​​MEHER BABA , EARLY LIFE OF MEHER BABA , ​​TEACHINGS OF MEHER BABA , AVATAR MEHER BABA ,

 ​​MEHER BABA

Meher Baba (born Merwan Sheriar Irani; 25 February 1894  – 31 January 1969) was an Indian spiritual master who said he was the Avatar,God in human form.

Merwan Sheriar Irani was born in 1894 in Pune, India to Irani Zoroastrian parents. At the age of 19, he began a seven-year spiritual transformation. During this time he contacted five spiritual masters before beginning his own mission and gathering his own disciples in early 1922, at the age of 27.

RAMANA MAHARSHI ​, EARLY YEARS RAMANA MAHARSHI , TEACHING OF RAMANA MAHARSH ,

 RAMANA MAHARSHI

Ramana Maharshi (30 December 1879 – 14 April 1950) was a Hindu sage and jivanmukta. He was born Venkataraman Iyer, but is most commonly known by the name Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi.

SWAMI RAMA , SWAMI RAMA Early life , SWAMI RAMA life

 SWAMI RAMA , SWAMI RAMA Early life , SWAMI RAMA life 

​Śrī Swāmī Rāma (1925–1996) was an Indian yógī. Several Indian yogis have influenced Westerners including Swami Vivekananda, Ramkrishna Paramhansa, Paramhansa Yogananda and many more. Swami Rama was one of the first yogis, however, to be studied by Western scientists. In the 1960s he was examined by scientists at the Menninger Clinic who studied his ability to voluntarily control bodily processes (such as heartbeat, blood pressure, and body temperature) that are normally considered to be non-voluntary.

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ​, Life of SWAMI VIVEKANANDA , Guru of SWAMI VIVEKANANDA , Ramkrishna Paramhansa , TEACHINGS AND PHILOSOPHY VIVEKANANDA , VIVEKANANDA WORKS

                 SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 

Date of Birth: January12, 1863 

Place of Birth: Calcutta, Bengal Presidency (Now Kolkata in West Bengal)

Parents: Vishwanath Dutta (Father) and Bhuvaneshwari Devi (Mother)

Education: Calcutta Metropolitan School; Presidency College, Calcutta

Institutions: Ramakrishna Math; Ramakrishna Mission; Vedanta Society of New York

Religious Views: Hinduism

INDIAN MYSTIC PATANJALI , PATANJALI YOGA SUTRA ,

 

                                  INDIAN MYSTIC PATANJALI

The compiler of the Yoga sūtras, a text on Yoga theory and practice,and a notable scholar of Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy. He is variously estimated to have lived between 5th century BCE to 4th century CE, with more scholars accepting dates between 2nd and 4th century CE. The Yogasutras is one of the most important texts in the Hindu tradition and the foundation of classical Yoga. It is the Indian Yoga text that was most translated in its medieval era into forty Indian languages.

​VISHNUDEVANANDA SARASWATI , ​SWAMI VISHNUDEVANANDA , ​MISSION OF SWAMI VISHNUDEVANANDA , BIOGRAPHY OF ​SWAMI VISHNUDEVANANDA , BIOGRAPHY OF ​SWAMI VISHNUDEVANANDA ,

 

​VISHNUDEVANANDA SARASWATI 

​Vishnudevananda Saraswati (31 December 1927 – 9 November 1993) was a disciple of Sivananda Saraswati, and founder of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres and Ashrams. He established the Sivananda Yoga Teachers’ Training Course, one of the first yoga teacher training programs in the West. His books The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga (1959) and Meditation and Mantras (1978) established him as an authority on Hatha and Raja yoga. Vishnudevananda was a tireless peace activist who rode in several "peace flights" over places of conflict, including the Berlin Wall prior to German reunification.

SIVANANDA SARASWATI , SWAMI SIVANADA , BIOGRAPHY OF SIVANADA ,

 Sivananda Saraswati (or Swami Sivanada) (8 September 1887 – 14 July 1963) was a Hindu spiritual teacher and a proponent of Yoga and Vedanta. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He studied medicine and served in British Malaya as a physician for several years before taking up monasticism. He lived most of his life near Muni Ki Reti, Rishikesh.

RINZAI GIGEN , LIN-CHI I-HSUAN , ZEN MASTER RINZAI , TEACHING OF RINZAI , BIOGRAPHY OF RINZAI ,

 

RINZAI GIGEN (LIN-CHI I-HSUAN) D. 866/67

​. Founder of the Rinzai school of Zen. One of the greatest, most influential Chinese masters in Zen history, known for his thunderous shouts and sudden blows. Student of Obaku Kiun.

