Thoshi Takeuchi: "The truths espoused in Christianity are appearing to me the same truths that are taught in Hinduism or Buddhism.”
"It is very interesting, because I was initially driven away from Christianity because of the dogma that you must put your faith in God/Jesus before you will be shown the way. However, the Eastern tradition is different. In the Kena Upanishads, it states very clearly that only way to experience the true power, God (Brahman), is to experience the realization firsthand. However, one important difference in the text is that that the way toward this realization is meditation. Thus you will experience the nature of reality and Truth through the practice of meditation. This idea is much more appealing to my scientific train of thought, rather than the dogma that faith must come before the experience. It does not say that I must believe in something to find Truth. It says that you must practice (meditation) in order to find the Truth.”Thoshi Takeuchi's Upanishads
"The Upanishads may seem somewhat more difficult to grasp compared
with the Dhammapada. At least they are certainly more difficult for
me to understand. Unlike the Dhammapada, which outlines a philosophy
and practice, the Upanishads describe experiences and realizations by
a number of ancient sages (gurus). The goal of the text may be to
help the reader in the path towards spiritual enlightenment by
describing many of the experiences along the way.
The way I have approached these texts is to read them and obtain
understanding of these works at whatever level I can. Some parts make
sense, while other aspects do not make sense to me. However, I found
that when I reread the texts at a later time, I can appreciate and
understand more because of the experiences I have gained in the
intervening time.
I think the way NOT to approach these texts is overanalyzing or
trying to obtain logically consistent ideas (because they were
written by many people). Similarly I would not take the opposite
approach and believe and follow everything in the texts without a
basis of personal experience to help back up the teachings. The
experience is an essential part of the understanding...
The Kena Upanishad
The Kena Upanishad addresses some of the deepest questions of
spirituality and mankind. What is life? What is thought? What is
consciousness? What does any of this have to do with religion,
spirituality or philosophy? In this Upanishad, the dialogue occurs
between a student and a teacher. The student wonders for example,
"Who makes my mind think? Who fills my body with vitality?”The
answer to these questions as explained by the teacher is that our
Self is that part of us that IS.
The Self cannot be seen, heard, smelt, tasted, or touched. The Self
cannot be known by the intellect or understood by the mind. It is a
strange paradox that we may want to understand our true Self, but the
Self is so difficult to find.”There is only one way to know the
Self, and that is to realize him yourself.”
The question that may arise in our mind is, what is this"Self", and
why would we want to strive to realize it? The first aspect is that
deep driving quest for Truth within all of us. If by achieving and
realizing the Self, we achieve awareness of reality, then that in
itself is a wonderful quest! The second point is that by
understanding ourselves, we go beyond the cycle of birth and death.
Birth and death are meaningless when we are in contact with Reality.
Thus the Kena Upanishad is not wonderful for the practicality as with
the Dhammapada but is wonderful because it inspires the seeker by
acknowledging the quest for Truth and pushes us to desire to achieve
this Truth.
The second part of the Kena Upanishad describes a story where the
gods defeated the demons, but these gods (Agni, god of fire; Vayu,
god of air; and Indra, leader of gods) got arrogant and decided that
the power of Good was theirs and that power and glory were theirs
alone. Thus the true spirit and power (Brahman) taught these gods a
lesson. Brahman showed them that the true power comes from the power
of the Self, and not from the gods themselves.
It is the power of Brahman that makes
The mind to think, desire, and will.
Therefore
Use this power to meditate on Brahman.
He is the inmost Self of everyone;
He alone is worthy of all our love.
Meditate upon him in all. Those who
Meditate upon him are dear to us all.
This passage raises a very interesting point about Hinduism. Although
Hinduism is a pantheistic religion with multiple gods, everything and
everyone (including all of us) receives their power from our true
Self, that which is Brahman. From this sense, the Brahman, the Self,
is the true God, while the other gods are simply manifestations of
the Self in lesser forms.”Agni, Vayu, Indra?these three excel Among
the gods because they realized Brahman.”
The Upanishad ends:
Those who realize Brahman shall conquer
All evil and attain the supreme state.
Truly they shall attain the supreme state!
These statements are extremely interesting because they say that the
power of the gods (and all of us) are derived from the Self, the
Brahman. The ability of the gods Agni, Vayu, and Indra to be powerful
and defeat the demons was because these gods excel in the
understanding of our true Self. The corollary to these statements is
that if we can find our true Self, then we will be in contact with
what gives the power to the gods, and therefore we can"conquer all
evil.”
I will state this again, because it is so important:
If we can find our true Self, then we will be in contact with what
gives the power to the gods, and therefore we can"conquer all evil.”
This statement might be interesting to some as an ego trip or as a
power boost. However, that is not the idea behind this Upanishad.
Agni, Vayu, and Indra were taught a lesson because of their power
trip. The idea behind this principle lies in the power of inspiration
and renunciation. We are honored when we truly understand our
relationship to the Universe and attain power, not as an individual
entity, but as part of the greater whole.This realization of Truth is
the goal, and through understanding this Truth, we can understand and
overcome any obstacles. I personally find this idea inspiring, and
appears to have many similarities to Christian ideas and principles.
(I am the way)
It is very interesting, because I was initially driven away from
Christianity because of the dogma that you must put your faith in
God/Jesus before you will be shown the way. However, the Eastern
tradition is different. In the Kena Upanishads, it states very
clearly that only way to experience the true power, God (Brahman), is
to experience the realization firsthand. However, one important
difference in the text is that that the way toward this realization
is meditation. Thus you will experience the nature of reality and
Truth through the practice of meditation. This idea is much more
appealing to my scientific train of thought, rather than the dogma
that faith must come before the experience. It does not say that I
must believe in something to find Truth. It says that you must
practice (meditation) in order to find the Truth.
However, now that I have practiced meditation for many years, I find
that I am becoming more devotional and spiritual. The truths espoused
in Christianity are appearing to me the same truths that are taught
in Hinduism or Buddhism. Thus, I will say to those seekers on the
path of meditation, continue with the meditation and see how your
view of reality changes with time. Do not deny your rational and
skeptical thought (I cannot, after all, I am a scientist :-);
however, at the same time, keep an open mind.”
Toshi Takeuchi
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