Post 2

The Competitors
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The Buddha was raised in a society clouded by metaphysical theories, including those of the Hindus and Jains. He was a relative newcomer to a society long populated by the Dasyus, the indigenous people of India and their ascetic (sramana) culture. Also present in the Buddha's society were the Materialists, Agnostics and Skeptics, long time residents of India. As crowded as the Buddha's neighborhood was, his empiricism was something completely new (EEB p. 29), which resulted in great opposition from his competitors.

A resourceful and educated person, the Buddha in his youth acquired the knowledge to argue against the metaphysics and views of his competitors.   He eventually became a person who was as much a synthesizer as he was a discoverer. The Buddha formulated his ideas in this simmering stew of competing views and arrived at a world view singular and distinct from all others. His agreements and differences with his neighbors are recorded in the Sutta Pitaka [Discourses of the Buddha]; the following are a few capsules of the beliefs of his competitors:

Hindus (Brahmins/Upanisadists)
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The Vedas
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Among the groups in the Buddha's society, the most influential were the Hindus whose earliest literature, the Vedas, are said to have appeared as long ago as 1500 BC. The Vedas are ancient, its authors are unknown, their names having long ago disappeared into the past. In fact, the claim is the Vedas were not even created by authors, but, said to have been "heard" by the rsis (seers). Most of the Vedas addresses the numerous gods and goddesses of nature, among them are Vata the wind god, Usas goddess of dawn, Surya the sun god. Here are excerpts from the hymn to Vata the god of wind:

Hymn to Vata
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Declare the might of Vata's chariot. Crushing in pieces he goes. Thundering is his roar. He touches the sky as he advances, making (the clouds) ruddy, and speeds over the earth, whirling up dust.

Behind him rise the blasts of Vata. They advance to him like women to a meeting. United with them, in the same car, hastens the God, the king of the whole world.

Hastening through the air on his way he never rests. The friend of the Waters, the first born, law-maintaining--where has he been born? Whence has he arisen?

The breath (atman) of the Gods, the germ of the world, this God wanders at his will. His roarings are heard, not (seen) is his form. This Vata let us worship with an oblation. (SIP p. 15)

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The followers of Vata considered him "the king of the whole world"; eventually, Varuna, the god who governed all physical and moral laws (Rta) superseded him and would lead many to believe Varuna is  the highest of the gods, the one god. The belief in Rta suggests the Hindus saw the universe an ordered, intelligible place that behaved according to fundamental physical and moral laws, but, people still sought gods and goddesses for protection from all the hazards of human existence.

Alone among the Vedic hymns, the Hymn of Creation did not extol any god or goddess and developed an entirely different perspective. A later Rig Veda hymn, it turned away from the age old reliance on gods and goddesses, its views having advanced to the point where "....seeking minds did not so much care for personal comfort and happiness as for absolute truth (IP p. 94)". Here began the search for ultimate reality, the One, in the Hymn of Creation:

The Hymn of Creation
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1. Non-being then existed not nor being:
There was no air, nor sky that is beyond it.
What was concealed? Wherein? In whose protection?
And was there deep unfathomable water?

2. Death then existed not nor life immortal;
Of neither night nor day was any token.
By its inherent force the One breathed windless:
No other thing than that beyond existed.

3. Darkness there was at first by darkness hidden;
Without distinctive marks, this all was water.
That which, becoming, by the void was covered,
That One by force of heat came into being.

4. Desire entered the One in the beginning:
It was the earliest seed, of thought the product.
The sages searching in their hearts with wisdom,
Found out the bond of being in non-being.

5. Their ray extended light across the darkness:
But was the One above or was it under?
Creative force was there, and fertile power:
Below was energy, above was impulse.

6. Who knows for certain? Who shall here declare it?
Whence was it born, and whence came this creation?
The gods were born after this world's creation:
Then who can know from whence it has arisen?

