Summa Dharmalogica: A Lineage in Spirit-Logic

Copyright © 2014 by Maik Sulmaya Pehrsson.

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Prelude: Sanatan-Dharma

The Premise In A Nutshell

The Buddha Café

The Virtue Of Study

PART I LINEAGE

1. Bringing It Back

A Quick Overview

2. The Mystery Of Faith

Beginning Your Journey With Faith

Religion Vs Dharma

The Institution

The Historical Gautama Vs The Religious

Shakyamuni

3. A Brief History Of Time

Mount Meru And Cosmology

The Yugas

Language And Communication

Dispelling An Aryan Lie

Pre-Flood World Culture

Meaning Of The Yugas

The Dharma Lineage: Beginnings

Vaishnavism

Krishna’s Teachings

The Development Of Buddhadharma

Buddha’s Teachings

Buddhism Spreads

Zen, Hashang, And The Two Views

Tibetan Buddhism: The Full ‘Yana’

Mental History

4. Ahankara: The Feeling Of ‘I’

Introduction

Psychological Understanding Of Buddhist And Vedic

Teachings On The Origins Of Self And Suffering

The Self

The Vedic Version: The True Self And

The Imputed Self

Mama

Anatta

5. Genesis

The Views

Creationism – The Biblical View

Involution – The Vaishnava/Vaisheshika/Samkhya View

Materialism – The View Of Evolution

The Vedic ‘Evolution’

When Did It All Begin?

Dependent-Related Origination

The Problems With Evolution Theory

Conclusion

PART II SHUNYATA

1. Phenomenology

Expansion And Contraction

Amanda’s Lotus Feet

Seeking The Object

Prasangika Consequence

Nagarjuna’s Tetralemma

The Self Within Self

Conclusion

2. Matter

Matter And Spirit In Vedic Philosophy

Samkhya

Matter And Spirit As Maya And Moksha

3. On Science

4. Descartes’s Cat

Shunyata And The Quantum Field Potential

5. Emptiness

Etymology

Imputation

Ultimate Natures

Valid Cognisers, Valid Functions

The Schools Of Thought

Vedanta/Samkhya: The View Of Permanence

Vaibhashika And Sautrantika

Yogachara/Chittamatrin (Mind-Only School)

Madhyamaka: The Middle Way – Svatantrika And

Prasangika

Yogachara-Svatantrika-Madhyamika

The Shunyata-Field Potential

Prasangika – Consequentialism

Feeling Emptiness

6. Karma, Reincarnation,

The Afterlife, And Ghosts!

Karma

How Karma Functions

The Three Poisons

Reincarnation

Establishing Reincarnation As Valid

Karma And Science

Subtle Karma

A Case Against Reincarnation Refuted

The Soul, The Mind

Kala

7. Love

Three Types Of Love

The Kindness Of Others

Exchanging Self With Others

Universal Compassion

8. Quanta Of Tantra

News Flash Dharma (Short Introduction To The

Tantra Chapter)

Tantra And Lila

Etymology And Development

Powa

Mahamudra

Bliss And Emptiness, Space And Joy

A Special View: The Trilogy

9. Sex

A History Of Gender Roles

Sex And Sin

Beyond Sex And Into Tantra

PART III THE AWAKENING

1. God

A History Of Theology

Dualism

Non-Dualism

Dualism And Non-Dualism: The Two Extremes

The Middle Way: Advaita-Dvaita

A Meeting Between St. Thomas Aquinas And

Nagarjuna

Purport

One But Different

God And Soul: Permanent Beings?

Vishnu Vajradhara

Trikaya And Trinity

God The Creator, God The Source

Quinque Viæ St. Thomas Aquinas: Proving And

Disproving The Existence Of God

(1) The Prime Mover

(2) The First Cause

(3) The Necessary Being

(4) The Absolute Being

(5) The Grand Designer

Conclusion

2. Meditation

What Is Meditation?

How To Meditate – Step 1: Keep It Real!

