot of his person into the battle against Self-will and ignorance.

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Yoni

Represents the female sex organ; together with the linga, the two form a comprehensive symbol of the dual male-female character of nature.
The yoni represents Shakti - that is, his association with a female consort; the embodiment of female nature.

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Yin Yang

The spirit of yin and yang were a feature and principle of Religious Daoism. The principle of yin and yang has profoundly influenced the development of Chinese philosophical thought and enjoys wide popularity in modern times.
All of nature exhibits a wonderful harmony that results from the interworking of the basic forces of nature, which Daoists refer to as yin and yang. The movement of Dao is manifest in the interplay of yin and yang. Derived originally from the Chinese words for moon and sun, yin and yang stand symbolically for the dual forces of nature that are the most elementary of all. Yin, the passive force, associated with the feminine principle, is the force that maintains and regulated things and events. Yang, the active force, associated with the male principle, is the force that initiates action. A modern expression of yin and yang is energy and entropy. Radiant energy is yang, entropy is yin. One doesn't exist without the other, nor is anything ever purely an expression of one as opposed to the other. Even male and female are a mixture of the two, in which one is merely dominant. The play of yin and yang is always a mix - a dance, as it were. Yang thrusts a volcanic eruption out of the earth. At the same moment, yin goes to work, confining the explosion and giving definition to the new mountain that is formed. Over the course of time, patient yin, in the form of erosive forces, will gradually wear the mountain back to the level plain from whence it all began.
Everything is like that; you and I are like that. Yang keeps trying out new forms of being, and yin is always there to gradually dismantle them. Thus does the unfolding of nature progress through time. Eventually, we are told, the force of yin will return the entire universe to the state of amorphous dust from which it began. But this is not an ultimate victory of yin over yang, because yang is ever there, ready when the time is right to start the game all over again with a new Big Bang. (Similarity between the Daoist concept of yin and yang and the Hindu concept of the gunas. Some things are universal.)
Daoists do not see yin as being in conflict with yang; that is, it's not yin versus yang. It is very important to understand this. In the West, we're accustomed to seeing life in terms of great dichotomies - good versus evil, man against nature. The superior force must win out over the inferior. This is not the Daoist view at all. Yin and yang complement each other. They are more like positive and negative than good and evil. The goal is to achieve balance and harmony, not to conquer the natural world and bead it to our purposes, but rather to go with the natural world, finding the "way" that achieves harmony with the whole. What a world of difference there is in these two attitudes.
For a more complete analysis of yin and yang consult Yi Jing (I Ching-"The Book of Changes) an intriguing work for ancient China.

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Problems with Asian Philosophy

Brahman - Quality-less. Presents a logic problem with the concept of Brahman itself.

Fallacy of Reification - Logical error when absolute concept is treated as a REAL THING.

An abstraction treated as an independent existing thing.
Ex: Show me the UMBC University!
Show someone all the buildings and the departments and everything on campus.
At the end of the tour, the person says, "I've seen this and I've seen that, but show me the University!
There is no real thing as "The University."
University is an abstract concept, which represents all the particular components.

Further Explanation:

There is no such thing as "wealth."
Except for jewelry, property, stocks, bonds, ... etc.
They own concrete things of value.
Abstract concepts, not real things that exist.

Abstract Concept - Set of characteristics of say all "Chairs" from the past, present, and the future will all share similar characteristics.

When we give names to such characteristics we have created an abstract concept.

Contemporary Philosophy - Rejects metaphysicians intellectual slight of hand of these who want to create a Supernatural Being.

Existence is an abstract concept and not an objective thing.
No pure existence except the things that exist.

Conceptual Problem/Flaw:

Brahman - Quality-less - Brahman is without Qualities in Upanishads.
Brahman is not this and is not that... but does something, therefore Brahman IS something.
Quality that makes something such that it is.
Being without Qualities.
A being exist of being Quality of Quality-less.
A word MUST have sense, connotation and denotation.
- Connotation - what we understand when we understand its meaning.
- Denotation - the reference class of the word.
All words MUST have a Connotation, but some words have no Denotation.
No Connotation - Why then we can't understand what the word means.
Point: If Brahman has no distinguishing qualities, then Brahman has no meaning/nothing that can be understood.

Hinduism - With the thinking mind/not conceptual but Experiential.

Non verbal/mystic experience can be known.
Brahman cannot be put into words.
Point: There may not be anything there to put into words.

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Once again: A blind man, in a black room, looking for a black cat, that no one can see, and that does not exist.

Philosophical Concept Problem:

Not important as the worship of a personal god of Vishnu/Shiva.

Shi Baba - miraculous healing, raised from the dead, appeared in 2 places at the same time, 4 top ranking followers murdered in his bedroom, accused of homosexuality which is condemned in Hinduism, refused to submit to scientifically controlled experiments to prove his claims.

All of his miraculous feats have been solved by science.

Phremanan - Unveiling all mystical miracles by mechanical means/little known facts of the human body.

Sha Jahan - had the Taha Mahol built as a mausoleum for his favorite wife. There was also supposed to have been built the exact same structure in black for the Sha Jahan.

Common tricks - Tongue & hands of monkeys used.

Mice should beware of Pious Cat standing on 1 leg, as you may be eaten.

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Confucius - Kung Fu Zi (Kung Fu-tzu)

