Metal Enlightenment: Review of Heaven and Hell

The “Dio Era” of Black Sabbath returns under the guise of Heaven and Hell. The reunion of the geniuses behind albums such as, Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules, and Dehumanizer marks the revisiting of true metal music. This was exemplified by Heaven and Hell’s appearance at Irvine Meadows. The band, led by singer Ronnie James Dio, created a wall of metal that assailed the audience’s senses like the siren-seducing Odysseus. Tony Iommi, one of metal's greatest guitarists, shredded off more than a few blazing solos. Geezer Butler worked his fingers like a madman on bass. And the epically fast drummer, Vinny Appice, destroyed any noise ordinances within a five mile radius. The pinnacle of the concert was the band’s new take on their most famous song “Heaven and Hell.” There is only one thing to say about this return: hell yeah.
“Mob Rules” opened the night with Iommi’s guitar raging and Dio’s pristine vocals bellowing, which set the tone for a night full of flawless musicianship. The set list took off and they fell into the song “I.” Dio thundered on with his dark vocals about becoming a monster. The metal heads were pleased. Soon, the grand crescendo in “Sign of the Southern Cross”" melted the faces of 10,000 people, as Iommi and Butler took the forefront as master musicians. In between songs, Dio, being a gracious man, took the time to look at the audience and express his thankfulness.
By this point, the crowd was ready for one of the heaviest songs ever written, “Computer God.” It began with a heavy drag, which slowly became a blistering fire of metal music, illustrating a grim reality about computers taking over our souls. Dio muses, “This way to technical paradise, find it on the other side, when the walls fall down.” “Computer God” seemed to be the audiences’ favorite, judging by the pleased faces and excited hollers. Who could blame them? The song builds up to the fastest bass and drummer fusion I have ever heard. Right at the climax of the song, Vinny Appice and Geezer Butler wage a bass versus drum war. The sound waves shook my body. Butler soon finished his bass solo with a pulsating crescendo. Butler still raged on the drums with unexplainable speed.
The nail in my metal coffin was “Heaven and Hell.” It started slow, blossoming into a blues-hued instrumental, and then erupted into an onslaught of musical precision. On a brick, cathedral-themed stage with two castle doors, gothic wrought iron fencing, flaming lanterns and stained-glass window video screens, Iommi looked at home in his black leather jacket and gold cross necklace. As “Heaven and Hell” stormed he broke into a seven minute guitar solo. He strolled around the stage like a 17th Century vampire slayer, looking for the undead. Geezer and Butler did an incredible job keeping up with Iommi’s guitar, but they stayed back, letting the master execute his solo as sharp as guillotine. Iommi eventually slowed down and Dio retook the forefront with a blinding, white light coming from the heavens onto him. Dio rejected the light and the stage erupted into a fiery red, as if hells gates were opening on stage. This image is forever engrained in my brain as the greatest moment in concert history.
The band soon came to their encore, “Neon Knights.” Throughout the duration of the song, I could not focus because I was still thinking about the performance on “Heaven and Hell.” Even when I went to leave and tried to navigate through the crowds of drunk, ripped, stoned, or any-other-high-you-can-get people, I was still contemplating what I had just heard, seen, and felt. In awe, I later asked my friend, Dustin, how he felt about the concert. The only imagery he could give me is a Buddhist monk reaching enlightenment, while floating above the earth as waves and metal slam into his body. Metal enlightenment: the perfect way to explain the return of Dio with Black Sabbath.