Part 2: Preliminaries – Yoga

Asanas, Bandhas, And Mudras

Pranayama

Formal Meditation

Our Aim

Meditation 101: First…

(1) Place

(2) Posture

(3) Preliminary

(4) Pranayama

(5) Black And White

(6) Contemplation 1: Death

(7) Contemplation 2: Renunciation And Refuge

(8) Contemplation 3: Bodhichitta

(9) Exchanging Self With Others

(10) Wishing Love

(11) Field Of Merit

(12) Absorption

(13) Non-Dual Profundity And Clarity

(14) Arise

Mahamudra, First Stage: Basic Tantra

PART IV SADHANA

1. Stages In A Path To Enlightenment

The Reason And The Purpose

In Summary

2. The Path To Enlightenment

The Initial Scope Meditations: Our Precious

Human Life

Death And Impermanence

Lower Rebirth

Refuge

Karma

Conclusion To The Initial Scope

The Intermediate Scope

The Great Scope

Dream Contemplation

Union Of Appearance And Emptiness

Conclusion And Dedication

APPENDICES

Appendix I: Deities

Appendix Ii: Living In Harmony With Animals And Vegetarianism

Select Bibliography

FOREWORD

This book is about three things, and three things only: the law of the universe, the law of the mind, and the science of harmonising the two. The law of the universe is that all things lack inherent, fundamental existence, contrary to the innate view of every single living being on this planet. All phenomena exist only in relation to the second law, the law of the mind. The law of the mind is, in a sense, the law of attraction: every particle, event, galaxy, sound, or feeling is held together merely by mind. The vast range of phenomena in our universe are projected by the very deepest and most profound levels of ‘mind’. They are ‘projected’, more or less, by our own actions, all of which are fundamentally actions of mind. These projections arise, some later time, as potential experience, in the form of potential phenomena. It is then a far more superficial level of mind – what we normally use the word ‘mind’ for – that, based upon its own conditioning and bent of nature, imputes a certain reality upon this potential reality, thereby collapsing it into what we take to be an inherently real and objective experience. Since beginningless time, we have been and continue to be fooled by our own magic show.

Many people have known and talked about this. That’s what this book is about. While today, many have repackaged this subject in new, trendy, and even corporate styles, they tend to wash over the depth of philosophy behind it all, forgetting about the importance of really understanding the essence and function of these three laws, because, if we do not grasp their function, they remain pointless.

We are living in a time of unequivocal selfishness and destruction. Never before has there been even a fraction as much destruction of nature and disregard for the planet, never has there been an age with such unfathomably violent and abusive treatment and murder of animals, never have we had as much global destruction power as we have today, and never have we been as ignorant of spiritual matters as we are today. Now, more than ever, many people are realising that there are no external solutions left to mend the wounds we have inflicted on our world. The last resort and refuge is now more important than ever: the real revolution, the internal science of the spirit.

‘The Philosopher says, that wisdom is the head among the intellectual virtues.’

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 1–11, Q.66, Art. 5

PRELUDE: SANATAN-DHARMA

Dharma is the mystical truth, which lies deep within our consciousness. It has no beginning, origin, nationality, or tradition. It is simply our raw essence, waiting to be unravelled. This raw essence we may call ‘spirit’, and the path of unravelling and exploring this essence can, therefore, be called a spiritual path. For the sake of guidance, there have been teachers who, having had realisations of their own, have taught about dharma as well as methods and practices of tapping into it. This has been going on since humans have existed. Through this, various forms and styles of teaching and practising emerged, which began to form traditions. In our current era, these teachings appear to have settled and expanded in and around the Indian subcontinent some 6,000 years ago. From this, a lineage of teachers and disciples emerged, bringing this spiritual knowledge down through the ages up to the present day. Ultimately, dharma is within us, and all we need to do is let ourselves be immersed by it, which is something we will explore in this book.

On a more conventional note, however, there is a history of various spiritual traditions, which have since developed and evolved into different religions and philosophies. This we will investigate as well.

Nobody has a monopoly on truth. Learned scientists or traditional theologians, teachers, or lecturers, none of them really know anything. Some claim that the truths they speak of can be proven, but they cannot.

Because nobody can claim to know what life is really about, and there are no shares of wisdom to be owned or stocks of truth to be sold, discussions on these topics reside within a free playing field. In this book, I am presenting a certain stream of possibilities that may work, for some people, as teachings on ‘truth’ – meaning nothing more than that they are ideas, concepts, and/or practices that may be beneficial to those individuals. These ideas come from the philosophical history of India, specifically the forms of the various Vedic and Buddhist schools. They are called truths because experientially, they work. We can say they work because when used or put into practice, they give rise to the desired results.