Lived in Eastern China during the Period of Warring States, 551 B.C.E. to 479 B.C.E- Three works; the Analects, the Mencius and the biography of Sima Qian make up the basic sources of information on Confucius.
The suffering of the common people was the central concern of Confucius. Confucius was a highly compassionate man, and the suffering that he saw everywhere among the common people moved him to action. Much like that of his great contemporary, Shakyamuni Buddha, Confucius's teachings amounted to a solution to a problem, and at the root of the problem was the ubiquitous suffering of ordinary men and women who were the victims of the turmoil of the age.
Confucius looked back to the "golden age" when the feudal system had been strong, when everything had been in its appointed place and life was peaceful and prosperous.
Referred to as the First Sage. One can't help but think of the relationship between Socrates and Confucius. Confucius, like Socrates, was a relatively humble man with a passion for truth and devoted his whole life to an inquiry into the truth that men should live by. As was the case with many other philosophers of the time, it seemed most likely that the Confucius were not written by Confucius himself, but rather was the master's collected teachings, put together by his disciples after his death. The Analects is a rather brief collection of terse and pithy aphorisms. Confucius was from the general region of the state of Lu. Confucius was a product of the Period of Warring States. He was an itinerant philosopher who failed in his desire to hold powerful public office. He founded a school, attracting large numbers of disciples; and it was the disciples who eventually put the teaching of the master into writing.
Of the greatest importance was the basic agreement as to the truth of Dao, the right "way" of conducting one's life. Confucius believed that right education could transform the wild infant into a man of junzi - a "Superior Man," a sage; and believed that achieving sage-hood was the only legitimate goal of life. Confucius believed that the family is the basis of the social order and that the maturing of compassion begins within the family and then, through right education, can be directed to move outward, ultimately to encompass the universal family.
Confucius saw the Superior Man's reason for being in terms of government service. The sage would fashion men of precisely so that they could enter the ranks of the governing class and dedicate their lives to servicing wise and being a model for all.
Confucius believed that man is born in a state of harmony with the natural order and falls out of harmony only by choosing his own selfish interest that is in conflict with the common good.
To Confucius mind, the overriding concern was order- that is, reestablishing order in society. But not just any kind of order would suffice; it must be natural order. Confucius believed that there is a right ordering of society that is natural to it, in the same way that there is a right ordering to all of the things of nature. Human society had gotten out of harmony with the larger natural order of which it is a part. We are part of a larger natural world in which all of the myriad elements, from wild followers to stars, fit together in a perfectly ordered harmony. Everything is an expression of the working of the whole. The ancients had understood this, but their descendants, pursuing selfish interests had strayed from the path.
Nothing in nature ever sets itself apart and operates in conflict with the universal harmony-well, nothing, that is, until we come to the evolution of human society, and therein lies the problem. But it doesn't have to be that way: As the study of ancient society revealed in the mind of Confucius, properly led and properly ordered, human society can exist in perfect harmony within the natural order. Man is a part of nature, and therefore, human nature, in the judgement of Confucius, need not be in conflict with the natural order. Evil and selfish acts are a corruption of the innate tendency of man's nature to be in harmony with the universal order. Right leadership can establish that harmony.
So where does one begin? Confucius would begin with the institution of the family, which was seen as the basic unit of society; nothing was more important. In the Confucian system, the importance of the family cannot be exaggerated. In other words, society is an extension of the family. In fact, the entire social order of China was regarded as being one great extended family. The ruler of the state was, in effect, the paterfamilias of this one great family, and he was expected to play the role and assume the duties appropriate to the father in that relationship.
In the Confucian system, though, the king "reigns," but he does not actually "rule." He is groomed from childhood to be a symbol - a father figure, a watchdog, in a sense - but the business of day-to-day governing is in the hands of carefully selected ministers, and these men, far from being the corrupt, self-serving nobles of Confucius's age, were to be a legion of "new men," chosen for their suitability and their dedication to the ideal of service. Confucius would do nothing less than sweep away the entire predatory hereditary aristocracy and replace it with a new non-hereditary aristocracy, one based on talent, compassion, and commitment to serving the needs of the common people. The character of this "new man" that Confucius envisioned was called junzi (chun-tzu); the achievement of junzi was, and still is, the heart and soul of the Confucian system.
The Confucian program, a new system of government necessitated a new system of education. In fact, there was no real system of education at all at the time. The sons of noblemen were educated, if at all, by tutors and on-the-job training. Most of their time and energy went into mastering the arts of welfare. Confucius had no interest in this; he had a whole new plan in mind. He would institute an actual system of education, an organized program of development spread out over many years. This program, based largely on study of the classics of Chinese literature, was designed to produce the new man of junzi. Confucius would take the malleable child, and through the right kind of education, which included the teacher as role model, he would create a man of superior humanistic learning, of refined personal manners, and with the will to govern wisely and compassionately. Most important of all, this new system of education was to be open to all-at least, potentially. Anyone who showed promise would be accepted, no matter what rank in society.
What Confucius admired was the stability of society, the peace, the apparent respect for law and order, and the harmony with nature-all of the things, in other words, that were painfully lacking in his own age. He attributed the felicity of the former time to the wisdom of its rulers-"sages," as he called them. He saw his own role as being the transmitter of this ancient wisdom: He would be the bridge that would link his own troubled age with the wisdom of the past. But it was not so much the form of government that he wanted to emulate as it was the sage-like character of those entrusted with the actual task of governing. In other words, Confucius believed that he saw men of junzi in the past, and he wanted to bring that ideal back to life in his own time. Of course, despite the modest denial, Confucius was far more than simply a transmitter: His system may have owed dept to traditional values, but nothing like it had existed before. Within the body of Confucius lived a creative mind of the first order.
For Confucius, as for virtually all Chinese, the family is the rock foundation of the social order, the beginning and end of all. Also, it is the model for the entire society-indeed, perhaps more than simply a model: Confucius viewed the whole society as being on great family. Values learned within one's own family were simply to be extended to the broader society as one matured. The family, in other words, was the learning ground where one (hopefully) developed the attitudes and behavior upon which the healthy social order depended. Chief among these social virtues was, and is still today, "filial piety."

