Thoughts on Truth - Philosophy

The ten principle Upanishads: Isha, Kena, Katha, Prashna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Chandogya, Brihadaranyaka. Others include: Shvetashvatara, Kausitaki, Maitri

tapas - heating power produced in deep meditation

Shraddha - determined seriousness, a deep, abiding, confident faith

Yama - King of Death

The universe evolves from fire, there is a sacred fire and the way to Heaven is in the Katha pg. 16

Never can mortals be made happy by wealth - Katha pg. 27

Renounce sensual pleasures

In the Katha: Lord of Love, blind leading blind, the path is sharp as a razor's edge

devotion right before part II

The next 3 excel among the gods

Vayu - god of air, can blow all away, wind god

Agni - god of fire, can burn all on Earth, fire is facillitating energy of sacrifice and is seen is prana and cosmic forces

Surya - Sun god, controls sight

Indra - Leader of gods, king of Heaven, controls rain

Kartikeya - god of war

Ganga - spirit of river Ganges

Vishnu - god of maintenance and preservation of everything

Rudra

Uma - wife of Shiva, daughter of Himalayas, and goddess of wisdom

Atharva - Brahma's eldest son

Shiva - god of destruction and death

Aditi - goddess of energy, mother of all cosmis forces

Brahma - god of creation, not Brahman; first among gods from whom sprang the cosmos, embodies the process of evolution

Brahman - omnipresent, attributeless, formless

The self-existent Lord pierced the senses to turn outward

a discriminating intellect, a still mind and a pure heart, are those united with Lord of Love

The self cannot be known through study of she scriptures, through the intellect or logic, He is only known by those whom the self chooses to reveal himself, and He knows all and is what one enjoys everything through, the unitive state can only be attained through one who is in this state himself.

Part II of Katha paragraph 6?

Answers prayers? pg. 94

fear of Brahman pg. 95

Kena

The Self makes the tongue speak; the mind think, desire, and will; the eye see; the ear hear; you draw breathe but cannot be seen, heard, thought, breated, spoken. The Self is not someone other than you. You cannot know the Self, only know the self by realizing him in everything including not identifying yourself with body. The Self is beyond the duality of the knower and the known.

III gods and demons?

Brahman sees and appears and talks

He is worthy of all our love

Meditation, control of the senses and passions, and selfless service to all

The self meditated upon himself and projected the universe as evolutionary energy

Karma is enchained by cause and effect

Seven appears to be a holy number in Mundaka pg. 113. Seven organs of sense, seven hot desires, sevenfold objects, seven levels of consciousness in cavern of heart

The self is the source of Love and may be known through love

The Self knows everyone and sees everything, and sets right all doubts and dispels the pain of wrong actions committed in past

Fruits of Tree of Life pg. 115

(Love is directed at things, so how can He be Lord of Love?)

Sages are granted all the help they need in everything they do to serve the Lord pg. 116

Those who long for the Self with all their heart are chosen by the Self as his own pg. 117

Those who practice wrong disciplines cannot realize the Self, pg. 117

Aitareya is about creation of the world

(Self thinks, self thinks about creating the world and guardians)

pg. 138 Five Categories: This World, Worlds in the Sky, Education, Progeny, Speech

Om is the supreme symbol of Brahman

Kundalini pg. 141

List of wrongs and rights pg. 141 and when in doubt about the right, follow example of sages

The Self willed in meditation "Let me be many"

Things happen through fear of Brahman pg. 144

Taittiriya

Follow the Law, contemplate these five categories: world, worlds in sky, education, progeny and speech, and you will have children, cattle, food, and wisdom

praying for wisdom and other stuff from Brahman and calls him Lord of Love

OM is supreme symbol of Lord

Be truthful, practice right conduct, master passions, control senses, strive for peace, rouse Kundalini, serve humanity, beget progeny, learn and teach, honor those worthy of honor, don't neglect scripture, give, if you are in doubt about right conduct follow example of the sages.

Food is most important thing for the body

The Lord willed "Let me be many" and through meditation he created everything

The wind blows, sun shines, fire burns, rain falls, and death occurs through fear of Brahman

145 The list of joys

Respect food; dont' wast food, fire or water; Don't refuse food to the hungry but feed them

Prashna

Prana is energy that fuels evolution and powers the vital processes in life and thoughts and desires (which can be redirected).

prayer - May we be used to spread your peace on Earth

Rayi - the giver of name and form

the self meditated and brought forth Prana and Rayi (male and female) so that they would bring forth innumerable creatures for him.

