Buddhism and Vedas (rituals, reject, mystic, purification, tradition)

[Don Penguinoini]

Originally Posted by vandervalley

Correct me if I am wrong; but Vedas seemed to believe in multiple gods as opposed to one god believed by Hindus today

Nope, wrong. I believe in multiple gods, and jsut one god. These are just forms of god, but these are faces of just one. The vedas ackowledges this.

[K.Venugopal]

Originally Posted by zenzero

Friend Venu,
It is better if you can state as to what you understand by thoughts, first; to enable me to explain from that point of view.
Love & rgds

In fact, what is thought or what is involved in thinking is one of the basic questions I've always sought an answer to. I think it has much to do with language. Please enlighten.

[zenzero]

Friend Venu,
I am not an authority on the subject; however to the best of my understanding:
Mind as such is not physical or any anatomical part of beings. Mind can be described as nothing but a chain of thoughts. Where does thoughts come from? Mind as you know has various layers like concious, sub-conciuos, unconcious/id and so it can come from anywhere. The unconcious is like our seed from our past lives. Thoughts are mainly in pictures the interpretation or decoding can be in any language one is familiar with in the present life, conciously. [makes no difference to thinking]
Now, by and by one has to claer the mind os all thoughts and then that will be a NO-MIND when the mind is still. Therefore constant awareness/meditation is required to slowly allow that awareness/conciousness to filter through all the layers of the mind so that no thoughts can originate on its own. If required the individual will control/direct the mind to do a certain job of thinking and bring out some facts & figures etc from memory.
However, if some aspect is not clear, kindly write about it; so that further discussion/clarification may be attempted.
Love & rgds

[K.Venugopal]

Dear Zenzero,

Somehow I had always connected proper thinking with language and I assumed that the best way to think is to have a sort of running commentary within one's mind and better the language or literary standards of my running commentary, the better would my thoughts be. It was not to be simply a talking to oneself off and on - I wanted it to be continuous, without a break. I have also, early on, called this continuous silent talking to myself CONTINUUM. Simply gave it a name as I did not want to confuse the activity with meditation. Many years down the line of continuum, I must say that I have become a somewhat restful and detached person. I can also see more and more plainly that everything is perfect, that there is nothing to do except relax and enjoy life. I wouldn't be surprised if continuum leads me to silence.

What do you make out of my continuum?

[koan]

One can't give up thinking. The art of no mind is to not let the mind rest on anything in particular. This is also called, the non abiding mind. This is different from non thinking. We in the west get caught up with some Eastern terms such as no mind. If we stop thinking we stop consciousness, if we stop consciouness, we're dead.

[zenzero]

Friend Koan,
Mind remains so does thinking.
Difference lies that whether you are led by your thoughts or are you thinking what you want to?
Only when the mind is tamed it can be put to rest or use when required till such times the mind guides the individual and so we see that most responses are like REFLEX ACTION. a simple word is enough to trigger and the guns are drawn, pulled etc.
Friend Venu,
What you are talking about in terms of CONTINUUM is probably CONTEMPLATION. Yes, from my own experience could say that it is the first stage when the mind does not react to the outer stimului but contemplates or thinks deepely into its pros and cons and then responds.
Next stage automatically when most routine stimulis are contemplated on then the mind does not have to go over it again and again unless some experience changes our earlier stance and so the mind is now more at rest at ease and slowly one is at peace as you state. The next stage is to bring about the awreness or peace of mind more and more at all times and that is meditation when one is aware of his own breathing, any thoughts crossing the mind, all that is happening around us etc. Finally we have to reach the stage when only the AWARENESS remains and nothing else.
You are on the right track. Just carry on and try to enhance awareness in daily life.
Please do not take whatever that is mentioned at face value unless it is your own experience.
Love & rgds