Author Topic: Reclaiming the Wisdom of Upanishads  (Read 749 times)

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Re: Reclaiming the Wisdom of Upanishads
« on: February 25, 2016, 03:00:54 pm »
Quote from: Holden
Though I am certain ,given my ethnicity,my ancestors would have studied the Upanishads,it is only through the Germans,
through Schopenhauer & you, that I have come to them in earnest.
I find it most beautifully symmetrical -Schopenhauer found solace in the Upanishads &  I find solace in Schopenhauer.
Through the ages Germans have been drawn towards the Upanishadic philosophy.

I think Schopenhauer would be honored to have this reciprocal karmic connection with you, Holden.

Your validation strengthens my confidence in having been on some kind of path ... and shunning Karma-kāṇḍa.

I have only heard of Muller through the few other thinkers I have respected.  I know Hermann Hesse was also intrigued by "the East" ... He even wrote a novel called "Siddhartha".

Maybe, as our time is limited here, even though it may feel like an eternity, I will seek out the source of what left such a deep impression on men like Schopenhauer, Muller, and Hesse.  I have been doing some research (looking into Kindle editions since my limited shelf space is now packed solid with Linear Algebra, Multivariable Calculus, Differential Equations, and an entire shelf of Stepanov inspired C++ STL references).   No need to mention the obsession I have (calling it mathemania), but, as I was saying, while researching, I found some were disappointed in certain books with the title "The Upanishads" that turned out to be another's interpretation of the spirit of the Upanishads.  Other scholars insisted that the best editions of the Upanishads are in Sanskrit ...

Maybe, if we both choose to stick around and no vehicular accidents or qualitas occultae evaporate us into thin air, you can give me some insight into a source that is at my level of comprehension ... since I am not trained at all in reading Sanskrit.  Maybe, in a spontaneous and natural manner, over the course of this year, during your encounter with translations or even closer to the bone editions, you will be able to guide me.

This symmetry is quite a paradox.

I am fairly certain you are aware of J.D. Salinger's interest in this type of knowledge, but I had only learned about his interest while reading a big fat biography by David Shields called "Salinger".  I think it was the transcripts from a filmed documentary.

There is so much wonder in this world, as much of a cosmic accident as it may be.

I find myself thinking this often:  How interesting this bizarre illusion is ...

And then there is the "skull crushing" which is not at all interesting, but just horrifying.

There are things they will never tell you, "they" being those who have an interest in manipulating the masses, training generation after generation to build the pharaohs' pyramids, parking lots, and computer software.  Pharaohs Gates, Clinton, Trump, or Ronald McDonald ...

We ought not get too hung up on historical personalities that appear as the rulers in the eras, for the People will never appear in such high positions of "power".

Isn't it amazing that the authors of those ancient Indian (of India) texts had such insight into the self-same thing-in-itself that is our very being?  Stomach, intestines, nerve endings, loins, the nature of human societies and family dynamics ... our own internal dilemma.

Maybe what Hesse called "the immortals" are hidden forces from the subconscious mind, perhaps our common ancestors giving us a little guidance now that Maya is globalized and incorporated.



Someone is reading Thomas Ligotti:  Things they will never tell you. 

I will tell you the same thing I told my nephew in an email to South America near the equator: I do not intend to cause you grief by sharing this moody music with you, but to offer you some astronomical relief from the frustration, the anguish, the full Hell of unmitigated torment that is woven into everything that lives and comprises the very threads holding it all together.

You are not alone.

If only once the astronomical relief of hearing it said only once.   But they will never say that it is not OK.  They will never say that it has never been nor ever will it ever be the least bit right in the least degree.

May you have relief from intense emotional agony.  You know that there will be times of inner peace ... breathe deep.


Now, let's not think that thinking the way we do will make us saints.  As Gary in nj.usa has said, "Life comes with this tragic element that you can't just keep ignoring ... the bloody, guts spilling elephant in the room: There is a real problem here.  This life equation really is way too fuucking sloppy, and it's not just about human fuucking beings.  It's about all these other sentient mammals on this planet ..."

One animal ripping the flesh from another animal's bones driven by merciless hunger.

