Teachings II

Atman: each organism has an individual soul.

Brahman-Atman: each individual soul is identical with the one transcendent reality.

Anatta: there are no individual souls.

Each teaching follows after the previous one although the third contradicts the first! The second and third teachings deny separate selfhood whereas the first might seem to imply it.

The three teachings are different narratives about consciousness whereas meditation is an experience, not a narrative.

Teachings

Krishna: karma yoga (nonattached action);

the Buddha: meditation;

Jesus: the kingdom (a new society and a new consciousness).

Krishna is an Indian god.

Jesus was a new god in the Roman Empire.

Mythologically, the Buddha is a teacher of gods and men.

We approach a new society through karma yoga and a new consciousness through meditation.

False And Truer Gods

False gods are projected from greed, hate and delusion.
A bigot's god saves only the bigot and his co-believers.
The bigots' heaven would be hell for anyone else.
However, heavens and hells are myths.

Truer gods are projected from aspiration and compassion.
They reflect reality and express transcendence.
False and truer gods can have the same names.

Beginnings

The First Book of Moses, Genesis, begins:

"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth..."

The Fourth Gospel, John's, begins:

"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."

The Yoga Sutras begin:

"This is the beginning of instruction in yoga.
"Yoga is control of thoughts."

Patanjali begins with meditation, not with God.

In order to formulate a theoretical basis for meditative practice, Patanjali adopted a philosophical system that was neither monist nor no-soulist but atheist and soul-pluralist. However, also wanting to incorporate devotional theism as a kind of meditation, he defined God not as a Creator but as a discarnate soul. Ingenious.

The philosophical system that I accept, dialectical materialism, incorporates monism and no-soulism without rebirth -

monism: being is one;
materialism: it became conscious;
no-soulism: consciousness is not separate.