The Called Out: Judaism

A. The followers of Judaism believe that there is one God, and from him we have nature and spirit. Nature and spirit must become one and life must become hallowed for God’s kingdom to become complete. To do this, God has elected to have man’s help in the hallowing of life. To cultivate man’s help, God has placed specific laws in the Torah in order to improve social fabric. The hallowing of life occurs through the Law. The Jews find meaning in God, because he is involved with all forms of nature and has sway over it. At the birth of Judaism, men of other civilizations would assign a god for each aspect of nature. The Jews believed there was only one God. This idea was revolutionary at the time. Unlike Greek gods, which saw nature as unworthy, the Jewish God viewed it as one of His good creations. Moreover, Judaism was radically different from the Hindu view—God as the world. The Jews saw a dualism with God and the world. God is separate from nature, but his divine hand is at work in it at all times. The reason God elects to work through nature is that he wants to have an intimate relationship with Man. This is why Jews find meaning in creations of God, because he works through them. Judaism is viewed as a material religion, because matter is a salient feature of the faith. The Jews believe nature can host the divine; therefore nature has a role in salvation. Humans play a role in the hallowing of life. Jews believe humanity is responsible for helping God ready nature for salvation. This must be done by Man’s freewill. This freewill becomes apparent when we look at the history of the Jews. This is based on their decisions to either move in the direction of God—in which God rewards them—or away from God—which results in suffering. A shift away from God warrants a lesson to be taught. The Jews invest a great amount of attention to their history because they believe God consistently has an active hand in their lives. God stands above them like a loving parent, disciplining them when needed. Man looks up at God in awe, as a child respects and looks for guidance from a father. According to the Jews, God gave man the power to change society for the better. The revolutionary idea that a king is equal to a peasant in the eyes of God showed how vulnerable anyone can be. Jews believe that God is wrathful at times to societies that allow their social fabric to become tainted. A good example is when Moses led the Jews out of Israel; God covered their path by bringing the Red Sea on the Pharaoh’s army. These themes of revolution and social upheaval force leaders to respect God’s word and his people for that matter. God doesn’t hide the fact that he wants man’s help in the hallowing of life. To the Jew, God has watched over them closely and is intimately involved in their story.

Genesis Rabbah 1:1 illustrates a king wanting to build an empire. The king does not grab a hammer and nail himself. He hires a craftsman to help him with his work. The craftsman does not build this empire by his own imagining. He looks at the blueprints the king has given him. The king can be interpreted as God trying to build his Kingdom, while the craftsman is humanity trying to help him complete it. The blueprints parallel the Torah because they lay down the Laws and foundation for what it takes to complete the kingdom. The craftsman has only one person to look at for guidance in the project and that is the king. Along the way, the craftsman may make mistakes or may deviate from the blueprint. In this case, the king will have to remind the craftsman that he was hired (created) by the king. This king is also intimately involved with the craftsman, because if he is not, the craftsman may feel neglected or overwhelmed by the project and quit.

B. God called out Abraham and told him he would be the Father of the Jews, and his son Isaac was the seed for an upcoming society. Abraham and his wife soon had Isaac and he was perfect. The boy was so perfect that Abraham loved him more than anything in the world. To be chosen required Abraham to experience a radical sacrifice. God revealed to Abraham that he wanted him to offer his perfect and only son as a sacrifice. Abraham was confused and disturbed, but he reluctantly left with Isaac and grimly walked to the mountain. When they arrived, Abraham was ready to burn Isaac. God, seeing Abraham’s devotion to him and his willingness to destroy all he loved for Him, called for him to stop and take a lamb instead. By calling out to Abraham, the Father of the Jews, he chose a people to serve him and lead the world in redemption. Isaiah thought the Jews answered God’s call and He established a covenant with them. It expressed that they were chosen to shoulder the suffering, which would have been experienced by more people if the world had heard the same call as Abraham. God has put the Jews through many trials, such as slavery, emanate extinction, and occupation. The story of the Jews has been one filled with suffering and sadness. Through this suffering new ideals of justice have been born unto the world. Through constant exodus, the Jews preached a prophetic principal that deduced a king’s power to that of peasant in the eyes of God. This idea of equality revolutionized the Western world; in that people no longer felt the need to submit to kings that are corrupt or exploitive and a revolutionary spirit was spread. God would not put up with uncompassionate governments. The Jews were chosen to fix the fabric that held society together. Ever since Abraham, the Jews have felt the suffering and awe he felt as he was about to light Isaac on fire. Through this suffering they found meaning, and forever changed the social fabric by reducing kings to men of God.

