A FUN WAY TO TEACH THE UPANUSADIC WISDOM OF MAYA... 🤓

OPTICAL ILLUSIONS... 😲

At first glance, most folks will, I think, see lines of horses (maybe donkeys) in this picture... 🤔 I certainly did...

But zoom in and you'll see that, actually, these are zebras - the dark images are their shadows... 😲

Maya is the Indian, Upanishadic teaching that tells us that, far from informing us of about the true nature of existence / 'reality', our empirical senses, being just by-product of  Matter: which is an illusionary state - actually delude us, by reinforcing the illusion of Matter - and keep us from realising that the true nature of existence is non-material...

Optical illusions are a fun way of introducing this concept to students...

(I found this image online. My acknowledgement and thanks to whoever made it / owns it (identity unknown to me.)

THE QUESTION OF SUFFERING IN THE WORLD: INDIAN PHILOSOPHY PERSPECTIVE 

Shankara: and the teaching of Avaita Vedanta

Western philosophy has been humming and hawing for centuries about why there is suffering in the world. 

I studied Indian philosophy, and all that western chin-stroking and hand wringing is made seem pointless.

The problem with western philosophy is that it subordinates the mind to empirical senses and experiences. 

Indian philosophy does the opposite: the mind / consciousness is the only reality: the empirical senses merely reinforce the illusion of matter.

In Shankara's Advita Vedanta, true existence is consciousness: material existence an illusion. While we are in the illusion it seems real - and we must responsibly act as though it's real: but with awareness that it's only a dream from which we will awaken - and be free from: and all material, sensory experiences will be gone - and revealed as just illusory. 😌

HINDU FAITH AND PRACTICE: THE MATURE EXPLANATION FOR HINDU REVERENCE OF COWS



The Brahmanic / Dharma/ Hindu faith practices a reverence towards cows. This is something that anti-religion fanatics with an understanding of religion that's juvenile at best like to mock (juvenile mockery is standard practice for the majority of them in my experience ).

But as is usually the case with religious practices from all religions, there is a mature, very much a rational, and respectful explanation for this practice.

It's based on respect and gratitude for all the things that cattle have done for human beings and the development of human civilization.

I particularly like the observation that domesticated animals enabled human beings to be able to settle in an area and therefore to build a community and from that a civilization.

I've seen videos by this scholar before; he was a sometime teacher of Religious Studies at the prestigious Eton College; and he's very learned and passionate about properly educating people on India and Brahmanic religion.