And as Black Elk's grandfather told him (as a youth) when he made Black Elk (who would grow to become a Sioux holy man) slit the throat of a deer he had been allowed to raise as a pet ... only to tell his grandson, "Do you hear how the animal screams with it's throat cut, as its life is released?  Each blade of grass feels the same when it is cut."

Oh, as an aside, you understand that the reason I would refer to Black Elk and John Trudell as Natives of Turtle Island is because their ancestors' bones of 70,000 years are in the ground of this land they had called Turtle Island, encompassing what the Current Global World Order calls the United States, Canada, and Mexico.  Certainly theirs was an a-literate oral (not to be confused with illiterate) culture.

I appreciate that you are quite cognizant that when I refer to ancient Indian texts you know I am referring to your ancestors from that huge land called India, the cradle from where China inherited its Buddha ...

I appreciate our correspondence because these things are just understood.

At one time I had a two volume set of the Upanishads.  I was reading it to better understand Schopenhauer.  Not a day goes by that I don't think of the phrase "Eater-of-Food". That summed of the thing in itself for me in a nutshell, this situation we all have been thrown into by being born ...

Now that I think about it, yes, that's it!  It was a two volume set translated by Max Muller!

When I thought I might not ever see my nephew again, I gave them to him because he seemed to be heading far, far away, even farther than 3000 miles across the continent ... across great bodies of water ...  like the character Larry from The Razor's Edge, and I remember that it was suggested by a fellow coal miner that Larry read the Upanishads.  Anyway, I wanted my nephew to have some kind of ancient wisdom to turn to since I suspected he had also rejected the Judeo-Christian tradition that is mad out to be "the final word" on everything.  Schopenhauer set me straight on that score long ago, and I am no longer so rebellious as just disdainful.

I had set up Kindle software on my little notebook computer so as to check out some less expensive works ... Bertrand Russell's Free Thought for one dollar ... the Philosophy of Mathematics for $0.00, and now, this evening, on your mention of Muller, things clicked about translators of obscure Sanskrit text, and I find "Dhammapada, a collection of verse" translated by Muller for $0.00 ... a real treasure ... pearls before the swine, I guess.  This is the kind of treasure where one thinks upon appreciating finding it, "genius is its own reward."   Treasure is hiding in plain view, but everyone wants to be a rock star ...   ::)

Dhammapada, a collection of verses; being one of the canonical books of the Buddhists

India: What can it teach us? A Course of Lectures Delivered before the University Of Cambridge for $0.00

The Roman and the Teuton A Series of Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge for $0.00

Here, I found the very paperback edition (of part 1) that I had read and given to my nephew along with part 2 ... Now, on Amazon for 46 cents ... I think I will check out the electronic editions to encourage myself to read in the dark when I rest from the mathemania and techgnosis ... when I settle into the inner realm ...

It's amazing that you mentioned Muller, and I had forgotten that he is the one who translated the edition I had read ... and yet, that book popped into my head when I saw his name ...

Part II paperpack used copy for one penny (plus shipping).

I really think I may check out the free kindle version for now.

Thanks for your honesty and spontaneity.

Note to "Self" (the thing in it): one dollar for kindle version Upanishads translated by Muller PART ONE

fragment of muller's autobiography Kindle edition $0.00

(one dollar) : a strange english dictionary from memories ... max muller ?  released February 9th, 2016? --- one dollar on Kindle ... what a strange trail this is ...

One thing we can tell Sandi is that the Internet has been a great help to scholars!

I am not sure about how to go about responding to that thread.  It sounded like there was a sense of urgency, but I was not sure how to respond.  Thanks for fielding that question for us, Holden.  You expressed yourself very well!

For me, since this forgotten heroic scholar-warrior (Muller) - forgotten primarily by yours truly - is personally connected to having translated the edition that I read, is intricately intertwined with this Reclaiming the Wisdom of Upanishads thread.

I hope you don't mind me flooding this post with links to these Muller texts.  These will be good for me when I am taking a break from mathematics exercises.

Chips From A German Workshop. Vol. III. Essays on Literature, Biography, and Antiquities  $0.00

Chips From A German Workshop, Vol. V. Miscellaneous Later Essays  $0.00
« Last Edit: February 27, 2016, 02:02:01 pm by H »
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

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