In the film The Matrix, Neo is a man living in the mundane. He spends his time pondering the meaning of reality and the fabled Matrix. One day, a man named Morpheus calls him out to free humanity from the Matrix, which enslaves Man’s mind in a virtual reality. Neo has the comforts of the mundane life, but is asked to sacrifice all he knows and feels to enter a foreign world. He must let go and sacrifice his life inside the Matrix to fulfill a prophecy. He does this in the form of a pill and he is taken to a cold world where humanity is enslaved and only a few, the people of Zion, are awakened. Soon, the forces require that Neo lead Zion to freedom from their enslavers. He does so with the help of his people. They suffer many casualties, even Neo himself is killed. Neo was chosen along with his people, as was Abraham, to save humanity, just as the Jews are chosen to be God’s leaders in the hallowing of nature. As God decreed to the Jews that all men are equal under Him, Neo strikes a truce with the enslavers and creates equilibrium between the rulers and the freed slaves.

C. Judaism champions the prophetic view of the redemption of the world. In the end of times, good and evil will still exist. The prophetic view allows evil to find a path to God. The apocalyptic view has an unmistakable schism between good and evil that can never be bridged. The apocalyptic camp considers the evil ones unredeemable and has themes of the world being doomed. On the side of the prophetic, the earth will be hallowed, God’s original plan for earth will be fulfilled, and His Kingdom will be complete. Apocalyptic views of nature consist of God abandoning nature and destroying it if evil has touched it. This poses a problem because it lets wickedness take control of nature. This poses the question: how powerful can God be if his creation can be stripped of him so quickly? The key to prophetic views of salvation are that people play a hand in it. God wills man’s help to prepare for the hallowing of life. There is no science to the world’s salvation; it is up to man and God. The apocalyptic view believes there to be a science to the end times and it is unalterable and unmovable. It takes man’s hand out of the equation, and it just happens. This is the main rupture Christianity has taken from Judaism. Martin Buber believes that early Christianity adapted the apocalyptic views from Iranian dualism, which has a very cyclical view of the end times.

In the film The Matrix Reloaded, Neo stands before the Architect and two doors. The first door leads to a complete reset of the Matrix, or reality. Everyone is affected by it and no one is left behind. The Architect informs Neo that the first door has been taken many other times, by his predecessors and the resetting of the Matrix is a normal, mathematically-controlled variable. This door is for the prophetic view because everyone is affected. Evil and good both receive the same ending. The next door is a path back into reality where Neo’s actions will affect the future of the Matrix. The Architect informs Neo that he will be driven by love if he chooses the second door. This door would be for the apocalyptic. Of course, Neo follows his heart and take the apocryphal path because it involves freewill, unlike the happy ending put forth by the prophetic views.

Critique:
The prophetic look at end times, as posed by Martin Buber, seems to lack the notion that man has been given undeniable freewill. As the prophetic view delves into the end times, we see a blurring of good and evil. Accordingly, evil can be led back to God, which poses a problem, because an evil person has made a choice to be evil. God puts the choice in front of man, to be good or evil; we do not draw sticks or roll dice to see which camp we belong to. We, as humans, can choose the path of good or evil. Why has God given us the choice if in the end we will all end up with him no matter what? The apocalyptic view holds freewill into account. It notes that a man has turned to evil by his own doing and at anytime can take the path back towards good. According to a Christian, if you choose evil you are damned, unless you take the path back to good. The prophetic views of end times are very accepting and show man that we can stray, but in the end, we will all be okay. There is no need for freewill if the greatest choice in our lives is void. It would make more sense in Judaism that God would hold good and evil accountable in the end. Jews should have a better understanding of God’s mercy and duality of justice because they feel they have experienced both intimately. It doesn’t make sense that God would plague Israel with a line of naïve kings, just for forgetting that He is their only king, but allow those who make a conscience choice to do evil deeds join him in the end. This is where the Christian and the Muslim worlds see the folly of the prophetic view and hold that evil will get what it deserves in the end.