7. None knoweth whence creation has arisen;
And whether he has or has not produced it:
He who surveys it in the highest heaven,

He only knows, or haply he may not know. (SIP p. 23)

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In their depiction of the One, the rsis (seers) pictured it prior to everything, originally breathing windless until it is brought into being by heat. At the time the One came into being, it also created the entire universe while at the same time not being separate from the universe. "...the idea of a creator separate from the universe itself is foreign to the Rig Veda" (OP2 p. 22).   

The hymn goes on to explain the One is the bond between existence and non-existence, that is, the One in its primordial, non-dual state holds together existence and non-existence in a completely absolute non-dual whole. Existence and non-existence are split apart at the creation of the universe by Desire which is defined as Kama/reincarnation (HC p. 21, 22). The rsis saw the One being whole, non-dual and the empirical universe characterized by dualism, the poles of opposites. They reasoned, like a halved fruit which originally was a whole fruit, so too existence and non-existence must have been previously whole also. It is this wholeness of reality the Hindus sought as the source of existence and non existence.

However, this enterprise is sorely hampered since thought and language are rooted in absolute "is" and "is not". All human knowledge is based upon differences between things, thus it is not possible to access the non dual One which is beyond all differences. Therefore, the One remains indefinable, indescribable a complete mystery to even "He who surveys it in the highest heaven, He only knows, or haply he may not know." (OP2 p. 24, 25) The questions and statements ending the Hymn of Creation represents not only the great mystery of the One, but also the views of skeptics (HC p. 27) who are always ready to challenge any view without having views of their own.

To Purusa - Vanna/Caste/Color System
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Another significant hymn that could be mentioned is "To Purusa" famous because it includes the origin of the Vanna, caste or color system.   While the Vedas did talk about the individual soul, it also did have opinions about where everyone in society belonged:

11. When they divided the Purusa (person or man personified), into how many parts did they arrange him? What was his mouth? What his two arms? What are his thighs and feet called?

12. The BRAHMIN was his mouth, his two arms were made the RAJANYA (warrior), his two thighs the VAISYA (trader and agriculturist), from his feet the SUDRA (the servile class) was born. (SIP p.19)

Everyone belonged to one of these four castes, each person's caste is determined by the "quality" of their souls. A note of interest on the caste system: The only people excluded from this hierarchy were the Dasyus, the indigenous people of India (Laws of Manu SIP p. 176). Today these "untouchables" are the Dalits.

Upanisads
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While the Vedas did have much to say about the self (soul) the Upanisads are consumed with it. Like the Vedas, the Upanisads are authorless although some are identified with the views of various sages. The Upanisads are the ending portion of the Vedas, you could say the Upanisads are the culmination of the quest initiated in the Vedas. The key question of the Upanisads is, "What is the true nature of ultimate reality?" (OP2 p. 26). It is the same as the question asked in the Hymn of Creation, "What is the true nature of the One?"

As in the Hymn of Creation, the search of the Upanisads was not to explain the empirical world of space and time but to discover ultimate reality. The name given by the rsis to ultimate reality is Brahman, which means "that which makes great", it is the ultimate external reality (OP2 p. 27). Unlike gods and goddesses who were limited by their attributes, Brahman could not be described, positively or negatively, otherwise it would similarly be limited by descriptions. No, Brahman is unlimited and therefore remains elusive and mysterious (OP2 p. 28).

The Search for the Self/Soul
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The Upanisadists had struggled for centuries in their search for Brahman, but, as in the Vedantic search for the "One", the description of ultimate external reality was always out of their reach. In time, the thought occurred to them, we have been looking for ultimate reality externally, why not go in another direction and look for it internally? Thus, the question turned from "What is the true nature of Brahman?" to "What am I, in my deepest existence? What is the nature of the wonderful and mysterious self?" (OP2 p. 28, 29).

Essentially, the "....search for the Ultimate Self was a matter of going deeper and deeper into the foundations of human existence." (OP2 p. 29). In this search for the "I" or "Self" (Atman) the Taittiriya Upanisad (SIP p. 59) considered several aspects of a person candidates for a self. 

