Hinduism

we are now moving to the third major part of this course dealing with idealistic approaches to philosophy that is to say approaches that are committed to a doctrine of idealism the thesis that everything is really dependent on the law that is to say the world simply by convention construction a mental projection so everything we would narrative think of and talk about not only ordinary objects and tables is there but the objects of science like electric fields and quarks also you and I all of those are really meant in some fundamental way they're really ideas they're instructions they are projections and this is a relatively new idea for the West Bishop Berkeley is probably the first philosopher to really advance such a view in Western philosophy but it has existed for millennia in other parts of the world so this week we're going to be talking about ethics in Hinduism and Buddhism in Taoism and in Jainism and in all of those traditions idealistic ways of thinking have been going on since ancient times the most common school Hindu philosophy invited enough is thoroughly idealist Buddhism in almost all those works is thoroughly ideas idealism is also the basic pre-sub presumption of bouncing and in Jainism although there archivists we're not idealist it is never a very powerful influence on that truth so today we're going to start talking about Hindu epics and later we'll talk about and you other than giants especially approaches to metaphysics but for today Hindu ethics Hinduism is the primary religion of India in some ways the turrets help Hindu is really just something that refers to India and so the various traditions that are part of Hinduism grew up to some extent independently we're DLP in the last two centuries described as parts of one tradition Hinduism but nonetheless it is though if we take all those traditions together that becomes the primary religion of India and the basic test that all those various traditions shared or what them that the apocalypse and a variety of other ancient texts as their basic sacred texts so notice the dates on the apana comes from probably nine hundred that's significantly before the earliest Greek philosophy at least the early ones of that the Greek philosophy broken about the fifth century BC so here we see something that isn't oldest forms is about 1200 years older the back the basic assumption of Hinduism speaking of it from a religious point of view is that there are many bulbs but there is one of the underlying all of the gods discussed in Timmons of are really manifestations of one underlying P so this view is sometimes been called you know theater monotheism view that there is one of them polytheism sub you that there were many of us you know these of the few that well there are many gods but they're all manifestations of love your mind and so there is something that looks a bit polytheistic about a new practice but if you look at the sacred texts they really read much more modeling there's really one underline being rough but then takes off all these different manifestations and so appears in different ways a lot to people here are some text from the Rigveda really the old and oldest part of the Hindu tradition they have styled him Indra the chief of the gods Mitra the friend Varuna the veteran of the fire also the celestial great winged gunner clock for the one poets speak of him diverse and that's the key part of that that expresses this you know theistic idea although what poets speak of him diversity they say Agni yama and much of a strong lord of breath all of these gods exist but it's diverse appearances of one God the divine architect the impeller of all the multiple so the idea really is that there is just one under my feet now it's up versions of Hinduism it's not just that there is love in your life be that is manifested various divine beings it's really that being is manifested in of all of us - in every object every person and so in a sense there is only one being in the universe this underlying beam from here is the bhagavad-gita on the same theme even those were devotees of other gods and worship them permeated with faith it is only me son of Kunti that even they worship though not only enjoyed passion for I of all acts of worship from both the recipient and the Lord I see the gods in thy body responds and so the idea there is one under Markov well that it takes different colors now it's interesting when the British brought Christianity to India they immediately set out to threaten birth people in India to Christianity many hindus responded by saying most of it we thought there's one month that is manifested in different forms you come saying there is one god and the best in three forms we've got more than three but we're going to accept others with us you don't have any limitation on the number four and the Christian thinkers then people why we think they're only three and there are answers that the Christian tradition but it isn't the usual line of attack usually even said that stuff from the Trinity what do you mean there's one bottom three four three three persons and the word is and one together but in Hinduism it's like one that and Pilar prednisone assumption made about a large and it and so the the contrast between Christianity and Hinduism is much softer than that between Chris either of them in most other religions in any case there are two conceptions of the underlying being from one is laguna grande that is to say God without absolutes this corresponds to the via negativa in Western policy which is to say there is one underlying beams what what can I tell you about nothing I could just say that it is not this it is not that and so I can describe it only negatively I could take a negative way of characterizing it intervene without rotations without a finite character without of this amount the other thing but there is another tradition within Hinduism that says no I can talk about the attributes of God I can actually say something more than that about this underlying divide me and so the same divide we find between mistis mystics and then more traditional philosophers in the West is also found in Hinduism well what are absolutes of this be we need to talk about them all some of them are abstract like salt which is being in other words Yayoi being exists and so kramat is this underlying field is aware and so it is a consciously Brahman is not just some underlying unity like the town however a thousand a Friday it is