Because the issue of truth is already incredibly personal and speculative, I do not wish to add to that confusion by presenting to the reader yet another mash of various esoteric new-age ideas; it is the job of you, the reader, to mix or compare things, if you so wish. My goal here is to explain the dharmic traditions as well as how and why the different traditions thereof – mainly Vedic culture, Hinduism, and Buddhism – are part of one and the same stream of practical philosophy. Perhaps these ancient yet living ideas can help us understand the world, our selves, and our purpose, if there is such a thing.

The subject matter of this book will inevitably be cast under the burdening category of ‘religious studies’, ‘comparative religion’, or simply ‘religion’. At first glance, this may seem an accurate designation. More accurately, however, this is a study of the true nature of all phenomena as taught most implicitly within the lineages of dharma. ‘Dharma’ is a Sanskrit word, meaning ‘truth’. Occasionally, it can be used to imply ‘law’, ‘reality’, ‘teachings’, or even ‘religion’. But its root meaning is simply ‘truth’, that which is. In our modern-day understanding, truth would be synonymous with ‘objective reality’.

Because of the personal and experiential nature of this subject, it is notoriously difficult to convey many of the concepts. Furthermore, conceptuality in itself often gets in the way of our actual understanding of dharma. Nevertheless, since we can only talk and discuss within a conceptual framework, we must do so together. We can then deepen our own knowledge and insight by going beyond concept. For even if we were to describe a non-conceptual experience, such a description would be conceptual. This is our limitation.

*     *     *

This book borrows its main title from the seminal work by the Dominican theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas, entitled ‘Summa Theologica’. The meaning is, ‘The totality of the logical understanding of God’. The focus of this book is to begin to provide a total, all-inclusive view of dharma teachings and the interlinked histories of the traditions which have taught them. This is a somewhat cheeky title, as this book doesn’t even come close to the breadth and meticulous study contained within Aquinas’s seminal work. I do, however, wish to acknowledge that work of his as a primal inspiration for this project, of which this specific book is the first volume.

The Premise in a Nutshell

The raw knowledge of inner dharma has always existed and was better understood and utilised in ancient times, perhaps even prehistorical times. Later on, it diffused into the various and seemingly different spiritual traditions in and around the middle and far east, mostly around India, such as Mongol–Siberian shamanism, Dravidian animism and mysticism, pre-mithraism, and the ‘aryanism’ of Persia and Mesopotamia. The Mongol–Siberian shamanism eventually moved and settled all around the northern hemisphere of the planet, giving birth to many Native American cultures by travelling eastwards and to the Scandinavian Sami westwards. Moving south, they met the Mongolians and the Tibetans and, mixing with their own form of sorcery and shamanism, eventually gave rise to the pre-Buddhist religion of Bön. Meanwhile, the Dravidian cultures of ancient India developed into various practices of meditation, tantric practices, and mantra recitation. This was then met by the booming culture of Mesopotamia who were part of a gradual ‘Aryan invasion’ in India. That movement and integration gave rise to the Vedic period in India, the fertile fields of which eventually produced Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. This is, of course, a very rough outline but leads to these three points, which will be investigated throughout this book:

1. There is a ‘dharma lineage’: A set of teachings passed down in a succession of teachers and students that runs through all the dharmic religions but is not exclusively part of any one. This substratum-lineage is far older than generally accepted by historians.

2. The dharma evolved into the various religions we have today, specifically those of Indian origin, yet these are essentially unified – they are one and the same; the old Vedic traditions and the newer Tibetan Buddhism are part of the same actual religion.

3. What we call ‘Buddhism’ today, though historically newer than many other dharmic traditions, comes closest to the complete and original philosophy of dharmic spirituality, in particular the Buddhism of Tibet, due to its re-emergence into the world of ancient shamanism and dharmic roots of the north.