The body is matter made of food so is food the self? it asks. No, it is not. Neither food nor transformed food, the body, could be the self. The self must be something more than matter alone. In that case, is it breath which distinguishes living matter from non-living matter? No, simply being alive would not sufficiently explain the self. Or, is it the mind or the understanding ability of the mind the self? No, neither qualifies although the combined activities of the mind---perception, conception, reasoning, feeling, sensing---and its understanding aspect do appear very good candidates for the self. But again, no, for these activities to exist, there must be a foundation for them. Finally, the Katha Upanisad proposes, the foundation of all human existence is the Soul/Atman, the inner controller, eternal, indestructible, permanent:

18. The wise one [i.e., the Atman, the Self] is not born nor dies.
This one has not come from anywhere, has not become anyone.
Unborn, constant, eternal, primeval, this one
Is not slain when the body is slain. (SIP p. 45)

Atman - Brahman
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The rsis' primary descriptions of Brahman and the One were "indescribable and indefinable". When pressed for further descriptions they added others including Real of the real, Creator of All, He is God (Deva), world protector, bliss, ageless, immortal. These transcendental descriptions were produced by the visions and reasoning of the rsis but where did the descriptions of Atman---unborn, constant, eternal, primeval--- in the Katha Upanisad above come from?

Incredibly, this source was the Self itself, discovered in deepest contemplation "in the bliss of total consciousness" (OP2 p. 29), i.e. consciousness perceiving itself, knowing itself completely in total self illumination with absolute certainty, a transcendental experience of divine bliss. These descriptions came not from the visions and reasoning of the rsis, but, from a very different source.

The Self in its deepest existence is self illuminating consciousness, revealed in the direct experience of what is called the Turiya state (Mundukya Upanisad SIP p. 56), a state underlying the states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep. The Self can be known only in this way, the soul is beyond the knowledge of the empirical, understanding self: "Verily, other than and within that one that consists of understanding is a self that consists of bliss" (Taittiriya Upanisad SIP p. 60).

The joyful discovery of the wonderful self began as an alternative search to the unsuccessful search for Brahman, ultimate external reality. With the discovery of Atman, the ultimate internal reality, the rsis may then have reasoned that reality must be of a whole, not separate externally and internally, thus resulting in their greatest conclusion: Atman and Brahman must also be one and the same! This exciting realization is the answer to their centuries long quest; it "... is the greatest discovery made in the Upanisads" (OP p. 30). The unity of Atman and Brahman is described in these Chandogya Upanisad passages:

The Self, which is free from evil, ageless, deathless, sorrowless, hungerless, thirstless, whose desire is the Real, whose conception is the Real---He should be searched out, Him one should desire to understand. He obtains all worlds and all desires who has found out and who understands that Self.........That is Brahman. (Chandogya Upanisad SIP p. 73)

Verily, this whole world is Brahman. Tranquil, let one worship It as that from which he came forth, as that into which he will be dissolved, as that in which he breathes....
He who consists of mind, whose body is life (prana), whose form is light, whose conception is truth, whose self is space, containing all works, containing all desires, containing all odors, containing all tastes, encompassing this whole world, the unspeaking, the unconcerned---this Self of mine within the heart is smaller than a grain of rice, or a barley-corn, or a mustard-seed, or a grain of millet, or the kernel of a grain of millet; this Self of mine within the heart is greater than the earth, greater than the atmospere, greater than the sky, greater than these worlds.
Containing all works, containing all desires, containing all odors, containing all tastes, encompassing this whole world, the unspeaking, the unconcerned---this is the Self of mine within the heart, this is Brahman. Into him I shall enter on departing hence..... (Chandogya Upanisad SIP p. 65).