Building the Table: Islamic Structure

A. According to Islam, Muhammad is the seal of the prophets. This means that Muhammad is a reassertion of God’s will and that he is the final prophet. Islam believes that Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Adam were all prophets, but that Muhammad was the culmination of their prophetic vision. They believe that the other prophets’ messages have been distorted through translations by the hand of man. Man’s involvement in the compiling of scriptures has disenfranchised them. This gives way for the Quran to build on those scriptures as the final word of God. This is what sets the Quran apart from pre-Islamic Abrahamic scriptures. The Quran is accepted as the direct word of God as recorded by Mohammed and his men. To a naysayer, this might appear to be a crazed man, running around telling others to record his channelings from God. Why did the direct word of God never come before? Muhammad believed humanity was not ready for it. To Muslims, the old prophets and scriptures were historically-based and simplistic so that humanity could grasp them at the time. Muhammad came along with the final revelations because humans were ready to hear it. Muhammad and Islam’s massive success didn’t come until the Hijra. Muhammad had a following in Mecca and the Meccan nobility was treating him and his people as a threat. Muhammad saw this and took a deal with Yarthrib, a city north of Mecca, to fix splitting factions within their leadership. The Muslims then migrated to Yarthrib, which later became Medina. This pilgrimage marked the start of the Hijra. During the Hijra, Muhammad became an excellent statesman and performed a miracle that united five tribes of the city, three of which were Jewish. Through his excellent state craft, he attracted people from all over Arabia. People flooded to Medina to see the prophet’s amazing governing abilities. Mecca was upset by this competition and sent armies to level Medina. After a couple battles, Muhammad counter-attacked Mecca and won. After speaking with the Meccan leaders he accepted the mass conversion of Mecca. The Hijra turned Muhammad into a world leader of sorts; by his death, he controlled most of Arabia. Even years after his death, armies of Muslims conquered most of the Middle East and Africa. Muhammad readied Islam to spread as easily as the wind blows.

The story of Abraham and Ishmael is a good example of Muhammad’s Hijra. Abraham has a son with servant Hagar, named Ishmael. He does so because his wife, Sarah, is unable to bear children. Many years later, Sarah surprisingly gives birth to Isaac. God soon tells Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael into the desert with God's protection. Just as Muhammad had been cast out of Mecca, Ishmael was cast from his home. Muhammad ended up returning to Mecca and taking it back. Ishmael also made it to Mecca and is credited with building the foundations of the Ka'aba, just as Muhammad had built the foundations for Islam in Mecca. To reverse this example, Abraham and Isaacs’s relationship is another illustration of Muhammad’s claim to being the seal of the prophets. God promised Abraham that Isaac would be the seed of a great nation, and when he was born Abraham though he was perfect. He bore everything a son needed to be and was the seal of Abraham’s seed. Abraham then chose to send Ishmael, his eldest son, into the desert. Muhammad’s importance as the seal of the prophets is like Isaac in the eyes of Abraham. A perfect son that created a great nation. This parallels Muhammad’s creations through direct messages from God.

B. The ummah is the Muslim community. Allah works through the ummah to raise people’s eyes up to Heaven. Islam means unity and Allah expects Man to look higher than the kings, and have their eyes on Him. The Five Pillars of Islam are built on ummah. They reflect the trials and experiences Muhammed encountered with the early Islamic Ummah. To gain admittance to the community, one must first accept the Shahadah or Islamic creed that Allah is the only God and Muhammad was his prophet. This must be done on an individual basis. Another individualistic task is the daily prayers; they constantly remind Muslims that they must submit before Allah. By having each person perform this prayer at the same time, the community keeps their social dealings in perspective with God. Ramadan fosters compassion and social cohesion through fasting. By fasting, they not only commemorate Muhammed’s revelation and Hijra, but also pull Muslims together to feel the hunger of the poor. This leads into the next pillar of Zakat, or charity. The Quran specifies that a basic tax of 2.5% must be given to the poor and hungry. The final pillar, which best represents the spirit of the Islamic community, is the Hajj. This pilgrimage back to Mecca champions equality among the Muslims and shows their ability to stand as a community under Allah. These five pillars provide a simple groundwork to identify oneself as a Muslim on a broad level. The day-to-day laws of the ummah are the shari‘a. The shari‘a gives guidance from the Quran and the Hadith to lawmakers, so that they can better institute Islamic law. The ummah must be united under these laws to exist. The culmination of these laws creates a universal brotherhood among Muslims. The ummah is connected among people, not countries. It has no national boundaries. The laws and pillars of Islam provide unity among all Muslims, unlike many religions which only direct the individual’s path.

For the purpose of this example, we shall assume that a table needs and relies on five legs to stand. The legs are the five Pillars of Islam. Attached at the top of the legs is a broad table top. This table top represents the Islamic law, Shari ‘a. Standing on top of the table is the Islamic ummah, which requires the table’s support to stay connected. If a pillar falls off or the table top cracks, it could all fall down. To prevent this from happening, the table needs constant repair and upkeep by the people standing on it. Through this constant upkeep, the ummah is formed through an interconnecting brotherhood that depends on the table.

