(Basic contents: first, the last two of the three major ideas of the Upanishads: reincarnation liberation and the theory of material elements; second, the four stages of regenerative life)
Let's continue with the three major ideas of the Upanishads. The second reincarnation, liberation.
Look at this structural diagram of this Brahmanical theory.
Brahma gives birth to me, and I am reincarnated because of ignorance.
Once I have broken through my ignorance and truly understood the unity of Brahman and self, I will be able to liberate myself from samsara, return to brahmana, and attain eternal life.
A key question here is, how do you achieve true understanding? What about the true unity of Brahman and Self? It's easy to see and feel something that you can really understand. For example, this is a book, I read it and I am sure of it. But the Great Brahman, this thing, it does not belong to the phenomenal realm. That is, you can't find such a thing in the world, so how can I see it with my own eyes? The Great Brahma prescribes the world, but he himself is not in the world, as if it were beautiful. I can see all kinds of beautiful things, but how can I see beauty itself? The answer is actually very simple, you can't see it. What does not exist in this world, how do you see it? But while I couldn't actually see it, it didn't stop me from thinking I saw it. This may not be easy to understand, for example, you think you are defending justice, but in fact you may just be being used as cannon fodder. You think you're telling the truth outright, telling the truth, when in fact you're just people off. A lot of times, we think we're doing one thing, but what we're actually doing is another.
Specific to the Brahmins, although they thought they had seen the Brahman-Self Unity.
But what they're really doing is making themselves hallucinate by practicing yoga. Then they regarded the illusion of seeing it as the unity of Brahma and self, and they literally equated the two.
Explain what yoga is, yoga is also a popular form of fitness now. The word yoga (qié) is a polysyllabic word that can be pronounced qié as well as jiā. The word yoga, redaction is Yoga. So it may be closer to the French pronunciation to pronounce gajiā, but within Buddhism it is generally pronounced qié, and no one reads yoga jiā.
In ancient times, yoga, in addition to supporting arms and legs like the current gym, mainly emphasizes spiritual concentration, which can also be called a kind of concentration. Bring the spirit to a point and increase the intensity of awakening. The other is to control the breath in the body, the flow of life force, and so on.
Practicing this yoga may eventually have two effects. One is physical and one is mental. Physically it will leave you full of energy. Mentally it will make you more focused and may hallucinate at the same time. The problem is this illusion. According to those who have had the experience of Brahman-self unity, there are several phenomena when they reach the state of Brahma-self unity in concentration. The nose can smell strange flowers, the ears can hear beautiful music, the eyes can see golden or white light, and you can see many Hindu gods such as the corpse woman, Vishnu, Brahma, and so on. Obviously, this is all an illusion.
They deceive themselves and deceive others by practicing these illusions. Say that I have reached the state of Brahman-self unity.
The so-called liberation through illusion is something that we In Buddhism have always opposed. Brahmanism's enlightenment is false enlightenment, liberation is false liberation.
And then with regard to the cause of samsara, in addition to ignorance, there is also karma.
Let's say whether to be a man or a beast or ascend to heaven in the next life, what determines this?
It's about having this karma. Karma is all physical and mental activity and the effects they produce. The core idea is that good is rewarded with good, and evil is rewarded with evil.
If you do more good deeds, you will be able to become a human being and even ascend to heaven. If you do more evil deeds, you will become a beast.
Later religions in India absorbed this karmic doctrine, including our Buddhists. But the interpretations of what is good and what is evil are very different. The so-called good deeds of brahmans generally refer to obeying the religious regulations of Brahmanism, doing the obligations of each caste to study the teachings of Brahmanism, and knowing the brahman and self as one. Thus, the goodness of Brahmanism is entirely religious, not ethical. For example, if you help an old man cross the street, it is not necessarily good in brahmanism. For example, you are a Draupadi. The old man crossing the street is a moment of Dili, you go to help a try, the police will immediately arrest you, which hand you are holding, the left hand to cut the left hand, the right hand to cut the right hand.