LAOZI , TAO MASTER , TAO MASTER LAOZI , ​TAO TE CHING , TAOISM ,

 LAOZI , TAO MASTER , TAO MASTER LAOZI , 

Laozi (also Lao-Tzu /ˈlaʊˈdzʌ/[1] or Lao-Tze, Chinese: 老子; pinyin: Lǎozǐ, literally "Old Master") was an ancient Chinese philosopher and writer. He is known as the reputed author of the Tao Te Ching, the founder of philosophical Taoism, and a deity in religious Taoism and traditional Chinese religions.

ZEN MASTER CHUANG-TZU , CHUANG-TZU 369-286 BC. ZHUANGZI , TAO MASTER CHUANG-TZU

 

CHUANG-TZU 369-286 BC. 

Taoist master; author of the Cuang-tzu, the classic text of Taoism. He is revered as the co-founder of Taoism, with Lao-Tzu.

Zhuang Zhou, often known as Zhuangzi ("Master Zhuang"),[a] was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BC during the Warring States period, a period corresponding to the summit of Chinese philosophy, the Hundred Schools of Thought. He is credited with writing—in part or in whole—a work known by his name, the Zhuangzi, which is one of the foundational texts of Daoism.

​ZEN MASTER BODHIDHARMA , ​NINE YEARS OF WALL-GAZING , Bodhidharma at Shaolin , PRACTICE AND TEACHING OF BODHIDHARMA , ​​THE LAṄKĀVATĀRA SŪTRA , LINEAGE FROM GAUTAMA BUDDHA ,

 ​ZEN MASTER BODHIDHARMA 470-543

The traditional founder of Zen in China. Said to have been a monk who traveled from India to China in order to transmit the Authentic Teaching of Buddhism. All Zen schools regard him as the First Ancestor of Zen in China.


Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. According to Chinese legend, he also began the physical training of the monks of Shaolin Monastery that led to the creation of Shaolin kungfu. In Japan, he is known as Daruma.

According to the principal Chinese sources, Bodhidharma came from the Western Regions, which refers to Central Asia but may also include the Indian subcontinent, and was either a "Persian Central Asian"or a "South Indian [...] the third son of a great Indian king."Throughout Buddhist art, Bodhidharma is depicted as an ill-tempered, profusely-bearded, wide-eyed non-Chinese person. He is referred as "The Blue-Eyed Barbarian" (Chinese: 碧眼胡; pinyin: Bìyǎnhú) in Chan texts.

Aside from the Chinese accounts, several popular traditions also exist regarding Bodhidharma's origins.

The accounts also differ on the date of his arrival, with one early account claiming that he arrived during the Liu Song dynasty (420–479) and later accounts dating his arrival to the Liang dynasty (502–557). Bodhidharma was primarily active in the territory of the Northern Wei (386-634). Modern scholarship dates him to about the early 5th century.

Bodhidharma's teachings and practice centered on meditation and the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra. The Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall (952) identifies Bodhidharma as the 28th Patriarch of Buddhism in an uninterrupted line that extends all the way back to the Gautama Buddha himself.

​NINE YEARS OF WALL-GAZING

Dazu Huike offering his arm to Bodhidharma. Ink painting by Sesshū Tōyō
Failing to make a favorable impression in South China, Bodhidharma is said to have travelled to the Shaolin Monastery. After either being refused entry or being ejected after a short time, he lived in a nearby cave, where he "faced a wall for nine years, not speaking for the entire time".

The biographical tradition is littered with apocryphal tales about Bodhidharma's life and circumstances. In one version of the story, he is said to have fallen asleep seven years into his nine years of wall-gazing. Becoming angry with himself, he cut off his eyelids to prevent it from happening again.[ According to the legend, as his eyelids hit the floor the first tea plants sprang up, and thereafter tea would provide a stimulant to help keep students of Chan awake during zazen.

The most popular account relates that Bodhidharma was admitted into the Shaolin temple after nine years in the cave and taught there for some time. However, other versions report that he "passed away, seated upright";or that he disappeared, leaving behind the Yijin Jing;or that his legs atrophied after nine years of sitting,which is why Daruma dolls have no legs.