C. Ali is the origin of the Shi’a and Sunni split. Sunnis view Ali as the fourth and last of the caliphs following on from Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman. Sunnis believe that the caliphs are to be chosen by the community; blood ties with Muhammad is not a requirement. Shi’as believe that Ali was the first caliph and because of this, the caliphate only passes through direct descendants of Mohammed. Uthman was murdered and Ali became caliphate. Ali soon had to fight Mu'awiya Ummayad who refused to recognize Ali as the Caliph. Ali compromised with Mu'awiya, and upset his supporters, who felt betrayed and killed him. Mu'awiya declared himself to be the caliph. Mu'awiya finally died and his son, Yazid, took over the caliphate. Hussein, Ali’s son, led an army against Yazid, but he was slaughtered and beheaded. Hussein’s death was the final divide between the Shi’a and Sunni. The Shi’a believe that imam is the spiritual leader of the community. Ali was the first imam and his successors were the only true imams. The imam tradition ended with Muhammad al-Mahdi al Hujja, who disappeared in a cave, but would reappear every once in a while. He finally appeared for the last time as the Mahdi, or expected one. This was the golden age of Shi’a Islam. Now, the imam’s influence is representative and there is no physical imam living. Sunnis, on the other hand, look at the imam as just a person who leads services at a mosque. The theological differences of Sunni and Shi’a are minor. The basis of the two tribes’ division is a historical and political feud.

Imagine there is a faceless coin. This coin is Islam. The coin is shared by two friends who mean for the coin to be equal forever. One day, the friends have an argument and one of them stamps his face on one side claiming ownership of the coin. The other friend is upset by this and stamps his face on the other side. Now, the coin is split because of a feud and the coin adorns two faces. Though at the root, it is still a coin. This illustrates the Sunni and Shi’a split over the caliphates. They may look different and on the surface seem to be different, but they are still Islam.

Critique:
My biggest problem with Islam is that it proposes kingdoms and countries be run by Islamic law. The Quran’s laws are a product of their time. Back when Muhammad started receiving Allah’s message, Mecca was a distraught and corrupt place. Mass orgies, lawlessness, and other social dysfunctions were commonplace. Islamic law is based on the eradication of these corruptions. The world is a little more stable now, but Middle Eastern countries still use this Islamic law to rule their people. The wealthy leaders of Saudi Arabia use it to keep lower classes poor and keep themselves rich. Sudanese warlords use it as an excuse to slaughter thousands of innocent people. Who are the people to argue Islam’s law when interrupted by a dictator? The fact that the Quran is the direct word of God strikes fear into the people who challenge the dictator’s reign of exploitation. If the world leaders were true to the Quran and sought to fight hunger and poverty, then we wouldn’t see the large poverty rates in Islamic countries where the leaders live with the spoils of ancient kings as they step on the backs of the people. We see this happening in the west as well, but it’s not under the façade of divinity. The use of Islamic law would be more acceptable if leaders were companionate and cared for their people. Unfortunately, this is not the case; they only care about their riches and use Islam to extort the people. The post-colonial world isn’t so romantic and leaders don’t lease with their heart. They lead with ideas of power and wealth.

That Which Cannot Be Described

A. All things start with Brahman, the infinite. One does not describe Brahman by what it is, but by what it isn’t. Brahman is the state which all subjective and objective distinctions are annihilated. Brahman is the experience of being. To be, we must start with nirguna Brahman. nirguna Brahman is Brahman without qualities—a transcendent state of being with no distinction. Furthermore, nirguna, as an experience, is one where all things and their definitions are overcome. When the formless nirguna becomes neguna, the material realm takes form. Samsara is the material realm where life extinguishes and is reborn. Brahman in form is seguna Brahman. Seguna is all that we are aware of and how we experience life. Nirguna and seguna are one and that one is many. If everything we perceive comes from a formless state of being and is given characteristics when it creates manifestations in the material realm (samsara) and becomes the same state of being, but with qualities, we have an instance of “God as the world.” God as the world is expressed by the relationship of seguna and nirguna Brahman because God takes on all manifestations in the world, but still remains the same source. With the creation of samsara, it is easy for humans to fall victim to maya, the occasion for illusion. All we may see and worship is samsara or the image of ourselves. We forget our dependence on the infinite to live and believe we have total control over our own destiny. We forget that we are all part of Brahman when we die. The finite is destroyed, but the infinite still remains.