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Gandhi

To his shame, his followers called him Mahatma (Great Soul).
Had not read the Gita until 2nd yr. in Law School. Had a tremendous impact on him.
Most important part to him was the end of the 2nd part, 18th verse:
- "What is an Enlightened Person really like?"
- Krishna's reply is the essential truth of Gita.
- Pg. 68 Highlight/1944Translation.
- Awakened = Luminescence = Enlightened.
Gandhi's philosophy is associated with two closely related terms - satyagraha and ahimsa, usually translated as "passive resistance" and "nonviolence", respectively. They describe the visible character of Gandhi's struggle against the British rule. His followers were unrelenting in their opposition, accepting physical brutality and imprisonment but never striking back in violence. Ultimately, they wore down the British and even won some of the cause of independence for India. But at a deeper level, the two terms refer to something much greater than passive resistance and nonviolence. In fact, those are more an effect of what the words are really all about.
Satyagraha means "holding fast to the truth"-embracing it and not letting go for any reason. Gandhi used to say, "truth is God." To know the truth is to know God; naturally, such knowledge cannot be compromised. But how does one know that what one believes is true? Doesn't everyone assume that his or her own beliefs are true? Gandhi was not interested in epistemology; he believed that truth was expressed clearly and distinctly in the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. Therein one could find a beautiful expression of truth and could easily check it out in one's daily life. The teachings of the Upanishads and the Gita, brought to life in one's ordinary daily affairs, amounted to a clear affirmation of their truth. Gandhi had experienced this personally; he had transformed himself. The example of his life was all the evidence one needed.
The correspondence of Gandhi's personal life was summed up in the opening line of the Isha Upanishad: "The Lord is enshrined in the hearts of all." His special love, though, was the Bhagavad Gita, and most of all that sublime section of eighteen verses at the end of Book Two. In these verses, Arjuna wants to know what an awakened person is really like. How does he recognize the "Real McCoy?" Krishna's reply beautifully sums up the essential spirit of what the Gita is trying to teach. He begins with the words, "They live in wisdom who see themselves in all, and all in them." Gandhi said that even if all the Gita had been lost except those eighteen verses, we would still have, in essence, the entire truth of the Bhagavad Gita.
Ahimsa, a great word that we have encountered before, was for Gandhi the way of putting Truth into action. The two ideas are intimately related. Ahimsa may mean nonviolence in the literal sense, but nonviolence refers, not to controlling an urge to violence, but to the compassionate heart from which violence of any sort would be unthinkable. One who truly sees "the Lord enshrined in the hearts of all" is not capable of hatred or violence. For such a person, opposition to evil is to oppose the evil act, but love the evildoer. That is exactly what Gandhi did, and it explains the great power of his program of passive resistance. He proved that evil could be conquered by love.
In the long run, Gandhi's most important gift-and the basis for his greatness-is the way he showed by example of his own life how every man and woman on Earth could transform themselves, as he did, and thus be able to solve the problem of evil in the world, not by the usual path of greater violence, but by the infinitely superior path of greater compassion.
Famous "Walk to the Sea". Anyone who cared to join him was allowed to walk with him. India was still under British Rule and was being overcharged for the consumption of Salt. The Indians felt they were being used because in such a hot climate salt was essential and because India was its largest customer the people felt they were being taken. (Similar to the Boston Tea Party). Ghandi's intention was to walk to the sea and extract salt from the salt water. Stared out with 75 followers and at the end had 1000's following him. British Law prohibited extracting salt from the seawater, but in an act of civil disobedience Ghandi did so anyway.

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Lao Zi - (Lao Tzu)

The name of the alleged author of Dao De Jing.
Founder of Daoism.
According to Lao Zi, it is not technology and civilization per se that are at fault; it is their exaggeration that leads us astray.
Believed that the solution depended on the fashioning of a "new person," a person of de. - Lao Zi offers many observations on how to recognize a person who is truly a Daoist man or woman. Lao Zi himself informs us that "Those who know, don't speak. Those who speak, don't know." That is to say, those who truly understand the Dao exhibit it in the way they live; such as a person would never attempt to explain it.
The truly Daoist person is often referred to as a master, not to be understood in the sense of master and servant, but rather as the master of an art. And the greatest art of all is the art of living. The true "life master," in the Daoist sense, is a very modest person - a modest, cheerful person living an absolutely simple lifestyle. This is the fundamental to the Daoist view of right living.
Lao Zi clearly preferred a society that was simple and that lived close to the earth. Only in that way could humans avoid the excesses of civilization. Lao Zi was in total disagreement with Confucian ideal in which the leaders of society constituted an elite class of "superior" men, highly educated and highly refined in their manners. He would have found Thomas Jefferson's views more to his liking. Both men seemed to think of government as, at best, a necessary evil. Both men would have agreed that "That government is best which governs least." Both idealized the agricultural and craft way of life based on small, largely Self-sufficient communities.
By not dominating, the Master leads.
The secret to success is Self-restraint, yielding control, going with the . (going with the flow)
Believed that the world could be restored to health and harmony that the sickness of greed, violence, and human suffering could largely be healed. It all depended on returning to the simple life that is natural to mankind and the role of the leader was to gently assist this process of reform.
The "good life" for every man and woman is the perfectly natural life - that is to say, becoming one with the Dao. Such a person does not try to forcibly control his environment or pile up worldly wealth and honor. These are ignorant delusions that lead inevitably to unhappiness and, all too often, to violence as well. Instead of tying to become great rocks, we are encouraged to become like water - accepting, yielding, moving spontaneously with the currents of nature, "seeking the lowest place." The simple life is the secret of happiness - the simpler, the better. To own nothing is to own everything.

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Mahavira

Birth name was Nataputta Vardhamana. an aesthetic monk born during the first half of the 6th century B.C.E. and is associated with the rise of Jainism. Mahavira was probably a contemporary of Buddha (Gautama Shakyamuni). During his years as a solitary sadhu, there were seemingly no austerities that were too extreme for him, and he went so far as to pull his hair out by the roots and go totally naked in all types of whether. He was determined to free himself from the every vestige of attachment to worldly concerns. According to the story, Mahavira (like Buddha) eventually experienced enlightenment, a profound mystical insight into what he believed to be the true nature of ultimate truth. Thereafter, Mahavira became guru to a small group of disciples who joined the master in his ascetic ways, also going about naked and hairless. Mahavira called his disciple's jinas - that is, "victors" in the battle against worldly attachments. The word "Jain" is derived from his name.
Mahavira did not claim to be the originator of the Jain sect. Far from that, that the sect had presumably been existence for centuries by the time of Mahavira, but it had been only one of many small communities of ascetic monks, drawing little public attention. The leader of the Jains was known as the Tirthankara (literally, one who finds the way across the river). Mahavira claimed to be the twenty-fourth of this unbroken line. According to the Jain tradition, the first Tirthankara was a heroic figure named Rishaba, who was said to have lived 8,400,000 years. Mahavira was the one who brought the Jains out into the open; historical record really begins with him.

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Mencius - (Meng Zi)