meant to be a club something that is in some sense a person and then another bliss this is a blissful being and so there is something as you'll see an article is you might think that every religion really could be captured by one basic pieces about the nature of the universe and Hinduism is a very public very hopeful message which is that at the end you can get what you want you and the universe are ideally students world as well see Buddhism has exactly the opposite view you and the universe are fundamentally other but that's for next Hinduism says no no human the universe are exactly corresponding you are set up so that you can match precisely the underlying bliss that is the true nature of the universe is something you can experience they're also more concrete things said about Brahma Brahma as the creator of the universe as the preserver of the universe but also that's the destroyer so this underlying being creates the visible universe or perhaps it's part of itself perhaps not there were dualistic and optimistic versions of this but also then preserves it and upholdeth and any models would destroy it but never once keeps the universe in beading but also has the capacity to destroy the universe itself but also various parts of it well I mentioned that Hinduism is something that encompasses a number of different ways of approaching religion a number of different schools and there are six of these that are considered Orthodox that are the most common there are many others that are not quite of the same degree of distinction might say but nevertheless these are the six that are most fundamental one of them is the knot that is literally the end of Vega of sacred knowledge and that is the most common of these but then there's also some kemp which is nature yoga which just means difficult and yes breathe breathing and closes that's all much more then there is provable month-by-month shop which is exegesis or interpretation that's a school that basically is interpret sacred texts and sticky fairly closely as attacks then we've seen two others in talking about the theory of knowledge by Jessica and Yannick by shank empanada are realists we've seen their externalist minute mr. Bhalla P they're strongly empiricist in their approaches so not all of these schools are ideas some of them are of the last two dimensions we are not they depart from this idealistic understanding and even within but not as you'll see there is a realist and than an ideal school but not so in talking about what I'm about to say really I'm singling out just one or two of these we're not going to be talking about home that that's very very complicated that would be an entire course but now let's start with this question Who am I we've talked a bit about the concepts of God but what about concepts of humanity toward you whatever who Allah well I might have it up that is the same with sort of Moby stick that idealistic version of Inaba and also some Kevin yoga answer that I am a hypothesis now it's not just that I am i potus's in the take part sense of the cogito I think I have a ha my ordinary thoughts of smiling is this higher we know that underlying deep within me in some way is a great soul this higher read that is there alone for the rock not affected by the day-to-day vicissitudes of ordinary life I notice that I've got paper due on Halloween I say I've got an extra today and you're much fun in your curses but how the great self what sarcastically great itself furs only the great self is nevertheless that's really what I can I am in a sense this higher beef that is bears head sitting above as well all the things that drug my day-to-day consciousness so lots of things like desires for will effort lots of things that take up my ordinary day-to-day existence are really extrinsic to this higher side they are not part of my true inner nature there is sometimes extremists now that's something that is twenty forward to some conceptions of the month but the idea here is there but not all like I have sold and this is er like soul is really not active on day to day right it would be it's fine for me to say it so I think about how you doing today and say oh you know got the car broke down would start got a new battery and the battery started sparking it sort of melting that's what next try to reattach it that was kind of my weekend but anyway that's something that might think it's not so if I said whoa you're so lucky next time you know I said that they know my soul wasn't really thinking oh no the car won't start what do I think of my soul totally separate from all that well that's the idea theory that I am really that being that is relatively unaffected by all of these day-to-day things but now well that becomes hard to say or all of the schools on work with this know the more theists basic Vedanta as well as the ayah by jacek ever mugshot all depends what they consider a common sense except for us so in addition to this sort of background soul I yourself idea there's a whole common sense I am Malaya what's going on in my mind that's me I have a body I have thoughts and desires a part of nature I interact with other things but thoughts feelings and perceptions that I have makeup i clutch this mine and that's who I am that conception is shared by many of these schools in India applause but we're going to be talking mostly about those that believe in this higher self and the conception of ethics that result from that so let's take a look at the most popular school Hindu thought Vedanta we've talked about broad this underlying unity of things the absolute the ground all the this reality that is manifested in a way that supports the world God there is a relationship between that and this either side okay what higher self is the beam that is something like the soul and now you might think well okay place the relationship between the soul this higher self that is truly a part of me and that brought this underlying unity of everything the Divine Being which is characterized by existence and wins well the thesis of a cyclopentyl is that they are one and the same anti to just means non-buddhists in other words they are love so the thesis is a bold and striking thesis to the soul just it is from this underlying unity the universe that commute rhenium they are the same so you're a true international savant now they sits philosophically a version of motifs everything is ultimately one not just a one time here but really in a sense what there is ultimately