The Buddha Café

Eastern spirituality seems to be more alive and living in the West than in the East these days. The people of the West seem to be both hungry as well as ripe for dharmic teachings and traditions. They are educated and have some freedom which allow them to put spiritual teachings into practice, yet they are still disillusioned with the material world and its endless bombardments of problems and disappointments. This combination makes for a good starting point.

The last few decades in the Western world have seen a huge surge in dharma-related traditions appearing all over the place. What has happened is that a hierarchy has developed, and certain people have been put in charge. Free, open spiritual truth now has rules, regulations, and guidelines that need to be followed and not mixed with anything else. The Buddha made it very clear that his teachings were to be internalised, personalised, tested, and realised, not held up as a stone-carved gospel or another ism, which is what has happened to some extent. Religion has taken the front seat, and far behind it is the seat of the actual spiritual teachings, now obscured from view.

Having said that, we are faced with a small paradox: Spiritualists from all over the world, who love many of the teachings of Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, or other such figures, have reacted strongly against the institutions that have developed around these historical persons and rejected them. Often, we find in the place of the old ‘ism’ a new (age) – ism in the guise of a non-organised, non-institutional ‘doctrine’ of sorts. This scenario has become increasingly common within Western society, many of whom flock to the ‘East’ in hopes of non-dogmatic spirituality and enlightenment, only to find themselves getting tangled up in a money-hungry mantra business cloaked in a New Age Long Island Ice Tea of yoga, tantra, chakra, pranayama, sex, meditation, and Rolls Royces. Such ‘non-sectarian’ spiritual businesses are usually run by clever Westerners with yoga degrees and a good friend from India with a long beard who can convincingly play the part of the charismatic master.

Sounds familiar? It is an unfortunate fact that such eventualities have put a negative slant on spirituality in general, specifically the spiritual traditions coming from the dharma teachings. For them being of Indian origin and incorporating teachings on meditation, yoga, and tantra, the general public now often associate them with thirty-year-old hippies on the dole engaged in a sex-fitness-mantra-chanting path of ego-enhancing, self-deluding ‘spirituality’, as Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche would have called it, ‘spiritual materialism’. Then there is the problem of division and separatism within the various dharma traditions themselves, particularly in the West. One group of Buddhists can’t tolerate another and spend their days on slander-blogs or ‘cult-victim’ web sites, trying to convince the world of their views, another doesn’t like the teacher of yet another, one lineage of Vedanta insists that another is phoney and spend a lot of time and effort trying to convince others of this, and so on and so forth. It seems that maybe as Westerners, we are not yet mature enough to handle the dharma.

It need not be so! And thus, for authenticity’s sake, let us go back a bit and focus on the actual dharma teachings themselves, before the New Age hype and also before the religious institutions.

It may be of use for us to adopt the approach of the Indian pandit: The scholar of a specific school would traditionally put forward his thesis very clearly by bringing up certain views held by his opponents, defining them very accurately and then refuting them point by point. All the different schools of Vedanta, Jain, or Buddhism did this. Hence, it became very important to be able to discriminate between one school and another. A good scholar would, for example, be able to tell you exactly what Yogachara Buddhism is and exactly what it isn’t; the borders would be very clearly defined, and on a scholarly level, traditions would not be mixed. On a deeper experiential level, however, it has always been the spirit of Indian philosophy to accept all the different schools as part of the same singular truth. Despite the meticulous and subtle distinctions between the various traditions on the one hand, one could understand and feel that they were all the same on the other.

Obviously, the idea of any one of the many dharma traditions being ‘pure’ is flawed, since we know that they are all the result of a vast interrelated web of influence, conversion, and politics. It is that which lies beneath these differences that is important. This book is, therefore, dedicated to stealing back the authority that has been unjustly assumed by a certain few over the teachings of dharma and, through looking at the immense, ancient, beautiful, and mind-bogglingly profound dharma lineage, hopefully inspiring a spark within your own spirit, which is eternally connected to all others.