The relationship of nirguna and seguna can be illustrated by light passing through a prism. The white formless light is nirguna. This light passes through the prism, representative of seguna, and manifests into a spectrum of all colors to make samsara. The colors take on different characteristics after passing through the prism, but they still remain of the formless white light. Another example would be a boat. The boat is made of wood, but do we call the boat wood? No, we call it a boat. If the boat is destroyed, it becomes what it once was, wood. Wood as the boat. God as the world.

B. To reach Brahman, one must recognize and shed maya. Maya is the occasion for illusion. The occasions cause our minds and the jiva—our personal souls or the self—to become entangled. This ignorance is the cause of “material experiences” in the corporal world. Humans, under the spell of maya, feel they are limited by the material world. This illusion of Brahman as the seen world results in human emotions like sadness, happiness and fear. The jiva can become bound to maya. When maya constrains the self, then the Atman, or the true Self or God within, is not seen. Maya hides the one Atman and makes it appear as several Atmans, each in a single body. When maya is destroyed, the jiva can see Atman is one in the same as Brahman and ignorance is lost. Karma’s relationship to the jiva is through a person’s deeds. Karma can be defined as the moral law of cause and effect. Karma says that man’s actions have consequences but are arrived at freely. Thus, a jiva has the choice to act out of self-gratification or compassion. Each time one acts out in a negative manner, bad karma will cling to Atman and remain there as a blemish on the Self. A life of good deeds leads to rebirth in a better life, and foul deeds lead to a lower existence.

An example of maya can be demonstrated in a simple story of a man in the woods. One day, a man walking in a forest spots a snake on the ground. The man reels and is ready to stomp the snake dead, but then realizes it is actually a rope. The man calms down and the adrenaline subsides. The snake represents the occasion for illusion. Maya made the man’s adrenaline rush; it masked his vision so that he could only see what he thought was fact. He did not see the truth that there was no snake. His ignorance of what was the case and attention to his own mental construct rendered him physically sick and potentially a fool. Karma can be visualized by a man who buys things to please himself until they eventually surround him. He becomes trapped, as he is no longer himself but the things he owns. The man’s deeds trapped his Atman behind scars and blemishes so that it is too blind to realize its oneness with Brahman.

C. The blemishes of karma stain the soul if one cannot break the world of maya. Moksha must seem very far off. Moksha is liberation from samsara and all the suffering of the material world. An essential path to moksha would be that of the four yogas. Bhakti yoga is the most popular of the four. It is a discipline that consists of constantly loving and remembering God in all mortal actions. To master it, one must love God, not for personal gain but for love’s sake alone. It strives to ultimately connect with manifestations of seguna Brahman.
A follower of bhakti yoga would put God in his or her everyday life by singing or repeating His name, making God a friend to have an internal and loving relationship with, and being totally absorbed in Him. Surrounding oneself with Him is a path to become closer to Him.
Jnana yoga is attaining moksha through the path of knowledge and tries to attain oneness with nirguna Brahman. Jnana yoga is for the reflective minded to look at the self’s actions and liberate the self from the temporal. To reach moksha, a master of jnana yoga must attain the “me, I’m not” way of thinking and see past the self, onto what is past the worldly.
A Jnana yoga disciple would detach himself or herself from the earthly self. One way of doing this is by reflecting on actions in the third-person and analyzing them. For instance, if one were to get angry, one would not let oneself get lost in the anger. Instead, this person would realize that he or she is feeling anger and reflect on why that may be. This will help someone following jnana to detach themselves from the material and feelings brought up by the material.
Karma yoga is focused on liberation through one’s actions as expressed in the Bhavagad Gita. One can attain moksha by performing his or her duties selflessly and without becoming attached to the fruits of labor.
An example of karma yoga in practice would be a person who acts so they are not rewarded by the material but by how their actions are sacrifices for God and do not swell the ego. Those who live modest lives of service represent this behavior.
Raja Yoga is primarily concerned with the mind or the psychophysical. Raja yoga emphasizes the relationship between mind and body and the need to learn self-discipline. The main tool of raja yoga is meditation. To meditate successfully, one must master eight steps, starting with being able to ignore physical and mental distractions and ending with a state of samadhi. Samadhi is the deepest state of meditation and one of the last precursors to moksha.
A raja yoga disciple would attain moksha by disciplining the mind to drop the self and would perfect the paradox of seeing the invisible.