The Powers in the body are space, air, fire, water, earth, speech, mind, vision, and hearing, but prana is the greatest of these

162 Five Pranas and their functions in the body and in the universe and reincarnation

Dreamless sleep is close to the Self

Dreaming mind recalls past impressions

Sixteen forms of the Self

Chandogya

Udgitha? Eight rung is the essence of essences, the highest, it is OM, the Self of all

Three kinds of knowledge? The act is done with knowledge, inner awareness, and faith, grows in power. A person is what his deep desire is, this shapes the life to come. The Self who is beyond all words can be realized by the pure in heart. The four feet of Brahman are: The Shining North South East and West are one foot and to meditate on these is to become full of Light and master the regions of the cosmos; Without End: Earth, Sky, Heaven, and Ocean. Meditation on this makes life be without end; Full of Light: fire, sun, moon, and lightning and these ? will light; Established: Breath, eye, ear, mind meditation makes one at home in this world and master space.

As by knowing one lump of clay, we came to know all things made from clay that they differ only in name and form, so through spiritual wisdom we come to know that all of life is one.

When a man is absorbed in dreamless sleep he is one with the Self, though he doesn't know it. There is no more knowing in death.

The epics are called the fifth Veda

Whatever you know are just words, names of finite phenomena, so seek the infinite.

The infinite is utterly independent so it does not even depend on its own glory.

In a pure mind there is constant awareness of the Self

The Self desires only what is real, and good, wills only what is good, thinks nothing but what is true

Those who die knowing who they are and what they desire have whatever they desire

The object of that desire arises from the power of their own thoughts; they have it and are happy, by their mere will they enjoy such things.

Here our selfless desires are hidden by our false selfish ones

Only those who are pure and self-controlled and established in peace can find Brahman

Devas, asuras, gods and godless (lacking faith, love, charity)

Indra from gods

Virochana from godless

Those who think the Self is the body will lose their way in life

Cool arguments for what the Self is not

Isha

Covet nothing. The Self is individisible, untouched by sin, wise, immanent, transcendent. Combine action and meditation; realize the Self is immanent AND transcendent. The Self knows all our deeds. Deliver us from evil.

Tejobindu

Transcend even scripture itself; The Self is changeless

Samadhi - complete union, a goal of a state of consciousness. Samadhi is only attained by those who have mastered their senses, are free from greed, fear, anger, free from self-will and likes and dislikes, and without selfish bonds to people and things, free from pride of name and fame and vanity of scholarship, free from thoughts of lifes dualities

Three stages of meditation

Vishnu (means All Pervading) is Lord of Love (Rama and Krishna are his most familiar incarnations)

Three Gunas

Brahman is beyond thinker and thought

Atma

Purusha manifests itself as inner, outer, and the Supreme Self. Outer is body. Inner is mind. The Self is beyond all attributes, and beyond all thought

Auritabindu

Mind in control of senses becomes pure and free

Paramahamsa

The illumined man has renounced all selfish attachments (to people, money, possessions, etc), observes no rights or ceremonies, has only minimum possessions, lives his life for the welfare of all, he faces all conditions with equal calm; he is not affected by calumny, pride, jealousy, status, joy, sorrow, greed, anger, infatuation, excitement, egoism, or other goals. He is free from doubt and false knowledge. He praises nobody, blames nobody, and is never dependent on anyone. He has no need to repeat the mantram because it is spontaneously and uninteruptedly repeated in his consciousness, nor to practice meditation for all is one to him. No more is he capable of ill will or subject to elation.

Rituals can only point to the unity of life

Shvetashvatara - personal god, read notes in book for answer to some of ?

Rudra

Isha

Ishvara

Shiva - creator, destroyer, often used for Brahman in this book

The objective world (Maya?) is neither real nor unreal, it is an appearance of separateness from ourselves, an illusion that happiness comes from outside the world than from within. Time, nature, necessity, accident, elements, energy, intelligence - none of these can be the first cause, they are effects, whose purpose is to help the Self (in us) rise above pleasure and pain.

Interesting philosophical questions.

Three Gunas: of Law (balance, harmony), energy, and inertia

Fire of Kundalini?

Meditation described 220, 221

The Self projects the cosmos from himself and draws it back in at the end of time

Those who don't know the Self live but to suffer

Through his grace He moves us to seek Him in our hearts

City of Nine gates is body? Enjoys the play of his countless forms

Prajapati?

Forgetting our divine origin, we become ensnared in the world of change and bewail our helplessness

What use are the scriptures for anyone who doesn't know their one source (the Self)

He brings out of himself all the scriptures, oblations, sacrifices, spiritual disciplines, and everything

His maya brought all the worlds out of himself

May he be worshipped by everyone

"May he, Shiva, fill our hearts with infinite peace"?

"May he, Shiva, in whom all are one, free us from death"?

He is the Supreme source of all religions

Only Shiva? Back to Brahman

Prayers for protection

He teaches each living creature to attain perfection according to its own nature.

Some Karma, according to needs for growth and the deeds of previous lives

He is pure consciousness, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, is both Law and Mercy. We are his innumerable instruments, He grants all our prayers

Note on side of page reads "Shiva gave ? scriptures at dawn of time", "This highest mystical experience must be shared only with one whose heart is pure, one's disciple, or one's own child."