The Virtue of Study

We may have encountered or been practising a form of Buddhism or other spiritual tradition ourselves. Quite often, these traditions may be presented in quite user-friendly manners and easy-to-digest formats. This is all fine, provided one does not neglect the actual study of the subject. In line with the spirit of St. Thomas Aquinas, as well as the Buddha himself and his successors, Nagarjuna, Vasubandu, Shantideva, or Je Tsongkhapa – some of the most profound philosophers of all time – the study of the teachings contained within the dharma is a virtue. Neither can it be neglected nor can meditation proceed with full effect without the grounding of study. Our meditational practice, kindness, and compassion as well as our faith should all be complemented by our wisdom, a faculty that is trained and strengthened by a meticulous study of life itself. In Buddhism, we learn that without practising love, compassion, and selflessness, the door to liberation remains closed. Buddha’s final intention, however, is for us to realise the ultimate truth; that is what all the other practices are to lead towards. Krishna explains to Arjuna and later on to Uddhava that the noblest life is the life of a humble and loving servant; yet finally, it is about becoming completely God-conscious, fully realising ultimate truth. This is done by studying it, meditating upon it, and finally having a heartfelt realisation of it.

I have compiled this book from teachings I have received over the years and am, therefore, not the source of this information. I would like to express my gratitude to many people who have shed light on the dharma philosophy and helped me understand a small portion of it. These people, who have become my ‘sangha’ – whether around me or not, living or dead, direct or indirect – are the source of my inspiration and limited knowledge.

PART I

LINEAGE

1. BRINGING IT BACK

‘I’m bringing sexy back.’

(Justin Timberlake)

More than ever before, humanity seems to be devoid of spiritual meaning. In our age of technological enlightenment, we have learned to hate religion and live without God. We have been taught that the only truth is that life comes from matter, and matter’s existence depends on mere chances and flukes of nature, the essence of which is completely and entirely mechanical and, thus, meaningless. It is not surprising, therefore, that many Buddhist traditions of the contemporary Western world have radically neglected and downplayed the mystical aspect of Dharma while focusing only on the logical and academic aspects. Even Tantra, the quintessential path of mysticism in Buddhism, hast often been reduced to a path of self-help and confidence boosting, or simply a path of sex enhancement.

It is in this modern day and age that the ancient teachings of Dharma are coming into the limelight again and awakening deep spiritual interest in people. This has created a massive trend of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Vaishnavism, and Zen in our Euro-American culture. While this trend is significant in pointing out the spiritual thirst of our society, and has doubtless brought much benefit to many, there is a tendency towards the danger of packaging it into a brand-new shiny lunch box of sorts. This lunch box provides us with a quick snack, be it in an overly complicated or simplistic packaging. Due to the fact that we, in general, have been moulded by a matter-before-mind paradigm of thought, we tend to avoid snacks that lean towards mysticism. Thus, the spice of the Dharma has often been neglected in modern teachings. Concepts such as ‘blessings’, ‘faith’, ‘teleportation’, ‘alchemy’, and ‘non-dual clarity and profundity’ as well as ‘union of the two truths’ represented by erotic sensuality are too hard to swallow. If we are all mere bundles of random matter, random descendants from apes, surely such spiritual, mystical concepts must be absurd! Furthermore, the disillusionment of the hippie generation during the materialism of the Eighties and Nineties has shaped our modern culture into one of extreme realism and ‘factuality’, if there is such a thing. Spirituality, therefore, has been reduced to fit this current lunch box. This has resulted in the dharma often being represented as a form of logical reasoning only, lacking in mysticism and spirit.

But now it’s time to bring sexy back. The profoundly simple, logical, loving, sensitive teachings as well as the profoundly psycho-philosophical, mystical, sensual, and blissful teachings of the Dharma comprise the most ancient and intimate path of spirituality known to man. Originating in the pre-Vedic shamanism of India, Mesopotamia, and Tibet, evolving over many centuries through the Vedic, Puranic, and Mantric traditions and eventually being formalised in the form we have in this age by the Buddha, Dharma is the path that shows us the inner truth of God, the self, the other, the spirit, the love, the nature, the sex, the world, the universe, the atom, and the mind.

The main body of this writing concerns the Sanatana-Dharma. Sanatana is Sanskrit for eternal, and dharma is Sanskrit for truth or nature. The meaning of the term is thus ‘eternal truth’. But as with many Sanskrit terms, the connotation of that statement is manifold. One key component of dharmic philosophy, as we shall see, is that nothing remains static. Therefore, in a nutshell, the only ultimate truth is that there is no absolute or inherent truth. So what is meant by ‘eternal truth’?