The best source of insight into the life and character of Confucius (Kung Fu-tzu). The Mencius is an exposition of the philosophy of Mencius, a devoted follower of Confucius. Mencius added much to the total picture of what we call "Confucianism." Though not a contemporary of Confucius - he lived about a century later - Mencius was close enough in time and association to have access to a great deal of reliable information about the man. The Mencius is full of little insights about Confucius.
Sometimes refered to as the Second Sage. Although Mencius was not an immediate disciple of Confucius, the two men were closely linked philosophically. One can't help but think of the relationship between Socrates and Plato. Confucius, like Socrates, was a relatively humble man with a passion for truth and devoted his whole life to an inquiry into the truth that men should live by. He wrote little, if at all, and were it not for his disciples, his teachings would have died with him. Mencius, on the other hand, was more like Plato; he was a rich man and took pleasure in elegant clothes and manners. He was far more doctrinaire than Confucius, though, seeming to want to preach the truth, rather than search for it. But he loved the teaching of Confucius deeply and was largely responsible for becoming a permanent part of Chinese culture. Also, like Plato, Mencius built his philosophy on the teaching of the master, both developing what is known by his name.
The work associated with Mencius is known by his name. As was the case with Confucius, and with many other philosophers of the time, it seemed most likely that the Mencius was not written by Mencius himself, but rather was the master's collected teachings, put together by ten of his disciples after his death. In many ways, the Mencius is similar to the Analects but the Mencius offers us a much fuller development of the themes. Whereas the Analects is a rather brief collection of terse and pithy aphorisms, the Mencius is a collection of genuine stories, with far more detail and humor. The almost sardonic wit of the author comes through clearly. Reading the Mencius, though, throws much light on the Analects, because the Mencius takes up many of the same themes. The Mencius had many similar themes, similar goals, and much the same spirit as the Analects, but by no means are the two works identical. If nothing else, times had changed too much between the lifetimes of their authors. The evolution of Chinese history was more than a century further down the river by the time of Mencius, and that clearly shows in his work.
Both Mencius and Confucius were from the same general region, the state of Lu. Both were products of the Period of Warring States. Both were itinerant philosophers who failed in their desire to hold powerful public office. Both founded schools, attracting large numbers of disciples; and, in both cases, it was the disciples who eventually put the teaching of the master into writing.
Of the greatest importance was the basic agreement between them as to the truth of Dao, the right "way" of conducting one's life. Both men believed that right education could transform the wild infant into a man of junzi - a "Superior Man," a sage; and both believed that achieving sage-hood was the only legitimate goal of life. Too, Mencius fully agreed with Confucius that the family is the basis of the social order and that the maturing of compassion begins within the family and then, through right education, can be directed to move outward, ultimately to encompass the universal family.
Perhaps the most salient point of difference between Mencius and Confucius concerns purpose. Confucius saw the Superior Man's reason for being in terms of government service. The sage would fashion men of precisely so that they could enter the ranks of the governing class and dedicate their lives to servicing wise and being a model for all. Mencius on the other hand, focused on the right living, not right governing, as the proper goal of the Superior Man. This is not to say that Meniscus was indifferent to the need for wise rulers; far from it, but that was not the focus of his teaching. His interest was more basic, more individualized: Identify those who are capable, and help them achieve sage-hood. A society that honors this idea in its educational system will naturally incline toward good government.
Mencius believed that everyone is capable of becoming a sage, because he believed in the inherent "goodness" of human beings. This belief is often attributed to Confucius, but in fact, it was Mencius who added it to the teaching of Confucianism. Confucius had little to say on this subject. This is not to say that Confucius denied that man is good by nature, but he focused more than Mencius did on the matter of "naturalness." Confucius believed that man is born in a state of harmony with the natural order and falls out of harmony only by choosing his own selfish interest that is in conflict with the common good. Mencius went beyond this notion to actually define human nature as being naturally inclined to that, which is morally "good." Obviously human nature can be corrupted, and it often is, but, Mencius would maintain, at its root human nature is good, and no matter how often it is wounded, the urge to goodness is always ready to grow back, like the grass on the sunny side of a hill.
Anticipating the Daoists (or perhaps borrowing a metaphor from them), Mencius compared human nature to water: "Human nature is good just as water seeks low ground. There is no man who is not good; there is no water that does not flow downwards." For all practical purposes, Mencius equated goodness with compassion. In accordance with his view, we could say that goodness is the latent disposition, and the action that flows from it is compassion. To support his contention, that compassion (the inclination to goodness) is inherent in all men and women. Meniscus offered the example of a person who suddenly comes upon a scene in which it appears that a small child is about to fall down a well. "My reason for saying that no man is devoid of a heart sensitive to suffering of others is this. Suppose a man were all of a sudden, to see a young child on the verge of falling into a well. He would certainly be moved to compassion, not because he wanted to get in the good graces of the parents, nor because he wished to win the praise of his fellow villagers or fiends, nor yet because he dislikes the cry of the child."
In this example, Mencius is arguing that virtually any person would feel a spontaneous burst of compassion from the child. It's the universally and suddenness of the emotion that make the point. Given time to think the situation over, some might find selfish reasons to ignore the child or, on the other hand, find selfish reasons to go the child's rescue. But in so doing, they have allowed their natural disposition to be smothered by selfish desires and fears. What this all adds up to, at least for Mencius, is that the goal of right education must be to work with the natural inclination to goodness that lies at the heart of every person, to cultivate it from the time a person is very young, and not to allow self-centered fears to stunt its growth. On this path, any person can eventually become a sage.
In most respects, Mencius would agree with Confucius as to the definition of a sage. Confucius's Superior Man and Meniscus sage were similarly highly educated individuals in whom compassion ruled over selfish interest. Both admired the self-contained individual who freely chose to serve the needs of the community with no thought of reward. His reward is the abiding joy that comes from knowing that he is a contributory part of the whole. Mencius summed up his own view of the superior person in these words: "When he achieves his ambition he shares [it] with the people; when he fails to do so he practices the Way alone. He cannot be led into excesses when wealthy and honored or deflected from his purpose when poor and obscure, nor can he be made to bow before superior force. This is what I would call a great man."
For Mencius the ultimate reward for cultivating the self was to know the unspeakable bliss that arises only from the obliteration of that same self. The end of wisdom is to be achieved in becoming "one with Heaven," in which state all distinctions between the self and non-self are dissolved. "For a man to give full realization to his heart is for him to understand his own nature, and the man who knows his own nature will know Heaven." Perhaps this statement Mencius added profoundly to Confucianism that was something wholly new.

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Mo Zi - (Mo Izu)