Huike cuts off his arm

In one legend, Bodhidharma refused to resume teaching until his would-be student, Dazu Huike, who had kept vigil for weeks in the deep snow outside of the monastery, cut off his own left arm to demonstrate sincerity.

Bodhidharma at Shaolin

Paint of Bodhidharma at Himeji Castle.
See also: Patron Saint of Shaolin monastery
Some Chinese myths and legends describe Bodhidharma as being disturbed by the poor physical shape of the Shaolin monks,after which he instructed them in techniques to maintain their physical condition as well as teaching meditation. He is said to have taught a series of external exercises called the Eighteen Arhat Handsand an internal practice called the Sinew Metamorphosis Classic. In addition, after his departure from the temple, two manuscripts by Bodhidharma were said to be discovered inside the temple: the Yijin Jing and the Xisui Jing. Copies and translations of the Yijin Jing survive to the modern day. The Xisui Jing has been lost.[

Travels in Southeast Asia

According to Southeast Asian folklore, Bodhidharma travelled from Jambudvipa by sea to Palembang, Indonesia. Passing through Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Malaysia, he eventually entered China through Nanyue. In his travels through the region, Bodhidharma is said to have transmitted his knowledge of the Mahayana doctrine and the martial arts. Malay legend holds that he introduced forms to silat.

Vajrayana tradition links Bodhidharma with the 11th-century south Indian monk Dampa Sangye who travelled extensively to Tibet and China spreading tantric teachings.

Appearance after his death

Three years after Bodhidharma's death, Ambassador Sòngyún of northern Wei is said to have seen him walking while holding a shoe at the Pamir Heights. Sòngyún asked Bodhidharma where he was going, to which Bodhidharma replied "I am going home". When asked why he was holding his shoe, Bodhidharma answered "You will know when you reach Shaolin monastery. Don't mention that you saw me or you will meet with disaster". After arriving at the palace, Sòngyún told the emperor that he met Bodhidharma on the way. The emperor said Bodhidharma was already dead and buried and had Sòngyún arrested for lying. At Shaolin Monastery, the monks informed them that Bodhidharma was dead and had been buried in a hill behind the temple. The grave was exhumed and was found to contain a single shoe. The monks then said "Master has gone back home" and prostrated three times: "For nine years he had remained and nobody knew him; Carrying a shoe in hand he went home quietly, without ceremony."

PRACTICE AND TEACHING of BODHIDHARMA

Bodhidharma is traditionally seen as introducing dhyana-practice in China.

Pointing directly to one's mind
One of the fundamental Chán texts attributed to Bodhidharma is a four-line stanza whose first two verses echo the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra's disdain for words and whose second two verses stress the importance of the insight into reality achieved through "self-realization":

A special transmission outside the scriptures
Not founded upon words and letters;
By pointing directly to [one's] mind
It lets one see into [one's own true] nature and [thus] attain Buddhahood.

The stanza, in fact, is not Bodhidharma's, but rather dates to the year 1108.

Wall-gazing

Tanlin, in the preface to Two Entrances and Four Acts, and Daoxuan, in the Further Biographies of Eminent Monks, mention a practice of Bodhidharma's termed "wall-gazing" (壁觀 bìguān). Both Tanlin[note 8] and Daoxuan associate this "wall-gazing" with "quieting [the] mind"[22] (Chinese: 安心; pinyin: ānxīn).

In the Two Entrances and Four Acts, traditionally attributed to Bodhidharma, the term "wall-gazing" is given as follows:

Those who turn from delusion back to reality, who meditate on walls, the absence of self and other, the oneness of mortal and sage, and who remain unmoved even by scriptures are in complete and unspoken agreement with reason".

Daoxuan states, "The merits of Mahāyāna wall-gazing are the highest".

These are the first mentions in the historical record of what may be a type of meditation being ascribed to Bodhidharma.

Exactly what sort of practice Bodhidharma's "wall-gazing" was remains uncertain. Nearly all accounts have treated it either as an undefined variety of meditation, as Daoxuan and Dumoulin,or as a variety of seated meditation akin to the zazen (Chinese: 坐禪; pinyin: zuòchán) that later became a defining characteristic of Chan. The latter interpretation is particularly common among those working from a Chan standpoint.

There have also, however, been interpretations of "wall-gazing" as a non-meditative phenomenon.