Critique of part A:
Most dualist ideals concerning salvation and “heaven” would not agree in the principle of God living as the world. In Christianity, we are at home when we are with God in heaven, while God has no home on earth. That means God is related externally to the earth. Hindu thought believes we are God before we are born, when we are on earth, and when we die. This directly relates to the Atman, which a dualist has a hard time understanding. The duelist would only consider the jiva and Brahman, leaving the interconnecting Atman out of the equation. Thus we are never a part of God. Therefore, the world and God exist independently. To a duelist “God as the world” is placing too much power in man. If one says “God is me,” then might this person also claim, “I am God”? That may not be the case, but someone could draw that conclusion, because the line between God and man is blurry in Hinduism.

Buddhism Paper "That Which Cannot Be Titled"

A. Siddhartha Gautama transformed into Buddha—the enlightened one—after 49 days of intense meditations and the battle against Mara the Evil One. Once he achieved enlightenment, his first sermon explained the Four Noble Truths: life is dukkha (suffering), the root of all suffering is tanha (desire), to defeat dukkha one must destroy tanha, and to destroy tanha one must follow the Eightfold Path. Buddha did not speak of suffering in the physical sense, such as pain, hunger, and sickness. There is no way of escaping these human conditions. If there is no escape from these sufferings, then the last two Noble Truths are fallacies, because following the Eightfold Path does not prevent hunger. The dukkha Buddha refers to is suffering upon suffering, or suffering of the spirit. This pain roots from tanha, or desire. Here, desire means to fulfill the ego’s needs. The quest for personal fulfillment causes dukkha, because one sees the world in his or her own projections and not what is the case. If we only seek the satisfaction of our egos, we will suffer. This behavior will create a rift between the interconnectedness of the world and our own egos. To be content, one must seek and act as if one is connected to all others and one must work with compassion. Acting in compassion and not personal desire will limit material feelings and suffering will subside. In order to defeat the ego’s embellishment of desire or anger, one can look at his or her psyche objectively. This will put the mind and heart ahead of the ego so that it can be analyzed. Thus, one will learn to free themselves from the confinements of desire.
“Trading Dialogue for Lodging” in Zen Flesh, Zen Bones illustrates a case of someone living with tanha and experiencing dukkha. A dumb, one-eyed monk has a wordless argument with a wandering monk over lodging. The wanderer held up one finger signifying the Buddha, and the one-eyed idiot—not able to think beyond his own perceptions—thought that the one finger signified his one eye. The one-eyed man holds up two fingers to signify the wanderer has two eyes; the wandering man thinks he is signifying Buddha and his teachings. So the wanderer holds up three to show Buddha, his teachings, and his followers. Of course, the not- too-bright monk believes the fingers represent that they have only three eyes between them. Offended, he gets ready to punch the wanderer. The clenched fist shows the wanderer that the Buddha, the teachings, and the followers are all one. He feels that he lost the argument and departs. This story juxtaposes an individual who is able to look past his ego and who is not seething in suffering with someone who does live in suffering as a result of allowing a handicap to dictate how he perceives the world. The one-eyed monk is so caught up in his handicap, he become spiritually handicapped and limits his mind to the material. He cannot step back and think of himself objectively; he only lives within his perceptions.

B. A common method of Zen Buddhism is the use of koans. A koan is a puzzle with no apparent trick. This definition only scratches the surface. In practice, it is a way to exhaust rational thought or shock the mind out of the rational level. A Zen master will ask a student to explain the sound of one hand clapping. The mind has no rational answer for this and there never will be. However, through the deep act of trying to rationalize it, one will exhaust the rational. This opens the mind to a revelation. This revelation is satori. Satori is a flicker of enlightenment, where one sees beyond the rational and material. After the mind loses its rational thought process, a door is opened so that a Zen student can find the true answer which he seeks. One may attain satori only for an instant. Just because a person reaches satori once, this does not mean that he or she is enlightened.