One voice from the period of a Hundred Philosophers.
Lived relatively close to the period of Confucius (5th century B.C.E.). Mo Zi was disgusted with what he perceived as the corruption of the master's teachings. There was a movement among some Confucians to form themselves into a sort of elite class, a Confucian literati, distinguished by overly elegant manners and a special kind of elaborate clothing unique to themselves. Also some Confucians encouraged the practice of costly funerals, which they would manage at no small profit to themselves. These kinds of abuses sickened Mo Zi, and finally abandoned his association with the Confucians, going off to found his own school.
It is presented in a short book of the same name, a collection of aphorisms compiled by his disciples. He completely agreed with Confucius with regard to some basic matters. Both men wanted to reform the corrupt social order of their time. They would accomplish this by persuading the rulers to turn over power to the virtuous men who were dedicated to serving the common good. Both men would fashion these new men through the process of education aimed at resurrecting the ways of the sage - rulers of ancient times. But that's where the similarities ended.
Mo Zi had no interest at all in the liberal humanities of the Confucian system. He felt that it simply did not get at the root of the common's people's problem. Restoring order to society was the overarching need of the day. But not just any system of order; it had to be a system that would be in full harmony with the order of nature. Such a system, once achieved, would be perfectly stable. In Mo Zi's opinion this called for a rigidly organized hierarchy of authority, which he believed was the way of nature. At the top of the pyramid of power would be the hereditary monarch, whom Mo Zi referred to as the "Son of Heaven." The government of the Son of Heaven would rule with an unchallenged authority and, interestingly enough, with the total support and loyalty of the people.
Why would the people be so supportive of an authoritarian regime? Because every man and woman would be imbued with a sense of what Mo Zi referred to as "universal love." He was talking about love, which resides in the mind. It was to be a philosophical kind of love, springing from the recognition of the natural inter-relatedness of all the parts of a society. When one grasped the organic unity of it all and saw one's own real identity in terms of that unity, a deep love and loyalty to the system would inevitably follow.
Mo Zi totally dismissed Confucius emphasis on the family as being of fundamental importance. In Mo Zi's opinion, the family was the breeding ground of segregation and emotionalism; it was an obstacle, not a help, to the achievement of universal love. Everyone should love everyone, without distinction: "If everyone in the world would practice universal love... then the whole world would enjoy peace and good order." Education was the key: Every person must be educated to see, clearly and distinctly, that the way of universal love was in his or her own best interest. It might almost be described as a love engendered by enlightened self-interest. The ruler - sages would be models, and their example would eventually be followed by everyone.
Mo Zi was willing to sacrifice everything and anything that might interfere with the success of his ideal society. His teaching was ruthless utilitarian: If it doesn't help, out it goes. One of the things to go was emotion. Strange as it may seem, Mo Zi held that emotionalism was the enemy of the state. It has no place in the natural order of things, because it serves no useful purpose. Emotion feeds individual desires and uncontrolled behavior. Therefore, in Mo Zi's ideal state, all expressions of emotion were to be purged. There was to be no art, no music - nothing at all that might excite the emotions of the people. It may hard to believe, but that is exactly what Mo Zi's advocated.
In this highly Spartan state, absolutely everything was to be subordinated to the good of the whole. The love of all for all would arise when the people discovered that such a state was the natural way for human communities to be organized and that it was the only reasonable alternative to the chaos and corruption of the times. The smooth functioning of such a state depended on the unquestioned loyalty of the subjects. That loyalty would arise out of a sense of identity, and ultimately, all must identify with the supreme ruler, the son of Heaven. He in turn identified with Heaven itself. When this state of total integration was achieved, the system would function perfectly.
What if it didn't function perfectly? Mo Zi's answer to this was that Heaven would punish wrongdoing; Mo Zi declared that natural calamities were the punishments of Heaven. "Heaven sends down immoderate cold and heat and unseasonable snow, frost rain and dew. The five grains do not ripen, and the six domestic animals do not mature. There are diseases, epidemics, and pestilence. Hurricanes and torrential downpours occur repeatedly. These are Heaven's punishments, visited on men below because they fail to identify themselves with it.

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Nanak

A book composed of the collected teachings of Guru Nanak.
Technically speaking, Adi Granth means "original book," but is generally referred to as the "Holy Book."
It is the "Bible" of the Sikh religion, and part of the prayers that make up the daily devotion of every Sikh.
The beauty of Nanak's spiritual philosophy is in its straightforward simplicity.
Hindu influences are also evident.
His overriding goal was to reveal an underlying harmony between the Muslim and Hindu ways.
He sought to get down to the roots by discarding the externals.
Nanak rejected all dogma, all scriptures; he rejected the caste system and everything even suggestive of idolatry.
After cleansing all that was left was the all-important core.
Nanak declared that there is one God.
Salvation consists in the soul's escape from samara, the cycle of birth and death. This is accomplished by the total destruction of Self-love, and that is accomplished through the total submission to the will of God.
The perfect universally way to achieve total submission is through Nam Jaap, the constant repetition of the Divine Name.
Nam Jaap will slowly, but steadily, clear away all the impurities of Self-love. Nam Jaap, daily prayer, and service to the community - these three rules were the common core of worship that Nanak distilled from the teachings of Islam and Hinduism.

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Patanjali

The man credited with the development of yoga into one of the classical darshanas who lived in the 2nd century B.C.E. He is the punitive author of the Yoga Sutras, a work of major importance in the history of Hinduism. In this work, Patanjali draws together what he regards to be essential elements of the yoga tradition and presents a program of action that the dedicated seeker can follow in the ascent from ignorance to the fullness of awakening.
Yoga is the cessation of the thought waves of the mind." What it means is that, in the most perfect sense, yoga is a state of consciousness, a state wherein all of the distractions of thought and ego have become quiet. The Self alone is all that remains, pure and simple. This state of consciousness is called samadhi. The attainment of samadhi is the ultimate goal of the practice of yoga. But samadhi is to be won only at the summit of a long and arduous climb, a journey that the truly dedicated alone can hope to complete.
In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali presents a description of an eight-tiered ascent to the goal of samadhi. In modern translations, the tiers are often referred to as the "eight limbs of yoga." Patanjali gives much attention to each limb; what follows is only the briefest of descriptions.
1. Yama: Yama is usually translated as "restraint." It refers to various practices aimed at replacing ego attachments with self-restraint and compassion. Among these practices are Ahimsa (nonviolence); Sattva (in this usage the word Sattva is taken to mean non-lying, that is, being truthful in all things); Asteya (non-stealing-i.e., refrain from stealing); Aparigraha (literally, non-grasping- i.e., overcoming the impulse of greed); and Brahmacharya renouncing sexual lust; Patanjali expected the truly dedicated yogin to be totally celibate).
2. Niyama: Usually translated as "observances," the Niyama are habits of mind to be cultivated by the yogin. Both Yama and Niyama refers to habits of mind; the Yama emphasize removing impediments to growth, while the Niyama focus on building positive ones in their place. The Niyama include purity and cleanliness of mind and body, an attitude of contentment and acceptance, and the rigorous practice of ascetic disciplines, study, and devotion.
3. Asanas: The word asana refers to a bodily posture. By Patanjali's time, the tradition of yoga had worked out a large number of classical asanas, which, along with the associated breathing exercises, were believed to constitute an excellent discipline for bringing the body under control and keeping it in the healthiest possible condition. Since mental states are greatly affected by the condition of the body, a strong and healthy body was seen to be essential to progress in the art of meditation.
4. Pranayama: Pranayama, referring to skillful breathing exercises, is closely linked to the practice of asanas. Whereas the asanas focus more directly on the condition of the body, pranayama build on the asanas to increase one' vital energy, which can be turned inward for the task of building up the energy of consciousness. Pranayama is a conduction of the Sanskrit words: prana, which refers to vital energy that is taken into the body through breathing, and ayama, a word that means "to increase" or "build up," as in building up a fire. The Yogic practices of asanas and pranayama had become highly evolved by Patanjali's time. They were the jealously guarded province of ascetic communities. Only a true master was seen to be fit to initiate and teach another. The two practices together form a basis of Hatha Yoga. Important as Hatha Yoga may be unto itself, the tradition of yoga has always seen it as the servant of Raja Yoga, the yoga of meditation. Hatha prepares the individual for the richest possible experience in meditation. A popular image compares the two yogas to a tree. The crown of the tree, closest to the sun, is Raja Yoga. But the sturdy trunk, which holds up the crown, is Hatha. Without Hatha, there can be no Raja.
5. Pratyahara: Usually translated as "control of the senses," pratayhara is concerned with developing total mastery over the physical body and all of its desires and distractions. This is a matter of the higher nature coming to totally control the lower. Pratyahara does not mean "renunciation"; it means, "control." There is an excellent description of pratayhara in Book Two of the Bhagavad Gita. "Even as a tortoise draws in its limbs, the wise can draw in their senses at will.
6. Dharana: Dharana is often simply called concentration. Perhaps this is too simple and thus misleading. Dharana is an ongoing condition of consciousness in which the restless activity of the thinking mind has been brought under control and the person is free to be totally aware of the present moment as it unfolds. Dharana is closely associated with ekagrata, which means "one-pointedness," a habit of focusing one's consciousness on the reality of the moment. Many practices were developed to help one become skilled in Dharana.
7. Dhyana: Dhyana is a supremely important word in the evolution of Eastern thought. In itself, dhyana refers to the practice of meditation and to the state of mind of one who practices meditation. Patanjali describes four stages of Dhyana, the fourth being synonymous with Samadhi.
8. Samadhi: In the state of Samadhi, consciousness has shed all traces of ego identification; the thinking mind is still, and consciousness is free to know its identification with All. Such words may be accurate, technically speaking, but in truth no words are capable of describing the experience of Samadhi; it transcends all words, all thoughts. Samadhi is the ultimate goal of the practice of yoga.