​​THE LAṄKĀVATĀRA SŪTRA

There are early texts which explicitly associate Bodhidharma with the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra. Daoxuan, for example, in a late recension of his biography of Bodhidharma's successor Huike, has the sūtra as a basic and important element of the teachings passed down by Bodhidharma:

In the beginning Dhyana Master Bodhidharma took the four-roll Laṅkā Sūtra, handed it over to Huike, and said: "When I examine the land of China, it is clear that there is only this sutra. If you rely on it to practice, you will be able to cross over the world."

Another early text, the "Record of the Masters and Disciples of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra" (Chinese: 楞伽師資記; pinyin: Léngqié Shīzī Jì) of Jìngjué (淨覺; 683–750), also mentions Bodhidharma in relation to this text. Jingjue's account also makes explicit mention of "sitting meditation" or zazen

For all those who sat in meditation, Master Bodhi[dharma] also offered expositions of the main portions of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, which are collected in a volume of twelve or thirteen pages […] bearing the title of "Teaching of [Bodhi-]Dharma".

In other early texts, the school that would later become known as Chan Buddhism is sometimes referred to as the "Laṅkāvatāra school" (楞伽宗 Léngqié zōng).

The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, one of the Mahayana sutras, is a highly "difficult and obscure" text[53] whose basic thrust is to emphasize "the inner enlightenment that does away with all duality and is raised above all distinctions".It is among the first and most important texts for East Asian Yogācāra.

One of the recurrent emphases in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra is a lack of reliance on words to effectively express reality:

If, Mahamati, you say that because of the reality of words the objects are, this talk lacks in sense. Words are not known in all the Buddha-lands; words, Mahamati, are an artificial creation. In some Buddha-lands ideas are indicated by looking steadily, in others by gestures, in still others by a frown, by the movement of the eyes, by laughing, by yawning, or by the clearing of the throat, or by recollection, or by trembling.

In contrast to the ineffectiveness of words, the sūtra instead stresses the importance of the "self-realization" that is "attained by noble wisdom" and occurs "when one has an insight into reality as it is":"The truth is the state of self-realization and is beyond categories of discrimination".The sūtra goes on to outline the ultimate effects of an experience of self-realization:

[The bodhisattva] will become thoroughly conversant with the noble truth of self-realization, will become a perfect master of his own mind, will conduct himself without effort, will be like a gem reflecting a variety of colours, will be able to assume the body of transformation, will be able to enter into the subtle minds of all beings, and, because of his firm belief in the truth of Mind-only, will, by gradually ascending the stages, become established in Buddhahood.

 BODHIDHARMA LINEAGES

The idea of a patriarchal lineage in Ch'an dates back to the epitaph for Fărú (法如 638–689), a disciple of the 5th patriarch Hóngrĕn (弘忍 601–674). In the Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices and the Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks, Daoyu and Dazu Huike are the only explicitly identified disciples of Bodhidharma. The epitaph gives a line of descent identifying Bodhidharma as the first patriarch.

In the 6th century biographies of famous monks were collected. From this genre the typical Chan lineage was developed:

These famous biographies were non-sectarian. The Ch'an biographical works, however, aimed to establish Ch'an as a legitimate school of Buddhism traceable to its Indian origins, and at the same time championed a particular form of Ch'an. Historical accuracy was of little concern to the compilers; old legends were repeated, new stories were invented and reiterated until they too became legends.

D. T. Suzuki contends that Chan's growth in popularity during the 7th and 8th centuries attracted criticism that it had "no authorized records of its direct transmission from the founder of Buddhism" and that Chan historians made Bodhidharma the 28th patriarch of Buddhism in response to such attacks.

Six patriarchs

The earliest lineages described the lineage from Bodhidharma into the 5th to 7th generation of patriarchs. Various records of different authors are known, which give a variation of transmission lines:

​CONTINUOUS LINEAGE FROM GAUTAMA BUDDHA

Eventually these descriptions of the lineage evolved into a continuous lineage from Śākyamuni Buddha to Bodhidharma. The idea of a line of descent from Śākyamuni Buddha is the basis for the distinctive lineage tradition of Chan Buddhism.

According to the Song of Enlightenment (證道歌 Zhèngdào gē) by Yǒngjiā Xuánjué (665-713),[65] one of the chief disciples of Huìnéng, was Bodhidharma, the 28th Patriarch of Buddhism in a line of descent from Gautama Buddha via his disciple Mahākāśyapa:

Mahakashyapa was the first, leading the line of transmission;
Twenty-eight Fathers followed him in the West;
The Lamp was then brought over the sea to this country;
And Bodhidharma became the First Father here
His mantle, as we all know, passed over six Fathers,
And by them many minds came to see the Light.

