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If you tighten the string too much it will snap and if you leave it too slack, it won't play.

Keanu Rives playing the role of Siddhartha Gautama. Basically, it is a good movie, but there are some … unexplained scenes.

In the one above, Buddha was doing Tapas, in a forest, aiming to improve control of he’s mind, so how Patanjali prescribe from the second sutra of Yoga Sutra (citta vrtti nirodha) and the story line say that this lead to the depravation of the body and missing the true target (which is supposed to be achieving Moksha, later named Nirvana).

Now, body and mind are the two faces of a coin, and they could not improve one without another (nor to depreciate). If one attain the purity of the mind he’s body will, also, be pure as light. That led to the conclusion that something was wrong in the practice of the five followers and Siddhartha himself. That for, the revelation of Sidharta, that lead to the Golden Path of the Middle was very important.
Relaxing the effort and make it pleasant, so the walk on the path should be.

Later, Swami Vivekananda told us that everything that is hard, unpleasant must be avoided, because practice (sadhana) is to be pleasant, desirable. This is another explanation of the words of Patanajali (yatha abhimata dhyanat va – meaning: or as one's own predisposition/pleasure to meditate).
So, ancients told us about the pleasant state when we pursuit our goals, and this is just a kind of … rediscovering it.

Reading the books about Siddhartha life will let the reader to see that he was not interested to establish a Church (like all the great teachers of humanity), but to share knowledge and instruction regarding the path to the greatest accomplishment of humans
At the beginning, during the life of Siddhartha was especially difficult, because he was a Kshatriya (prince of Ajodhya) and kept this status even when went to forest, for reclusion, but … , after the above mentioned enlightenment, he start to talk about other ways than those of Vedas, and of no religion.
This brought a BIG problem to him, and he’s followers. They became outcastes, not even Pariah (Harijans), but outside the cast system, a kind of aliens.

After the Mughal invasion, Buddhism suffered a major drawback in India and monks have to flee to north and/or south, where the new rulers (Mongols converted to Islam) could not reach them.
So, Buddhism became more recognized in Tibet, China and even Japan. (perhaps Eraclev will tell us how it is in Indonesia).

Basically, all those new achievements that Siddhartha better explained to humans are noted in the tradition of Samkhya and Vedanta, which where the two main conceptual systems of ancient India.
In the 26 sutra of Sadhana Pada (viveka khyatih aviplava hana upayah – meaning: Clear, distinct, unimpaired discriminative knowledge is the means of liberation), Patanajali refer to this Golden Path.

The main observation is that Buddhism is, technically, some kind of Yoga (and for that matter, Samkhya) more applied and explained to people, with much more stress on the first two, preparatory stages – Yama and Niyama.
The cosmogony and other esoteric texts from Buddhism are seriously influenced by Vedanta and Vedas.

To better explain this, I will quote from “Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion”
"There are these two extremes that are not to be indulged in by one who has gone forth. Which two? That which is devoted to sensual pleasure with reference to sensual objects: base, vulgar, common, ignoble, unprofitable; and that which is devoted to self-affliction: painful, ignoble, unprofitable. Avoiding both of these extremes, the middle way realized by the Tathagata — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding.
And what is the middle way realized by the Tathagata that — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding? Precisely this Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. This is the middle way realized by the Tathagata that — producing vision, producing knowledge — leads to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding.”

Samkhya say that the cause of all problems we have in life reside in the Ignorance (Avidya) of the existence of the Soul (Purusha) and the misperception between This one and the Intellect of the Mind (Budhi), which allow the appearance of the sentiment of I and, further, to egocentrism. This is related with the experiences we get from our senses, that could be pleasant or unpleasant.
And so we find the resemblance with the first quoted paragraph.

Now, regarding the second paragraph quoted, Yoga Sutra say, regarding the Steps of practice: “ yama niyama asana pranayama pratyahara dharana dhyana samadhi ashtau angani, meaning - The eight steps of Yoga are the codes of self-regulation or restraint (yamas), observances or practices of self-training (niyamas), postures (asana), expansion of breath and prana (pranayama), withdrawal of the senses (pratyahara), concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana), and perfected concentration (samadhi).
Considering the effects of Samadhi, I’m sure you could find the resemblance between that too.

About the enlighten of Siddhartha, the presence of Mara and he’s daughters is very interesting, depicting the lure to pleasure and feelings that humans are subject too.
Also, memorable from this is the scene of the rage of Mara (the Architect) which is neutralized by the calm confidence of the Truth (like in the story of Viswamitra and Vasishtha).
That lead me to the belief that any saint is not to be associated with violence, untruthfulness, selfishness and everything that came from a conduct against Yama.

Now, in Europe and West Buddhism got a slow entrance and just after the roads where open by others.
Swami Vivekananda held a series of conferences in US at the late 19 century, and wrote a book to explain for westerners the Raja Yoga. After that (and under some other influences from India) associations like M-dam Blavatsky – Theosophical Society - appeared (still have the HQ in Chennai, and a city Boulevard held her name).
The Flower Power movement got a serious kick toward Hinduism because the songs of George Harrison (and/or because they discovered the “benefits” of ganja smoking ?).
Buddhism came later and with small steps, but not only from India. Tibetan Buddhism made a great impact on West, because the invasion of China and the good PR of Dalai Lama, Japanese Zen, being so different for westerners got a serious impact on them too, especially after the books of Frank Herbert in the Saga DUNE (he somehow invented the Zen – Sufi concept 😃 ).
Even Chinese Buddhism got more impact on west than the one from India, because the model of warrior monks that appear in all (almost all) Chinese movies – perhaps they somehow influenced the conception of Jedi knights.

However, I want to ask you how / what is the situation / perceptions regarding Buddhism today in India ?




Meri shubhkaamanaaye aapke saath hai ![/b