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Ramanuja

Resident scholar (acharya) of the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam in south India in the 11th century C.E. Ramanuja was a brilliant thinker, fully rooted in the Bhakti tradition. His name is often linked with Shankara, whose abstract, intellectual philosophy he attacked. Ramanuja was a scholar, able to meet Shankara on his own ground, and thus gave a respectable defense to Bhakti, all too often dismissed as naive and un-philosophical by educated Hindus. Ramanuja sought to establish Bhakti as a fully intelligent alternative to the intellectual philosophical of Shankara.
Ramanuja agreed with the Vedanta position of Shankara that reality is One, but strongly disagreed as to the real nature of the One. Ramanuja argued that the empirical dualistic interpretation because the world is not separate from Brahman; rather, it is the direct manifestation of Brahman. The One manifests itself in pluralities. He used the familiarity analogy of the body to explain this point. Each part of the body is real and distinct unto itself, but altogether the parts form an organic whole, a "self," which is real, whose reality transcends that of the parts and that upon which each of the parts is wholly dependent. You could say that the individual beings of the world are the manifested parts of the "body" of Brahman, but just as your own self is infinitely more than merely the sum of the parts, so, too, is Brahman, the ultimate "self," the final one reality that defines everything.
The great importance of this interpretation of this is that it opens up the possibly of sin and redemption. If the individual self is real, then it is capable of independent action, including sin. This is not the same as the avidya of Brahman-Atman that results in suffering; Ramanuja is talking about real, free-will sin.
Human beings are capable of sin, but redemption is possible. Being that each of us is only a part of the organic wholeness of Brahman and that therefore none of us is in any way capable of independent existence, redemption consists in fully accepting the fact of our oneness with Brahman, loving Brahman with complete resignation. Loving Brahman is not loving some lifeless abstraction-the "absolute," for example. Since the whole is greater than the parts, and the parts are personally conscious beings, it must follow that Brahman, too, is at least real and personal being as we are. Ramanuja is encouraging men and women to love Brahman in the form of a personal god, a compassionate savior, and for Ramanuja, none fit the bill better than Vishnu, the much-loved deity who represented the Brahman nature. The way to exhibit that love, of course is through Bhakti, the customary practices of which-worship at the temple, festivals, prayer, etc. -are the means par excellence for one to generate the saving grace (prasada) that brings redemption from sin-and the highest form of Bhakti, in Ramanuja's view, is the worship repetition of the name of God. Ramanuja urged his followers to pray constantly, lovingly repeating God's name.

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Shankara

The great Indian scholar brought the teachings of the Vedanta together into philosophical system that would become the very bedrock of Hindu thought from that time to the present. Although he lived for only thirty-two years, Shankara was highly influential thinker. He established Vedanta firmly on the central teaching that, at bottom, all reality is one. (Shankara's interpretation of Vedanta is referred to as Advaita Vedanta, meaning "monistic" Vedanta, to distinguish it from certain other interpretations that would emerge later.
Shankara established four mathas. One in the north of India, one in the south, one in the west, and one in the east. A matha is a monastery that, at the same time, is something like a college. In addition to offering the usual monastic disciplines a matha places a strong emphasis on scholarly pursuits. All of the mathas founded by Shankara are still functioning to this day and are living sources of his teaching.
Most of all, though, Shankara's philosophy is found in his writings, the most influential of which is the Naishkaramya-siddhi, a lengthy commentary on the Brahma-Sutra of Badarayana, composed several centuries earlier. In the Naishkaramya-siddhi, Shankara lays out the essential features of the Vedanta darshana. Brahman alone is Absolute Truth; Brahman alone is real. This uncompromising monism at the heart of Shankara's teaching is the reason for his system being labeled "Advaita Vedanta." Advaita means "non-dual" (a-dvi, not two). This is an important distinction, philosophically speaking, because some schools within the general Vedanta tradition taught the reality of a dualism in which both spirit and the world are separate, but real.
Drawing his inspiration directly from the Upanishads, Shankara held that the atman is Brahman and that the ultimate goal of life is the realization of the identity of the atman and Brahman. What stands in the way of attaining that goal is maya, the veil of illusion that seduces us into falsely believing that the world is real. The ego, itself a part of the world of maya, tumbles between pleasure and pain in a hopeless quest for self-centered happiness. This, of course, is the condition of avidya. The only hope for salvation is to accept the fact that the world of maya is a figment and to disengage oneself entirely from its enticing attachments. Only through renouncing maya can a person ascend to the knowledge of Brahman.
Shankara argued that through the disciplined pursuit of knowledge, a dedicated seeker could eventually transcend ordinary knowledge, rising to perfect knowledge. This is the path of Jnana. Shankara, though, was far from being purely intellectual. Although he was a highly rational man who could not accept any doctrine that was clearly in conflict with reason, he had a mystical side as well. Shankara taught that the path of knowledge was the one best suited to elevate a philosophical minded person to the state of samadhi, within the mystical experience of knowledge of Brahman could occur.
Knowledge of Brahman, then, is in no way to be thought of as conceptual, or "philosophical," in the usual sense of the word. Knowledge of Brahman is a completely transcendental experience, which can be approached through philosophical knowledge. The Brahman of Shankara may not be a personal god-that is true-but neither did Shankara choose to describe Brahman as nothing more than an impersonal abstraction. In talking about Brahman, Shankara would wisely drop into the poetic style of Bhakti. He would even sometimes refer to Brahman as a "friend." Shankara composed a number of rather mystical versus dedicated to Govinda, one of the names of Krishna; these versus are thus known as the "Bhaja Govindam." It is fascinating to reflect on the fact that the words in the versus are being uttered by the man whose name is foremost among the rational philosophers of his time.