one leading and it's you now that's a pretty striking plate everything in the end is Brahma what is this random underlying unity the body being this thing that exhibits existence and consciousness and bliss well in the end it is everything and so we find in the apana shucks claims like this Brahma is the child is the elephant is you is mean all of us are ultimately brother and that means something really quite bad you are one with them and so alive I just gonna do there's a joke it goes along with this a month goes up to a hotdog stand make me one with everything the claim here is you really are fundamentally unified with all these other things that child that I look at that person all of them are really you you all in the end cuts the same underlying makes it you are in self promotes it's the same being again but since Brahman is holy as divine that means you are to everything ends up people everything is divine you are a divine being so along everything really has this ultimate nature which is divinity but of course this means something rather bad right who's teaching this course right that seems like the wrong answer seems like I'm trying to deflect blame for something it doesn't seem like I'm saying oh and so is she into machines of asea Thomas it's like wait a minute wait we don't ordinarily think that we are all ultimately of one with one another that we're all in the end of saying and so this really Bradley contradicts our common sense view in the world the underlying deal here is that the world is as entities is not being the realities and so what we perceive is really in some senses it is but it is plagued it is illusion it is in some sense just the way the world peers but not the underlying reality the underlying reality is unit everything is ultimately brother so all of the distinctions be draw between people between things illusions they are parts of the way the world appears to us that they are resolved there in reality now we're not talking they're just about distinctions we draw them let's say male and female or white and black or Hindu and Christian or atheist or theist or all those kinds of decisions we're talking about the distinction between you and me between the table in the chair between me this papers those distinctions are also illusions but there is a law another version of it but not we send it me that's a little crazy and so hold on to ballistic version it's a dualistic fear and that's it wait no my soul is not wrong there is an underlying unity to the universe yes but nevertheless it doesn't really mean that all of us are really literally identical in the end and so the soul is not the same as fahadh god is that toward which the soul ought to be directed but they're not just the same being and so this version of Vedanta says look not everything is identical with everything else that's a silly you of some aspects of the world or real some of the appearance of the real some things are really independent come on and so some of the distinctions we draw a real decisions oh so even within this revision some things will turn out to be in this route but nevertheless not everything will turn out to be illusory there will be some distinctions like between me and you and between me and God that really ought to be drawn well you might be thinking by now that Goodreads there's so many elements to this region that it's hard to talk about a single view of into ethics and that's likely right there are lots and lots of ways of going on about this and their entire courses we teach here for example on Indian philosophy that investigate this in detail but for now I want to focus on this underlying thought that in the Apollo shots there's the thesis that each one of us is this higher self this soul this great self a spherical cell say that's capable of much more than our conscious mother is aware and so we've got an everyday consciousness we've got this kind of day-to-day consciousness but in addition of this fire box and here's the basic way of thinking it's not just that it's in the background us alcohol largely unaffected by day to day it's really got capacities that would astound us and if we can somehow gain access to it we could do accomplish all sorts of things we can understand the world each other in ourselves much more effectively than if we don't understand that higher self is something like the best of our ordinary weekly pleasures and so hence might say beat consciousness on enlightenment or liberation the emphasis on meditation on concentrate on liberating a part of ourselves that actually have all these underlying greater spiritual capacities so what exactly is our connection to this higher self most thinkers in this tradition saying it should be identified with self consciousness our awareness not a mister that other greater thing but our awareness of beatable where consciousness directed at itself so that is when we come closest to this higher so when you think about what's going on in your own mind and you reflect on the nature of hero need some of as an assessment question what is this fireside how do I connect with plan I mean this is already is you in the connection with that higher beat that higher self and so when you reflect on the nature of our own conferences that really starts bringing us closer to the higher self well what happens when we attain this a self-awareness is like a lot we've seen that image of the lights illuminate itself in the niacin for a second and it appears here in a more dramatic form our self-awareness is the gateway to Brahma okay it's really self illuminate the lights times on other things but it also your movements itself you can see the light as well as the things that it's lighting up well there's an important thesis back that self-awareness is transparent that's something we can thoroughly understand it's also a solid entity I can worry about whether the table I see is really there but I can't worry about whether there's something there really authenticate some it says in big heart but I think I think something is true that that isn't the case when I think something else like the chair is Brenda I could be wrong about that but it's thinking about I think I could deep there's something about that that makes itself true and that authenticates itself well here's the point of the way everything else because it says who turned out the enemy but that's not an elite it might be that there's nothing here to free the whole business in a loud explosion