The Atman-Brahman connection is well described in the Upanisads, but, a complete description of the nature of either Atman or Brahman is not found anywhere. In spite of all the homage and tributes paid to Atman and Brahman perhaps these passages from the Brhadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanisads best represents the understanding of the Upanisads. The Brhadaranyaka Upanisads's description of ultimate reality, "Neti, Neti" (SIP p. 77), "not this, not this" or "it is not this and it is not that" or "neither this nor that" amounts to conceding ultimate reality is indescribable. In the Chandogya Upanisad (SIP p. 68, 69) Uddalaka Aruni tries to explain to his son, Svetaketu, the nature of ultimate reality. The best he can do is, "That art thou (Tat tvam asi) Svetaketu", you are yourself ultimate reality, the Self which is the same as Brahman. The Upanisadists did discover the wonderful self in self illumination, but, the end result of their investigation is that Atman-Brahman remains elusive and mysterious. Atman-Brahman is still indefinable, indescribable and beyond human comprehension to this day.

Jains
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Jainism, like Buddhism, is a non-vedic, non-upanisadic tradition. Jaina literally means "follower of a Jina (victor)". Rsabha is the legendary founder of Jainism and the first of 24 Jaina Tirthankaras (crossers of the ford). The most well known of the Jaina leaders is Vardhamana, the 24th Tirthankara who, like the Buddha, had other titles.   These included Jina (victor), Mahavira (the great hero).  His followers were called Nigantha Nataputta (freed followers of Nataputta) by the Buddhists.

Vardhamana was a systemizer and expounder of the works of past Tirthankaras, especially the works of Parsvanatha, the 23rd Tirthankara. Vardhamana was a contemporary of the Buddha and both their teachings and lives are remarkably similar.   Some argue Buddhism and Jainism are the same system: "Both are of royal birth; the same names recur among their relations and disciples. They were born and they died in the same country and at the same period of time" (IP p. 290).

Vardhamana, after leaving his household life, also spent many years in an austere, deprived existence until the thirteenth year when he achieved omniscience (kevalajnana) (AP4 p. 29). He spent the next 30 years of his life spreading Jain teachings. While there are actually many differences between Buddhism and Jainism, including the fact the Buddha never claimed he was omniscient, Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism all shared a common objective----the elimination of human suffering.

Although all of these traditions had the same one objective, they differed greatly in how to achieve this objective.   Despite the fact the views of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism were very different, they all shared some common understanding about the way to go about the task of eliminating human suffering. First of all, the Indians all agreed one way to eliminate suffering is to control desires.

 Alternatively, another way to eliminate suffering is to satisfy desires. Being poor, one can accumulate wealth and escape the suffering of poverty. Being unhealthy, one can seek treatment for the ailment causing suffering. After weighing the merits of these methods, the Indians concluded controlling desires is preferable to satisfying desires because, as everyone knows, desires have no end. Furthermore, it is impossible to satisfy some desires, for example, the desire of not having to die, and for that matter, it is impossible to satisfy every and all desires. (OP2 p. 8)

The decision to control desires inevitably led to a great emphasis on self knowledge. While it is possible to acquire self knowledge by looking to external nature, the Indians felt the removal of suffering is more likely by looking inwardly. Agreeing on this matter, the Hindus, Jains and Buddhists came to differ on another matter---- the source of this self knowledge. For the Hindus, soul- self-brahma is the source of self knowledge. Self knowledge is also self realization, the knowledge of the unity of Atman and Brahman discovered in the bliss of total consciousness, the Self known in direct self illumination.

The Jains shared with the Hindus the belief in the soul/self as the source of self knowledge, but, like the Buddhists, rejected God (Brahma) as a source of self knowledge. The Buddhists in turn rejected both the soul and God as a source of self knowledge. They instead said the source of self knowledge is not in anything external to the human person but is found in the human person himself/herself.

Self knowledge comes from the bliss or luminosity of the soul, according to the Jains and Hindus. However, on the road to self knowledge each faced obstacles peculiar to their own view of reality. The problem for the Hindus was getting around empirical subject-object consciousness which obscured the bliss of total consciousness. The bliss of the soul could not be accessed with empirical consciousness in the way.