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Xun Zi - (Hsun Tzu)

Another of the voices from the period of a Hundred Philosophers.
His conclusion was that man by nature is evil. Xun Zi argued that man is selfish by nature, not compassionate, Goodness-compassion-is acquired virtue, which develops naturally as one's inherent selfishness is overcome. So, in a way, both compassion and selfishness are inherent in human nature, but selfishness is initially the stronger and crowds out nascent compassion unless the individual, through right education learns to deny the impulse to selfishness. In that event, the individual is free to develop into a "Superior Man."
Like Confucius and Mencius, Xun Zi regarded self-cultivation leading to sage-hood to be the most important goal of life, and he agreed that right education was essential if one were to follow the Dao, in the sense that Confucius used the term. Unlike Confucius and Mencius, however, Xun Zi believed that only a very few were capable of making the grade. Theoretically, his educational system might be open to all, but it was a foregone conclusion that the great masses of the common people as being little better than animals.
Presumably, he was as popular as Mencius was at the time. He certainly made a nice foil to Mencius. If Mencius's relation to Confucius was like that of Plato to Socrates, then, in some was, Xun Zi played the role of Aristotle in this triangle. Like Aristotle, Xun Zi was a brilliant thinker and totally rational; mystic insight seemed to have no place at all in his philosophy. In fact, he had no use for religion in any guise. To his way of thinking, religion was nothing more than a collection of ignorant superstitions, acceptable perhaps for keeping the common people in line, but not worthy of having any place whatsoever in the life of a Superior Man.
Although Xun Zi's creative mind carried the evolution of Confucian thought into rich new ground, his influence was short lived, and his name was eventually all but forgotten. Maybe this is due to the apparent dichotomy between the teaching of Xun Zi and Mencius; Mencius's insistence on the native goodness of human nature carried the day.
Xun Zi simply lacked faith in humankind: Xun Zi was without qualification, one of the most brilliant philosophers the world has ever produced. But he lacked faith in humanity. This flaw, like the fatal weakness of the hero in a Greek tragedy, went to nullify his best efforts.

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Zhuang Zi - (Chuang Tzu)

