The last "Way to God" is "through Psychophysical Exercises". This path is for the scientific and experimentally minded. It involves doing experiments on yourself rather than on Earth like typical sciences would have you do. This talks about the self as having four layers. The first layer of course is our body. Second is our
mind. Third is the conscious layer of our minds. Which is furthered by the subconscious that is being aware of something at an unaware level, another words it's in the brain yet not recognized yet. In this path their are eight steps to it's attainment. the first and second are common to all four "yoga�s" "Step one involves
the practice of abstentions, step two, the five observances (cleanliness, contentment, self-control, studiousness, and contemplation of the divine)". Step three is to keep the body focused on the mind and not on the body. Step four is to control your breathing. Step five is to get to a point where you are not bothered by anything, for instance in the text it talks about a wife not hearing what her husband said yet the sound waves were picked up
in the ear. So in other words get to a point where you can cause yourself to purposefully not hear other things. The sixth step is to be alone in the mind. The seventh is to focus on a singular object until it takes over the persons entire attention until step eight when the object vanishes and you are realizing that since it
is finite it will decay and go away yet you remain in your infinite state.
Hindus view life as getting to know what they truly are. They feel that is their whole entire purpose is to know the inner self and know God. They feel that their is only one God and you can get to
God through their path or any of the other religious paths their are. They feel different religions are their to suffice for the different people groups their are, races, age, geographical
location, and etc. They feel that everyone has their place in life and some are given more benefit then others yet you should still always make the best out of what's given to you. For those in leadership roles should not lead people under them astray, hence they are disciplined more severely then those would be for the same
penalties that are below them in caste. They feel that all Hindus and etc. should go about their path to find God no matter what. They feel that all being and things have a place in this world and that we are not alone in universal ness. They believe that their is a heaven earth and a hell earth which we go through in our different
lifetimes. One must continue their goal for attainment to move up in the different earth levels. At least this is what I understand of it all.
I�m really not sure if Hinduism can altogether be a unified religion or that of a philosophy. What I mean by this is they feel that there are many ways to God and that all religions can lead to God. What I take from that is that I could be a Hindu Christian basically if I follow their tenets or philosophy and yet maintain my faith of believing in Christ. I�m not sure how well this would go but that is what I get o
Question 7:
After Buddha�s death a split was formed into the religion into two major groups, the Theravadas and the Mahayanists. I will lay out the major differences as stated in Smith's book. Theravada's believe that progress is made in the individual effort, for Mahayanists it is a "field phenomenon" or what I take is something that just happens" Theravadas see individuals as on their own in the universe with no god or even the Buddha�s there to help them in their quest where Mahayanists believe that they are their to help them. Theravadas believe the major part of enlightenment is wisdom where Mahayana's believe it is compassion. The "sangha or the Buddhist monastic order is at the heart of
Theresavadas. Where Mahayanists believe the religion is for laypeople. Theravadas believe that the perfected disciple is one who goes into nirvana alone where Mahayanists is someone who reaches the brink of nirvana pulls out and offers it to others. Theravadas believe Buddha was a saint and for Mahayanists believe he was a savior.
After this split the Mahayanists introduced Confucianism into Buddhism and that involved Taoism as well took place in Tibet. This mergence occurred after the Communist takeover in China and amongst the Ch�an and Zen sect in Japan. These teachers follow a teaching of Buddha�s flower sermon in which he held a golden lotus and this taught as the secret of Zen from the way I understand it and hence became Zen Buddhism. It is a secretive religion almost as given in the book whenever asked what is Zen masters would do all sorts of different things to the person but never actually respond to their question with an answer. Yet they are very intelligent and put on tests for each other to see if the other one will crack and give in to denying their faith or saying something they�ll regret.
The next form of Buddhism is Tantra Buddhism or the Vajrayana the Diamond thunderbolt way. This was also found in Tibet mostly and is Sanskrit rooted. There are two meanings of Tantra which means extension and interrelation of things. Tantra Buddhism is somewhat mistakenly known as an extremely sexual religion, in Smiths book he addresses that yes they do have sexual clauses in their religion but most religions embrace sex and sexuality in their religion as one of the gifts given to us. But also in Tantra is the aspect of focusing on their inner self and what they speak, see, and act. This is the area of Buddhism that has the Dalai Lama.ut of it.