maybe I really have a brain in the back maybe I'm really a no victim able to see where it cetera et cetera but I couldn't be wrong about my own consciousness by being a conscious being that's something that is not like all these other things it really does provide not just a foundation for knowledge as the Descartes thought though that's true but also it provides this pathway to a greater understanding of who I a pathway to this higher self we can miss identify an object lit by a lamp but we can't miss identify the lamp it's you and I don't really exist in the way we ordinarily we don't really enough bodies we don't really own property for example we don't really hold jobs we don't really have artists and so up we really are conscious feeds and the conscious being is really in some sense like that before you may own property you may own a car you may drive you may be thinking about what you're going to dress up as Halloween Halloween I'm thinking probably I actually have green tights like really embarrassing but anyway okay you know but is it really me though I'm also be my soul and movies are my sin my soul is gonna wear green tights for health we didn't s that's absurd right and so what I really AM is this soul this higher beef that is not really subject to all of those kinds of things no this gives us a sort of hierarchical picture of the self there is my body there were my sense organs so there is the everyday self that we encounter in the physical world then of course there is the emotional or sensational by the by Graduate thoughts and feelings and perceptions especially and I guess I should say feelings and perceptions compartment is seeing these hearing things the part that reacts emotionally that is a part of the self then there is the ego sense and that is something like this part that has some degree of thoughts and tries to connect all this together Buddhists will talk about storehouse consciousness and it has a relation to that but then we've got the rational of the intelligence the one that actually thinks rationally about things and here is a picture of how these all fit together know that the souls riding in a chair of this mics out Plato right Plato has this image of the soul as a charity in the Feebles and here we find it in the apana shop several hundred years earlier know about the soul is riding in a chariot the body is the chariots know about the intellect is the chariot driver and the mind as the reins the census they say of voices the objects of sense what they range over the self combined with senses in the mind life and all the enjoy so we have a picture here but it's quite different from Plato's the intellect is the chariot driver the body is the chariot being driven by the intellect and so my mind is for tolling my body parts metaphor like piloting a vessel but the mind is the reins the sentence of the horses and then the world the objects of sense is what the horses are ranging over the road they're running off so when I was doing my book worldly wisdom there was an artist's hire to illustrate this and he came up with that that's about version five because all the rest of like I don't know leaders and then it'd be a restaurant but they still sort of do it wasn't really a very great picture but here is one in part were closely connected to the in new tradition the horses there are something like the census the road the world and then the intellect is the chariot driver that is a fundamental difference between this and the Platonic picture the great self the soul is that being that is along as a passenger in nature and so the driver of the chariot is the intellect controlling what we do however it is really the higher self this self that I truly now that is there for the ride here's another image of that where again we've got two people in the charity the trial the then the soul back in that didn't do it if it's of the soul but okay yeah notice the difference playing Mysterio have a pastor there is no sort of greater soul fire soul in the background there planos horses their desire and emotion lot of sentences and so has a little difference also picture is really depicting something else that does have a place in the Hindu tradition which talks about the strands of the cosmos be the strands are the parts of us that are woven together to make itself and those paths strands are usually identified as intelligence back to remind you of the rational elements passion the spirit but then the third is not desired dependent as in Plato it is inertia so there's a part of us that is just lazy okay that wants to just be well to this do whatever it's a picture I took a bus from a familiar location today and I don't have my car because it's a shop and so I Whitehead to remind me listen you will not have your car when you can off the bus and if she said that because the inertia part of my school is very strong I have a t-shirt they said I'm not just lazy I'm super lazy see okay that strength of my being is really quite power to the bus stop I walk to the parking lot start looking for my car penny saying where's my car somebody stole my car and what we eventually find realize how and welcome so it's good that somebody remind me no have intelligence remind you that you can't drive over water so anyway that is a part of the self and and in a sense then and some of the disadvantages disagrees with playing but rather that the chariot imagery be used for different routes to indicate something about the relationship between the parts of the cell and this greater self well suppose all of this right so pub is right so both the soul is separable not only from the body but from the mind on the intellect what does it mean here's one more consonants I could detach myself from every manifestation of nature it is it possible for you to detach that by yourself from all of these thoughts feelings perceptions all the other things that make up the self and there's another thought too which is the three carnation is awesome in fact it's an organizing principle of the universe the greater self is not itself the driver of the cherry it can step off the chariot and get on with another way and so the higher self does not have not only an attachment to a bottle but an attachment to any particular set of thoughts feelings perceptions even personality intelligence rational mind remember walk safer criterion all of cygnus of persons and ultimately poverty of us could Socrates be reincarnated as Caesar border