The Jain difficulty was quite different.   For the Jains the problem of accessing the bliss of the soul was not a metaphysical or a psychological problem, but, a physical problem. The origin of this problem lies in the Jain belief that the soul is embodied in Karmic matter and it has always been that way (AP4 p. 32). This relationship between soul and matter is the fundamental Jain belief, the belief that reality consists of souls and matter (AP4 p. 31). And therein lies the Jaina problem: bondage is the embodiment of the soul by karmic matter, karma being a "....substantive force, matter in a subtle form (IP p. 319)".

The solution to this problem is in understanding that more karmic matter is produced by unethical actions and less by ethical actions. While all bodily, verbal and mental actions produces karmic matter, those actions of an ignorant, hating, craving nature produces the greatest amount of karma. Of all desires, the desire to hurt others produces the greatest destructive karma. The countering of this desire resulted in the Jain conception of Ahimsa (non-violence). Among all actions, ahimsa actions most contributes the to limiting of karmic deposits.

Since karmic matter prevents the soul's light, purity and knowledge from shining through the idea is to reduce karma, especially through ahimsa methods.   The reduction of karma allows the radiance of the soul to shine through thereby bringing about self knowledge. The eventual and complete removal of all karmic matter results in total self knowledge, which is the revelation of everything past, present and future, i.e. omniscience. This is Jainism's rendition of Nirvana, the soul's "...entry into the blessedness that has no end (IP p. 332)".

In addition to the problem of karmic input, there is also the question of the removal of previously accumulated karmic matter. How is this accomplished? According to the Jains, accumulated karmic matter is removed by living an ascetic and austere existence. Their belief is that such a life purges karmic matter from the soul. Even more so does a life of Ahimsa (non-violence).

Variations of ahimsa are practiced by Hindus and Buddhists alike, but, Ahimsa originated with the Jains.   This belief coupled with the Jain belief that everything has a reincarnated soul "...led to a horror of taking life in any form (IP p. 293)"  by the Jains. Jain conduct is anchored in ahimsa. Truthfulness, Non-stealing, Celibacy and Non-grasping are also included in Jain Conduct. Conduct is one of the "three jewels" of Jain practice (AP4 p. 36) the others are Faith and Knowledge. It is through these practices the Jains sought liberation from karma.

Although the Jainas rejected God, interestingly, they did have a theory of ultimate reality. Unlike the Hindus who sought ultimate reality via human consciousness, the Jain tools were logic and experience. The Jain emphasis on knowledge resulted in their many accomplishments in philosophy, logic, literature, architecture, art, mathematics and the sciences (AP4 p. 41). Jain scholarship and reasoning also led the way to their theory of ultimate reality, Anekantavada.   Anekantavada is most famously illustrated in the story of the five blind men and an elephant. The story begins with each man touching and feeling different parts of the elephant. The first touches the trunk and says, "The elephant is like a snake". The second touches the tail and says, "The elephant is like a rope". The third touches the leg and says, "The elephant is like a tree trunk". The fourth feels the ear and says, "The elephant is like a palm leaf, it is fan like" and the fifth touches its body and concludes, "The elephant is like a wall" (AP4 p. 37).

All of these perceptions are true from their vantage points, but, none of them are wholly true. For the Jain, everything is true from a certain point of view, everything is false from a certain point of view. Such is the knowledge of ultimate reality, a matter of perspective and standpoints (Naya). Each Naya is described as Syad---"somehow", "perhaps", "maybe". This resulted in the ultimate reality of Anekantavada being maybe it is this, maybe it is that and like Hindu Atman-Brahman it is ultimately indescribable because of the limitations of human knowledge. Although both Hindus and Jains did find a way to the soul and liberation, neither was able to adequately define and describe ultimate reality.

This ends Post 2.