According to dharma teachings, seeing the true nature of phenomena is the spiritual path. It is an inner path of mental and spiritual investigation that opens our eyes to the true nature of things, such as our world, our minds, and our own self. Whatever external or temporary truths we may adhere to – such as believing in one stream of evolution or another, believing in God the creator or in behaviourism – knowing their nature is of one taste. This ‘knowledge’ of the most primordial nature of phenomena is, in itself, what we call ‘Dharma’. Therefore, there will always be, eternally, Dharma; despite the ever-changing face of life, all things exist and, therefore, have a nature of existence. That is sanatana-dharma.

In this book, I will use as few Sanskrit, Pali, or Tibetan words as possible and attempt to explain the meaning of ideas instead. However, due to the vast scope of meaning within ancient Sanskrit – the origins of which make up the root of our languages – some Sanskrit words will need to be used. The etymology of many key words will be investigated as well, since this sheds light on their true meaning.

Before getting in to any details concerning dharma teachings or their histories, we need to have…

A Quick Overview

Superficially speaking, there are two groups of religious or spiritual thought. One is defined by the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, along with all their sub-schools and traditions. The prime concern of this group is knowing why we are here, i.e. what or who created us. Opening up to the truth of this query is the real meaning of life. To them, our origin is God, the Holy Father of all life. It is from him we have come, and it is back to him we shall go, after this earthly life is over. During this life, we should act in accordance with the teachings and examples of God’s prophets who have shown us the right way to live in this world of temptation.

The Abrahamic religious fuel, if you like, is hope. There is no actual practice, consequential logic, or control needed from our side. Therefore, there is hope: I hope that this belief is true, otherwise… I’m screwed.

The second school consists of the Indian-derived religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and the related traditions of Yoga, Samkhya, Tantra, Confucianism, Zen, Taoism, and various strands of shamanism. The prime concern of this group isn’t knowing our origins or why we exist but rather how we exist and how to work with this knowledge in the present. Whether God exists or not is secondary to the question of God’s nature of existence. Origin is perceived as a continuous phenomenon, hence the belief in reincarnation. By examining our life and the results of our actions, we can begin to become self-aware and, ultimately, ‘God-conscious’ or enlightened beings.

This second group, which one may call the sanatan-dharma group, has as its religious fuel hopelessness. By not knowing of a creator-Father and by taking matters into one’s own hands, hope is annihilated, and responsibility takes its place. Instead of judgement being dealt out from a transcendental plain, our own actions ripen as ‘judgements’ that we will experience later on, which is known as karma.

The overall world view of the Abrahamist is that there is one God and his Kingdom, which is perfect and absolute, and there is his creation, the world in which we now live. We are born into it, having descended from God’s creation, and are to live our life as a test of our faith, compassion, kindness etc. If all goes well, we shall return to God after this life and judgement day, but if not, we shall be reborn in hell.

The world view of the dharma traditions is, roughly, as follows: there are two realities, one being the temporal reality we perceive and live in, which is characterised by impermanence, confusion, and suffering, and another being a kind of backdrop to the temporal one, which is characterized by ultimate truth, clarity and supreme happiness. Our job is to become familiar with this hidden reality, as it is the ultimate reality, i.e. it is non-deceptive, thereby gradually awakening us from our sleep of ignorance, which is itself the cause of the troublesome temporal reality we live in. One of the most important tools for us then is the mind, for it is how we perceive things that decides how they appear to us, and in dharma, there is no world worth mentioning that exists separate from our mind.

Again, this is a very gross description, and there are all kinds of different views, interpretations, beliefs, and philosophies within this group. However, as a general outline, this description can apply to Hinduism, Buddhism etc. as well as some of the Greek philosophy (though upon further investigation, most Greek philosophy is not similar at all).