answer as well yes in principle but Caesar Bertram would have to remembers like Socrates but in the Hindu tradition memory so they are a part of that self that is part the chariot that the great soul system and so it is quite possible for reincarnation to occur even though there is no document no copter with your body not even continuity of personality no continuity of conscious mind awareness memory of anything else but what would consider part of the continuity of consciousness we are not to be identified not only with our bodies but also with the personality that we have in this life and so here we have an image the apartment put in another lifetime there's nothing in principle impossible there according to Hinduism there is no attachment that is an essential attachment but that higher self or soul has to ordinary being in the everyday sense all right well then the self is who the new questions are you the same person if you're reincarnated what's the answer that much if the soul this is kind of power we can say well save senses gosh you know this season or perhaps not purchases to stop those no that doesn't seem right that's not essential what about the objects of sense well god Socrates which would be in ancient Athens Georgia is Renaissance Italy they're not the same what about the mind are their thoughts enter there not one of their intellect the season portraits show the same kind of when you didn't elective Socrates suppose not in all of those aspects of the self would have seen no right on the other hand the great Sun it's possible there and so what comes out this in a way is this I think underlying thought then if you say or maybe the same person there's an ambiguity back when do we need to the everyday sets then if they do not and that's what locks describing that everyday sense but according to this view there is another higher sense could they be the same spirit will be and their answers will be clipping even if all those other things so my my ordinary nature the way that you were here to talk about no definitely not the same person but there's another deeper sense in which is puff so I think right had to be are they the same person because that Nicholas do you mean and usual sense from you mean in this higher spirits alright never thought about that way before but that's an awesome image he said so you're really saying in front of Hinduism I got a hand-me-down with Souls yeah this soulless drone you know been reincarnated before and it's going to be reincarnate again and that's going to have some important implications for oh absolutely this life but yeah the hanky down to solve it away now so what if it is well what it suggests is for one thing my higher nature is independent of a lot of this stuff that I'm concerned with in the ordinary world and so it will help me if I master myself and they'd like to go to this Souls suppose you're suppose you're in a big family and yeah you're closer and down low and when you outgrow them you're going to have to pass them down to resist the changes you're not to buy the clothes they aren't really yours in exactly but also it becomes your duty to preserve in a way my finger just yours and so here becomes the idea in Hinduism the higher parts of the self have to control so the officer says you control the senses in other words four senses have to try to depict the world accurately but also the mind has to control the senses so you should be active you should control should control inertia habits but also in the end the soul has to control the intellect Brahman is the ultimate reality not the everyday things of this world and so in the end we should follow a path of renunciation do not allow the objects that sense to control don't even live on your own rational thoughts to control you because the good for you ultimately is the good of that heavy down soul not the good of this even if you think you are so the best way to do that is to follow a path of renunciation hence it all Indian traditions not just in the yoga school specifically there is an emphasis on yoga in the sense of discipline in the sense of self-control renunciation it's a very practical field the idea is really this is a way of discovering that higher self and promoting its ultimate good so the postures the breath control will be associated to yoga and an ordinary sense those are all just get rid of this distractions it's not ultimately about the wobbly thing it's to push the bodily stuff out of the lines you don't have to think about then the thought is remove mental structures that's the point get the thoughts perceptions and feelings push to the side as well and in the end if you can attain the complete mental silence you will find a transcendent consciousness a deeper consciousness that's no longer happen try one time to sit and think about duck read and at first still think about all sorts of things but above but the ideas are critical you become type / - Brett might get rid of that then you'll be thinking about all sorts of stuff to protect and the end you'll discover the information applause yeah what all right good I'm just going to say closest most of us Katniss is trying to sleep so would you wait the limit love that you're worried about something that I say stupid philosophy big patriotic right it's all ok try to push that out of your mind you know if you can push all that up your mind wanders and indeed it might be possible in these higher states of meditation that you're sort of the endlessly but it's that edge state you're really discovering the true nature of constancy and so that's what to develop there is by the way now we're a physiological research on people you meditate in this way but there is a specific part of the brain that becomes slightly activated well what does all this mean for ethics finish this up in Oh 15 seconds that first Dharma Duty we have to follow our duty regardless of the reasons of the but secondly moocs liberation or in light try to attain that by yourself then buck deep love or devotion to God control the emotions of direct or the appropriate goal and finely carved since in action inertia is a big part of the soul develop the right kinds of habits that will lead you to the right kinds of actions next time we'll finish this off and we'll look at Twitter

Channel: Daniel Bonevac

Views: 9,734

Rating: 4.84375 out of 5

Keywords: Hinduism, Vedanta

Id: Jy6fnQqaql4

Length: 38min 7sec (2287 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 01 2016