Satori is an ongoing quest—one that will not end until death. It can be described as a light bulb flickering: when it is off the rational mind blinds you, when it is on the light hits you and you attain satori for that instance, until the light is turned off again. In Zen Flesh, Zen Bone the story “Three Days More” depicts a student who returns to his master upset that he cannot answer what the sound of one hand clapping is like. The master sends him back to keep meditating on the matter, but the student still cannot attain enlightenment. Finally, the master tells him that if he doesn’t have an answer after three more days, he should commit suicide. The student becomes enlightened on the second day. The impending doom of suicide shocked the student’s mind into letting go of the rational and finding the truth, leading to satori.

C. The split in Buddhism occurred over fundamental arguments about humanity’s lot in the universe. Are we independent or dependent? Are we to give into the mind or the heart? Buddhism grew into division based on questions such as these. The larger branch is the Mahayana, or the “Great Raft.” The Mahayana believe Buddha is to be followed by example not by the Pali Canon (Buddhist scriptures). They also believe that Buddha did not stay in Nirvana; he came back to help others attain enlightenment. Buddha is Christ-like in that he is a savior and that Buddhists look to his image for guidance. The Mahayana contend that we must look at the compassionate side of Buddha, not so much at the expansion of the mind and wisdom-seeking aspects. The Theravada, the smaller group, looks at the wise and heavy-minded side of Buddhism. Buddha, to the Theravada, dissipated from the world when he went into Nirvana. They would also say Buddha was only a man, not a God or Savior. They follow his teachings rather than exemplifying his life. This explains why they follow the Pali Canon so rigidly. While the Theravada believe that followers must reach enlightenment by themselves, the Mahayana believe reaching enlightenment should be a group effort because all life is connected. According to followers of Mahayana Buddhism, if someone reaches enlightenment, then they will renounce it and help others attain it, becoming a bodhisattva. The Mahayana way is based on cultivating the compassion to let go of the personal quest to reach Nirvana in order to help others. The Theravada believe that the individual must seek wisdom as the prime attribute to enlightenment. They shall reach Nirvana alone and transcend into an Arhat. Even the goals of the Mahayana and the Theravada differ. The Mahayana want to help everyone reach enlightenment together, but the Theravada feel that it is an individual quest to pass into nirvana.

Six Buddhist monks, three Theravada and three Mahayana, were told that they must have a foot race across the desert and the end of the race is enlightenment. The race was epic. The monks ran as fast as their legs could go, all equally set on reaching enlightenment. None of them were able to pull ahead. Dust streams followed their feet as if they wore the winged sandals of Hermes. As they approached the finish line, a Theravada monk felt something awaken in his mind and he felt unworldly speed and he pulled ahead. At the same time, one Mahayana monk felt an awakening in his heart and shifted into the lead as well. The dust from their feet choked the other four monks. They all fell to the ground and tumbled, receiving many injuries. The line of enlightenment was looming ahead and the Theravada monk looked back at the fallen monks. He shrugged as he crossed into enlightenment. The Mahayana monk saw that his comrades had fallen and stopped at the line. He watched the Theravada monk disappear into the unknown, and then looked back at the four monks lying under the desert sun—a sun with the inferno to make any man burn to death in hours. The Mahayana monk turned from Nirvana and ran back to his brothers in order to assist them on their way to the finish line. That way, they will not be lost forever.

Critique of part C:
Theravada Buddhism seems to ignore the compassionate side of Siddhartha Gautama’s life. Their individualistic focus seems at odds with Buddha’s love for all people and becomes elitist in practice. If enlightenment were to be an individual task, then why didn’t Buddha do as Mara the Evil One said and just cross over and be dead to the material world? He wanted to share his experiences and philosophies on life with others. Even if Theravada Buddhists were to rigidly follow the Pali Canon, they would still find Buddha’s ideas of interconnectedness. They recognize the Four Noble Virtues, two of which are compassion and joy in the happiness of others. Yet, they chose to ignore it in their philosophy and turned Nirvana into a selective concept. Only the elite can make it, and the elite will never look back on his or her brothers and help them find their way.

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