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Philosophy 312: Oriental Philosophy The View from Above: Moksa ( Moksha, Mukti) Abstract: By overcoming the limitations of personality, moksa can be realized. I. As human beings we are limited in many ways: we lack
physical, mental, and spiritual abilities. We error, we grow ill, we
die.
2. Psychological suffering and pain is more difficult to deal with--especially, personal losses.
b. If one can see things with empathy "under the aspect of eternity," one can truly experience joy at the victory of his opponent (cf., the final chapter of Siddhartha). One can see the inevitable narrowing of life's possibilities due to prior choices (e.g., compare the process of life to a chess game).
2. The shattering vision of unity--mystics claim transcendent knowledge is possible. 3. Evidence from academic psychology suggests that we are hardly aware of the possibilities of the human mind: hypnotism, meditation, collective unconscious, the idiot savant.
2. Intermediate level of consciousness: we identify ourselves with what we do, "show we are," and the roles we play. We shift identification away from the individual moment to see our life as a process. 3. Infinite level of consciousness: we do not identify ourselves with any particular set of experiences. There is a self which underlies my everyday self and yet endures through individual experiences. Compare this notion to the transcendental unity of apperception.
b. The Hindu epics relate many fables which illustrate the infinite level of consciousness. III. Moksa: "From Brahman to a grass blade, creation is for the benefit of the soul until supreme knowledge is obtained." Moksa is absolute freedom from ignorance, anguish, and death. Suffering is not part of the soul (Self) and is only part of human personality (the self).
Justice T. U. Mehta, "The Path of Arhat."
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Introduction | Siddhartha | Hinduism | Confucianism | Buddhism | Zen | Taoism |
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