You know what kind of caste you are, no, a lowly surname Shudra even Chadili, you dare to touch ah, you have lived enough.
It can be seen that Brahmanism, his so-called goodness is not really goodness. His teachings served solely to preserve the class privileges of the Brahmin caste.
Finally, a little bit of knowledge is the Brahmanical theory of the life forms of reincarnation. It is in the process of reincarnation, which appearances you may appear, whether man is a god or something. In fact, the six paths we talked about earlier are the Buddha's theory of the life form of reincarnation. Now let's talk about the Brahmins, the Brahmins speak three or four times.
The three dao refer to the Heavenly Dao, the Ancestral Dao, and the Beast Dao, and the four voices refer to fetal birth, egg birth, wet birth, and metamorphosis.
The path of heaven is to enter the Brahman realm after death and no longer suffer from reincarnation. The ancestral way is to be a human being, and the animal path is to be a beast.
Four births, fetal is mammals, oviparous is mainly birds, wet is born from toilets, carrion, grass and other places from moisture, such as moths, mosquitoes. In fact, these moths and mosquitoes are all egg-born, but the ancient people could not see such a small egg with the naked eye, and thought it was born from moisture.
Metamorphosis is born without a sound, that is, it is born without flickering.
This is basically this way of life in the hell realm and the celestial realm, but we can't confirm it. Samsara liberation, even if it is finished.
The Three Great Ideas of the Upanishads. The third is the theory of the elements of matter.
This is simply that the matter of the universe is composed of four most basic elements. Earth, water, fire, wind.
This thing reflects the attention that ancient humans began to pay attention to the composition of matter, and its significance is nothing more. Later Indian religions such as Buddhism and Shunshi theory absorbed the four major theories.
Thus the three programs of the Vedas, the three great ideas of the Upanishads, are all covered.
The Upanishads period is basically the same, and finally introduce a little knowledge, that is, the four stages of the rebirth of the life.
What is a regeneration family? I have talked about four castes before, the first three of which are the three castes of Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vedas, who can be reborn after death and can enter the cycle of three paths and four lives.
The fourth caste, The Shudra and the Untouchables, have only one lifetime. After they die, in Chinese parlance, the Yuan Gods are destroyed, their souls are scattered, and they bid farewell to this world completely. What are the four stages? It is the Sanskrit period, the home period, the forest perch period, and the ascetic period.
Let's say that the rebirth of the first three castes, their lives are divided into four stages. This life has to come this way, look at these four stages. In the first Brahmanic period, similar to the current student period, when the regenerating people reached a certain age, they had to study the Brahman Vedas, the Upanishads and other classical texts, ritual sacrifices and other languages, mathematics, and so on.
Second, the home period. At the end of the Sanskrit period, even if you become an adult, you can start a family, officially step into social work, get married and have children, and so on.
Third, the Forest Period is to wait until the children reach adulthood, they can hand over the family business to the children, and they can leave home and live in the jungle, live a reclusive life, concentrate on sacrifice, meditation, and thinking about the philosophy of life.
Finally, there is the period of asceticism, which is the final stage of life. At this time, people gave up all possessions to shave their hair, keep their vows, beg for food, and wear torn clothes. Begin asceticism in the effort to attain the ultimate Brahman-self unity.
These are the four stages of regenerative life. This four-stage is unimaginable to Chinese. When I am old, I have a good life, but I run to the woods to practice asceticism, and I run out everywhere to ask for food. This seems strange to Chinese, but India was.
From this four stages, you can feel the religious romantic temperament that Indians exude from their bones. The momentum of sacrificing oneself for the Word. At that time, the shamen or monastic atmosphere in India was quite strong. Therefore, the later Siddhartha Gautama, that is, the world's venerable, as a prince, resolutely became a monk, and the influence of this social atmosphere at that time was inseparable.
This period of the Upanishads is where it goes.
In this way, the history of Shakya before is finished, and in the next chapter we will begin to talk about primitive Buddhism.