Sublime

religious texts, nor by mere logic or inference, nor by considering appearances, nor by the delight in speculative opinions, nor by seeming possibilities, nor by the idea: ‘this is our teacher’. But, O Kālāmas, when you know for yourselves that certain things are unwholesome (akusala), and wrong, and bad, then give them up . . . And when you know

Axial Age philosophies such as Confucianism kept the realm of gods quite separate from worldly changes, although an impersonal moral order of Heaven was certainly relevant to it. The Buddha was still more skeptical and denied any form of transcendent Being, even though the ultimate truth and morality…

Some highlights have been hidden or truncated

If nirvana is related to the cessation (nir-) of turnings (vritti), the term is synonymous with the aim of yoga, defined in the Yogasutra as citta vritti nirodha–the cessation of turnings of the mind. These “turnings” are the thoughts whereby the mind endeavors to grasp the world and itself. Yoga is the practice of trying to stop these thoughts by

Elsewhere the Buddha explains this famous simile in which his teaching is compared to a raft for crossing over, and not for getting hold of and carrying on one’s back:

Sunyavada is trying to set in motion with its philosophy of total negation.

Moved by a zeal and reverence for facts, they have tried to see, understand, and face life as it is without wishful thinking. Yet for all that they have done to improve the conditions of life, their picture of the universe seems to leave the individual without ultimate hope. The price of their miracles in this world has been the disappearance of

However, the Buddha did not deny consciousness it self. To do so would have been to side with those nihilists who held that nothing remained after death.

The human principle is known as simplicity: freedom from concepts, freedom from trappings.