We are primarily interested in the second group, which we will investigate. In doing so, we will discover that the second group, in fact, gave rise to the Abrahamic schools and that, on deeper, subtler levels, they meet again in quite profound and mystical ways. Within the second group, there are the theists – those who believe in an ultimate and absolute God – such as the Vaishnavas, the Samkhyas of the Rishi Kapila, the Shaivists, and others; and there are the atheists – those who do not believe in an absolute God – such as the Buddhists (Hinayana, Mahayana, Vajrayana, and Zen), the Advaitists (non-dualists), and various Tantrikas. This difference is established by different definitions of God, the ultimate being or experience, a subject that is often dealt with in extremely meticulous and subtle debates. Through looking at these, we will see that while there are important differences, there is also unity, in light of which one can no longer speak of any tradition being Godless or atheist.

Together, these schools of thought constitute the Dharma Lineage, a lineage of teachings based upon realisations that have been passed down for millennia. In particular, this lineage has come through the Vedic traditions, such as the Vaishnava, Shaivist, Shakti, Samkhya, and Yoga as well as the Buddhist traditions, such as the Vaibashika, Sautrantika, Yogachara, and Madhyamaka. Where they differ, they shed light on obscure themes, and where they agree, they often reveal very deep, primordial truths about the self, the other, the universe, and beyond.

Vaishnavism (the mainstream group of lineages within Hinduism) and Buddhism teach not only implicitly but explicitly the same ultimate truth. This doesn’t appear to be so nowadays as they seem to differ philosophically and ontologically. This difference, however, only developed long after the early Vedic era, which began some five to six thousand years ago.

The Hindus, in general, believe that we have a permanent, partless, eternal, and perfect self within us. This phenomenon is called atman in Sanskrit, which has mostly been translated as ‘self’ or ‘soul’, though both are unsatisfactory (depending on the context, the original atman is more akin to ‘essence-being’ or ‘root-consciousness’). This self is of the same nature or quality of God but is different; in that, it is our own actual person (as opposed to being a mere part of something else). We also possess a false self, which is made up of our body and mind, both of which are of the inferior material nature. The permanent self, the ‘atman’, is spiritual and true; in that, it is permanent, while the temporal ‘false self’ is an illusion, since it is impermanent and ever-changing.

The teachers of the Vedic Dharma never actually taught this interpretation! If we carefully read what Krishna taught Arjuna on the battlefield, there is a much more subtle teaching coming through, especially in relation to ‘self’ (atman) and God (Brahman), the true nature of all things. Krishna’s teachings were not only subtle but also went all the way through the three ‘yanas’ or vehicles of Buddhism: the initial teachings of the Hinayana, the universal teachings of the Mahayana, and finally, the tantric teachings of the Vajrayana.

Buddha Shakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, appeared in India about 2,500 years after Krishna, by which time a kind of quasi-Vedanta Dharma was in practice; this was, at the risk of being crude, ‘Hinduism’. Buddha clearly saw that people had misunderstood the teachings on self and God. The Hindu approach was not one of consequentialism or logic but one of personification: instead of understanding the atman as a functioning aspect of the ultimate truth, they infused it with a sort of make-believe reality. They began doing this with everything, to the point that even the cold, impersonal law of karma was infused with a personality: a real, inherent, personal quality. As a result, they developed an impossible duality: there is an impermanent, imperfect, relative, made up of parts, and inferior material reality on the one hand, and a permanent, perfect, absolute, partless, and superior reality on the other. The philosophical problem is clear: How can the one interact, or be bridged with, the other? There are only two options: either the one reality can, in fact, influence or interact with the other, which necessarily implies that neither are permanent, partless, or absolute (this also indicates that there is no real separation between the true self and the false self), or they cannot, in fact, interact, which means that spiritual realisations, let alone enlightenment of any sort, are completely impossible. We, therefore, don’t need to discuss it.

In order to dislodge people’s grip on these concepts, Buddha had two options: either to reteach the Vedas in the way they were intended to be understood, or to begin from scratch and do completely away with them. As reteaching the Vedas would involve lots of words, intellectualising, philosophy, and debate, it would end up being a messy task, possibly resulting in no more clarity anyway. So Buddha went for the second option. This primarily begins with his teachings on the anatman, or non-self, something he emphasised very strongly early on in his teachings.

In order to really understand the true nature of reality, we have to completely let go of our incorrect conventional views. In Buddhism, advanced practitioners return to the feeling and value of ‘self’ in tantric practice; this only makes sense after they have had a full realisation of anatman. Now, instead of their feeling of self coming from ignorance, it is coming from wisdom. In the same way, to really understand what Krishna meant by Atman and Brahman, we need to eradicate the misconceptions we have in relation to these terms. The dharma does just that, as we will now investigate.