The man's name and his work of literature.
Zhuang Zi was produced a little before the work, "Dao De Jing," sometime during the 4th century B.C.E. It was probably some of his disciples who collected the teachings of Zhuang Zi into a book.
Unlike the Dao De Jing, which is very terse and cryptic, the Zhuang Zi presents a much fuller exposition of Daoist themes. The book is composed in a down-to-earth prose style that reads like a conversation. The Zhuang Zi's is enjoyable reading, often amusing and full of anecdotes. Zhuang Zi's focus is squarely on the nature of right living. Unlike Lao Zi and Confucius, Zhuang Zi deals hardly at all with the matter of right government; it doesn't seem to interest him. The right way of living is his theme. Taken as a whole, the Zhuang Zi presents a fully developed philosophy of life.
Zhuang Zi agreed with Confucius that the common response self indulgence would not succeed, not even if it is highly refined self-indulgence. To seek to create a little mini-universe of family and friends in which one can tastefully go about satisfying one's desire, safely out of view of the ugly realities of the larger world, is nothing more than a cultivated hedonism; it cannot succeed. Zhuang Zi disagreed, though, with the solution offered by Confucius - that is, the cultivation of junzi.
The idea of junzi, the "Superior Man," was at the heart of Zhuang Zi's complaint with Confucius. The Confucians envisioned a new ruling elite, based not on birth and wealth, but on demonstrated knowledge and compassion. These modest men would be the selfless leaders of society, cultivating by their example the native goodness that dwells in the hearts of all men and women. To the Daoists this vision was preposterous, and they held it up to ridicule. Man is by nature neither good nor evil; the two concepts are intimately bound together. To the Daoist, the very defining of a "good" man necessarily gives rise to the "evil" man; they arise mutually.
This is very subtle point, but it is essential element of the Daoist philosophy of life. It strikes at the human tendency to conceptualize the realities that we encounter in daily life and then substitute the concept for the reality that it represents. For example, happiness is a state of the mind that we experience from time to time; it is an integral part of certain situations, such as being with a friend or eating a good dinner. To mentally abstract this condition of happiness, as if it were a something in itself, and then make it an object of desire is a fatal mistake. But that's what humans do all the time. "Happiness" thus becomes an external object, as it were; something to be attained, just as "unhappiness" is a thing to be avoided. The same can be said for" good" and "evil," and so on. In Zhuang Zi's view this was the problem with Confucius's concept of junzi; it was a concept! The problem with seeking to be a man of junzi was in the very seeking itself. Confucius, admittedly with the best intentions, had mistakenly conceptualized the notion of a Superior Man, thus making it an external object that could never be realized. At best, Zhuang Zi would argue, the man of junzi would be only a well-behaved, intellectually cultivated person, but never a man of real fulfillment. He would see only the effects of Dao, but not its essence.
The central point of Zhuang Zi's teaching, and indeed of Daoism generally, is that fulfillment in life is not to be found by seeking it, which in everyday terms comes down to trying to grasp it. This inevitably results in an ongoing effort to control one's environment, an effort that is ultimately doomed to failure. The effort to grasp and control life creates both a kind of bondage to one's concept of what " the good" is and the desire to achieve it. Fulfillment, however, is to be found not through seeking the good, but through not seeking it, through letting go of the self altogether! Only by letting go of our precious conceptual world do we discover real freedom. Awakening to the nature of freedom is the key to understanding the teaching of Zhuang Zi.
All of us acquire a set of values as we grow up. Ordinarily, these are the "conventional values" of the society in which we live, values that we were first taught to us when we were children. Having such values seems to be an important part of a successful life; our values shape our goals. But Zhuang Zi would have ceremoniously discard the entire baggage of conventional values because they are concepts only; they have no corresponding reality in Nature. "Ills are only because we recognize them as such." In other words, something is "bad" and therefore makes us unhappy, not because it really is bad in some objective sense, but rather because we have decided that it is bad. If at some deep level we decide that having lots of money is good, then it must follow that having very little money is bad. Of course, neither one is objectively good, or bad, but once decision is made and the concept formed, it follows that we will seek to achieve the conceptual reality that we have defined as "the good" and thus, hopefully, be happy.
Zhuang Zi maintains that freedom results from completely letting go of the struggle to achieve these conceptual goals.
The bottom line is simply this: When the struggle ceases, one is free to be in harmony with Dao - and not until then! This is the natural state of all things, including humans. When the struggle ceases, one is free to become an embodiment of wu wei, not intent on results, not calculating, not making value judgements about everything, not attempting to control one's little world; one can relax and allow him or herself to be a free and spontaneous expression of movement of the natural world. In doing this one will intuitively come to see the magnificent unity of nature. All is one; all is equal. "Things," including myself, have no dependent existence or meaning.
Very much at odds with the traditional Western attitude, Zhuang Zi saw no special relationship at all between man and nature, or, to be precise, between the human mind and nature. But far from belittling human nature, the teaching of Zhuang Zi liberates humanity from the self-imposed isolation and loneliness of being some kind of godlike visitor in the universe, surrounded by the natural world, but essentially not a part of it. For Zhuang Zi, humankind is very much a part of the universe, wholly, integrally, and voluptuously! It is for that very reason that nothing is to be gained by mentally setting ourselves apart. It is for that very reason that nothing is to be gained by mentally setting ourselves apart. It's ridiculous to do so. The genuine Daoist does no have to prove to himself that he is a godlike being or that he can conquer nature; he does not have to prove anything. He is free to live simply and modestly. He has nothing more to prove than does the grass, and each is splendid just as it is.
Far from seeking to be at the center of things, controlling, governing-even governing righteously, as would be the Confusion Superior Man-the genuine Daoist values solitude, sometimes to the point of being a recluse. Above all, the Daoist inclines to a lifestyle that permits the contemplation of nature-not just "woods and wildlife," but that grand order of nature that encompasses all, including the elf. The joy derived from this awareness banishes all fear and suffering. Cosmic awareness reduces the trivial problems of life to the point of being meaningless. Even the once monstrous fear of death dissolves in the contemplation of the natural order. Like everything else, death is seen to be a perfectly natural event.
Zhuang Zi was clearly a mystic philosopher. In the Zhuang Zi, Daoism is elevated to the level of nature mysticism. John Blofeld, a modern Daoist philosopher, puts it nicely: "I do not see how anyone who has studied his works can doubt that he was well acquainted with states of mystical rapture lying well beyond the frontier of quietest accord with nature." Perhaps this is what Zhuang Zi was referring to when he complained that Confucius did not go far enough-that he saw the workings of Dao, but never Dao itself.
Inspired by his vision of the unity of nature, the Daoist is thus free to live as a natural man-an embodiment of wu wei. This does not mean that the Daoist chooses a life of inaction, of torpor. That would be a misunderstanding of wu wei. He is like the grass or drifting clouds only to sense that the energy of Dao plays through him naturally, without forcing or trying to control him. Nature is so beautifully regulated that once in accord with it, one doesn't have to do anything, in the sense of pushing it around. Just go with it, the way the grass grows. Of course, the nature of grass is very different from the nature of man, and therefore, wu wei is expressed differently in human being.
The true Daoist is a skilled artist. His or her instrument might be the keyboard of a piano or the keyboard of a computer, the brush of a painter or the knife of a butcher. It could be anything; the art is in the effortless way the person becomes one with the work; this is wu wei. Zhuang Zi tells the story of an old butcher who was so deft at slicing up a carcass, that even though he had been doing it for years, he never needed to sharpen his knife. In a similar vein is the venerable old Aikido master who looks so frail and never seems to expend any effort, but no attacker can ever lay a hand on him. This is wu wei in action. The ultimate art is life itself. When one's daily life becomes an expression of wu wei, the perfection of Daoism is achieved.
Like Lao Zi, loved the nature of water. Water is so all encompassing, so primal, so strong, yet yielding. The movement of water perfectly reveals the way of nature. Water is powerful; as a glacier or a tsunami, it can crush anything in its path. Yet it is also the most yielding thing in nature, and it always seeks the lowest place. Water is a wonderful example of wu wei in action and thus is a favorite metaphor for the Daoist lifestyle. Bamboo is another popular image in Daoism, for the same reason. Lie water, bamboo is very strong, but never tries to force itself; bamboo yields and then springs back.
Yielding is the key, not in the sense of surrendering, but rather in the sense of going with the flow. Bamboo yields to the wind and thus does not break, A sailboat too, "yields to the wind and thus reaches its destination. One of the great sailing crafts of modern times was the Kon Tiki, an embodiment of wu wei in action. In building the Kon Tiki and learning how to sail it, Thor Heyerdal learned much about the meaning of wu wei. Commenting on his great adventure, he said, " Among primitive races the golden rule was: Don't resist nature, but yield to her command, and accommodate."
There is a very popular story in the Zhuang Zi that makes the point beautifully. It's known as "Three in the Morning." A man acquired a small group of monkeys, and he planned to give them four measures of chestnuts in the morning and three in the evening. The monkeys however complained loudly when they heard about this, so he changed his plan and gave them three measures in the morning and four in the evening. Now everyone was satisfied. The point is that he was wise enough to see that stubbornly insisting that the monkeys were being unreasonable would solve nothing; he would only become unreasonable himself. Since his goal was to provide the monkeys with adequate nourishment, he was content to yield with regard to the means for achieving it. He became like water seeking the lowest place. So long as he reached the lowest place, he was perfectly willing to yield to the boulder in his path and go around it. The teaching of Zhuang Zi consistently follows the principle of "three in the Morning."

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