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All the sects of Hinduism are firmly based on the vedas (scriptures) and the upanishad (metaphysics). They are not distinct and separated, they just have different emphasis.
Understanding the scriptures is not hard, it is all about do this and not that, like this and not like that, and do this to get that, and this to not get that. These translate fine. They are also the knowledge base of healing, diets, arts, sculpture, mathamatics, astrology, astronomy, sex, law, magic, grammar, yoga, etc. The knowledge of god and the knowledge of the world are intimately intertwined.
But to get at the central meaning of the Upanishads, man, world, and the universal oneness, one needs to know Sanskrit, there is simply no way around it. English simply does not communicate the whole meaning of the words so there is a lot of reductive understanding and mis-understanding of what Hinduism is if you only know English. Most western scholars of Hinduism are Europeans who are also scholars of Sanskrit, particularly Germans. There are some similarities in the way the two languages function as well.
I believe American Buddhism suffers in the same way.
Two questions:
Question: When you say "The knowledge of god"...I was not under the impression that Hinduism was at all based on the concept of one god, singular.
Question: This term you have used several times -- "American Buddhism" -- what exactly is that?
Question: When you say "The knowledge of god"...I was not under the impression that Hinduism was at all based on the concept of one god, singular.
Question: This term you have used several times -- "American Buddhism" -- what exactly is that?
Depends on who or what your source was for your impression. If you asked a hindu she would have told you there is only one.
God here is not the same as god is conceptualized in Christianity. In Sanskrit it is Brhman, a noun that has no gender. The root of the word means big, and the word means Bigness. It is to be understood it is what bigness means there is nothing else like it. You can say an elephant is big, but this bigness is what gives the very meaning to the concept of big, it is universe, many universes, before the beginning of time, fills everything. Most importantly it simply is, and it is all that is.
American Buddhism is what American Yoga is. Yoga was never meant to be, nor was practiced, as a fitness product. It is a complete system of mind-body-breath practice. I view American Buddhism as a brand.
Have not watched it but I am curious as to why you keep bringing up Buddhism in a thread called Hinduism Thread Discussion. Neither are mere curiosity.
Have not watched it but I am curious as to why you keep bringing up Buddhism in a thread called Hinduism Thread Discussion. Neither are mere curiosity.
Depends on who or what your source was for your impression. If you asked a hindu she would have told you there is only one.
God here is not the same as god is conceptualized in Christianity. In Sanskrit it is Brhman, a noun that has no gender. The root of the word means big, and the word means Bigness. It is to be understood it is what bigness means there is nothing else like it. You can say an elephant is big, but this bigness is what gives the very meaning to the concept of big, it is universe, many universes, before the beginning of time, fills everything. Most importantly it simply is, and it is all that is.
American Buddhism is what American Yoga is. Yoga was never meant to be, nor was practiced, as a fitness product. It is a complete system of mind-body-breath practice. I view American Buddhism as a brand.
The only problem is, I have asked a few Hindus, and that's not what they said. Usually the answer I got was something along the lines of, "Well, we have many gods".
"I view American Buddhism as a brand" tells me little.
Have not watched it but I am curious as to why you keep bringing up Buddhism in a thread called Hinduism Thread Discussion. Neither are mere curiosity.
In all fairness, you often talk about both in posts.
There is no such thing as heresy in Hinduism. There are many debates and responses to Buddhists schools and the idea of shunya, but Hinduism considers all paths to the divine as equally valid and sacred. When the whole world is Brhman and we are all in Brahman, there is nothing to invalidate. This idea is categorically stated in many texts, and particularly in the Gita. As i stated before Hindus consider Buddha an avatar.
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