The Transmission of the Light gives 28 patriarchs in this transmission:

​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma

.

ZEN MASTER BASHO , ZEN MASTER MA TSU , TEACHINGS MA TSU-BASHO , zazen

 

“BASO, DOITSU (MA-TSU TAO-I) 709-788

​“Baso, Doitsu (Ma-tsu Tao-i) 709-788. Third most influential master in the history of Zen, after Bodhidharma and Eno. He had at least eighty, and maybe as many as one hundred thirty, enlightened successors, including Hyakujo Ekai and Nansen Fugan.

ZEN MASTER BANKEI , EARLY LIFE OF BANKEI , search of BANKEI , AWAKENING OF BANKEI , TEACHINGS OF BANKEI ,

 

ZEN MASTER BANKEI

Bankei Yōtaku (盤珪永琢, 1622-1693) was a Japanese Rinzai Zen master, and the abbot of the Ryōmon-ji and Nyohō-ji. He is best known for his talks on the Unborn as he called it. According to D. T. Suzuki, Bankei, together with Dogen and Hakuin, is one of the most important Japanese Zen masters and his Unborn Zen is one of the most original developments in the entire history of Zen thought.

​ZEN MASTER DŌGEN , EARLY LIFE OF DOGEN , DOGEN TO CHINA , TEACHINGS OF DOGEN , DEATH OF DOGEN

 

​ZEN MASTER DŌGEN

Dōgen Zenji (道元禅師; 19 January 1200 – 22 September 1253), also known as Dōgen Kigen (道元希玄), Eihei Dōgen (永平道元), Koso Joyo Daishi (高祖承陽大師), or Bussho Dento Kokushi (仏性伝東国師), was a Japanese Buddhist priest, writer, poet, philosopher, and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan. Originally ordained as a monk in the Tendai School in Kyoto, he was ultimately dissatisfied with its teaching and traveled to China to seek out what he believed to be a more authentic Buddhism. He remained there for five years, finally training under Tiantong Rujing, an eminent teacher of the Chinese Caodong lineage. Upon his return to Japan, he began promoting the meditation practice of zazen through literary works such as Fukan zazengi and Bendōwa. He eventually broke relations completely with the powerful Tendai School, and, after several years of likely friction between himself and the establishment, left Kyoto for the mountainous countryside where he founded the monastery Eihei-ji, which remains the head temple of the Sōtō school today.

INDIAN MYSTIC KRISHNA , KRISHNA IS COMPLETE AND WHOLE , osho on krisha ,

 Krishna 

(/ˈkrɪʃnə/; [ˈkr̩ʂɳə] (About this sound listen); Sanskrit: कृष्ण, IAST: Kṛṣṇa) is a major deity of Hinduism. He is worshiped as the eighth avatar of the god Vishnu and also as the supreme God in his own right.[8] He is the god of compassion, tenderness, and love in Hinduism,and is one of the most popular and widely revered among Indian divinities. Krishna's birthday is celebrated every year by Hindus on Janmashtami according to the lunisolar Hindu calendar, which falls in late August or early September of the Gregorian calendar.

INDIAN ​MYSTIC MEERA , Biography of meera , Mystic Meera Story of love , osho on Meera ,

INDIAN ​MYSTIC MEERA

 Meera, also known as Meera Bai or Mirabai,was a 16th-century Hindu mystic poet and devotee of Krishna. She is a celebrated Bhakti saint, particularly in the North Indian Hindu tradition.

INDIAN MYSTIC GURU NANAK , EARLY LIFE OF GURU NANAK , TEACHING OF GURU NANAK , EK ONKAR SATNAM

 

ABOUT ​GURU NANAK

Guru Nanak ([ˈɡʊɾu ˈnɑnək],  pronunciation, IAST: Gurū Nānak) (1469 – 1539) was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. His birth is celebrated world-wide as Guru Nanak Gurpurab on Kartik Pooranmashi, the full-moon day in the month of Katak, October–November.

KABEER , INDIAN MYSTIC KABEER

 

ABOUT KABEER

Kabir (Hindi: कबीर, IAST: Kabīrwas a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint, whose writings influenced Hinduism's Bhakti movement and his verses are found in Sikhism's scripture Adi Granth. His early life was in a Muslim family, but he was strongly influenced by his teacher, the Hindu bhakti leader Ramananda.