Vedanta

The Upanishads

1) Jnanamarga – the way of knowledge. First appears in the Upanishads

a) Respected throughout Indian society at all levels

b) A new form of religious life that doesn’t center on ritual and social duties

c) Jnana implies a religion based on secret wisdom – taught by sages, based in mystical experience, esoteric sources

2) Karma and Samsara: two basic concepts that inform the notions of dharma and moksha.

a) Karma: law of cause and effect by which one reaps what one sows.

i) “karma” means “works,” “deeds”

ii) All actions, particularly moral actions, have predictable effects – each person is responsible for every action he or she performs; every action will influence one’s future

iii) One’s present conditions, character, circumstances are all the result of past actions

iv) Textual and popular understandings of karma

b) Samsara: as the cycle of rebirth / as the flux and flow of creation

i) The cycle of birth and rebirth

ii) One’s present life = one of a long chain of lives, countless lives in human and non-human forms (including existence as deities)

iii) Hierarchical order of all species in existence, such as caste

iv) Samsara as the fluid and changing universe

3) The Upanishads = “secret teaching,” “sitting at the feet of,” “connection or equivalence”

a) 100s of Upanishads, 13 principle Upanishads = shruti

b) Reaction against tradition, criticism of priestly trads.

c) A stratified caste system in place, supported by notions of karma and rebirth.

4) Moksha

a) Heaven is temporary, no permanent refuge

b) Suffering pervades human existence: the endless cycles of suffering, death, rebirth: “May the evil of death not get me” (Brh Up), “To hoary and toothless and drooling old age may I not go” (Chan Up)

c) See Embree p.31 Mundaka Upanishad

d) The Solution = moksha. Liberation from the endless round.

e) A new concept of the ultimate reality

5) Brahman: A single pervasive power and essence, source of all things

a) “That from which these beings are born; on which, once born, they live; and into which they pass upon death – seek to perceive that? That is brahman!”

b) Totality of sacred words in the Veda; gives unlimited power to sacrifice; Essence of the entire world; the power that reside s in all beings, including the gods

c) Svetaketu (boy) and Uddalaka (his father): Sve hasn’t heard of world soul

d) Fleeting names and forms outside, one underlying reality [See Chandogya Upanishad, Embree p.36]

e) Brahman is the essence and source of the whole phenomenal world

6) Atman: the reality that is the lasting and indispensable basis of one’s being

a) Soul as pure consciousness: four states [See Chandogya Upanishad, Embree p.33}

Renunciation

7) General features

a) Action leads to rebirth and suffering

b) Detachment from action, or even non-action, leads to spiritual emancipation

c) Complete detachment, and therefore spiritual emancipation can be achieved through asceticism and methods of making consciousness focused and concentrated