2. THE MYSTERY OF FAITH

‘Cos I gotta have faith, I gotta have faith. I gotta have faith, faith, faith, I gotta have faith, faith, faith!’

(George Michael)

There is a type of faith that is the entrapment of religious institution and mental delusion, a faith that keeps us blind and obedient to the powers that be. That is not what is being spoken about here.

Faith is the key that unlocks the door to the true dharma. True dharma is a personal and inner understanding and realisation of truth. Many Buddhist, Jain, or Hindu books are sometimes referred to as ‘dharma’, in the same way that the Bible may be referred to as a spiritual book or the word of God. However, none of these are true dharma, or true spiritual paths, since they are only constructions of words which describe, in a conventional sense, dharma or spirituality. A true spiritual path is a personal, inner path of mind, spirit, soul – whatever we like to call it. It must be, for if it is not, then it is simply a path of the past, moulded by the beliefs and conclusions of others before us. If all we are to do is adapt these old traditions to our own mind, we automatically close ourselves to any spiritual truth that might be there.

In order to embark on this inner journey, we, as the traveller, need the passport of faith. Without it, we cannot enter many a land that hold great secrets to be discovered. It is faith that opens us up to the possibilities of the micros and the cosmos, the infinite and the infinitesimal, that which connects us to the living, breathing world around us.

Nowadays, an enquiring Western mind can find five different Buddhist centres on his or her street, a different translation of various Indian philosophical schools in every bookshop, and all kinds of meditation and yoga institutions in the village. And among most of them, you may find a very strong and ardent promotion of ‘non-faith’.

Authors such as Stephen Bachelor or Lama Ole Nydahl have, for example, separated Buddhism from so-called faith religions by pointing out the pragmatic and logical approach of the Buddhist as opposed to the scriptural authority and promotion of ‘blind belief’ of the biblical religions. While this underlines interesting differences (which will be considered later in this book), it paints far too one-dimensional a picture. All traditions of Buddhism, Brahmanism, Vaishnavism, or Jainism have a deeply fascinating mystical side to them, and faith plays not only a part in their play but is the stage itself.

In order for the traveller to guard him or herself from being sent back home or being deported due to a faulty passport, he or she needs to make sure the document they are carrying is valid. This is because there is a fraudulent type of faith. Travelling with such a document can get you into lots of trouble. This is the document of ‘blind faith’ or ‘mere belief’; it is a clinging to an idea or belief without actually having attained any real feeling or knowledge about it. Interestingly, it is this type of ‘faith’ that is mostly implied when people speak about faith, especially those who oppose it.

When the leaders of the various world religions began assuming authority over the scriptures and measuring their power by the amount of followers they counted in their churches, inner faith was no longer promoted. Adepts were told what to believe and have faith in. The formula for this type of faith is this: read something or be told it; don’t doubt it, but have faith in it. The result of this formula is supposed to protect the adept, ‘I believe that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God because then I will go to heaven’, or something along those lines. Of course, as we know, Jesus himself never taught his disciples to have blind faith. Like Buddha, he encouraged them to put the teachings to the test and to be ever open and trusting in the teachings and the Kingdom of God – which exists within the spirit.

Faith of this sort can also be concerned with far more complex and philosophical matters. Perhaps in the field of science, we see more of this kind of blind grasping at ideas than in any other field. So often, it occurs that a discovery is made which seemingly defies an existing ‘fact’, or rather, paradigm, only to be laughed off. It can take decades of accumulating evidence to begin changing the view of such minds. In religion, the problem of blind faith is far greater and more dangerous than it has ever been. Blind faith in extreme fundamentalist preachers of the Koran has led young men to massacre hundreds of people or sexually mutilate female members of their family. Blind faith has caused people with curable diseases to refuse medical treatment and live. Less dramatically but just as dangerously (and widespread), blind faith causes millions of people to remain conditioned by ignorance, because blind faith is completely and utterly passive. It does not result in any incentive from the side of the person, and it does not desire to learn, to live, or to love. It