March 2016 Issue of Sutra Journal

Tolerance, Exclusivity, Inclusivity, and Persecution in Indian Religion During the Early Mediaeval Period

March, 2016 by Alexis Sanderson

It is generally believed that already in the early mediaeval period from the fifth century of the Christian era onwards, if not earlier, there existed a single Hindu religion, embracing Vaidika orthopraxy in accordance with primary and secondary Vedic revelation (Śruti and Smṛti) together with the sectarian traditions of the worship of Viṣṇu, Śiva, Devī, and the Sun God (Sūrya), to mention only the foremost among the deities that attracted personal devotion. read more

Daniel Odier in Conversation

March, 2016 by Lea Horvatic

Daniel Odier is a Swiss author and screenwriter and a prolific writer on Eastern religious traditions, especially Tantra, had a mystical initiation from a tantric dakini, Lalita Devi, in Kashmir. Odier also received dharma transmission from Jing Hui, abbot of Bailin Monastery and dharma successor of Hsu Yun, using the name "Ming Qing". He founded the Tantra/Chan centre in Paris, which operated from 1995 to 2000, and has taught courses on Eastern spiritual traditions at the University of California. read more

Working with Samskaras and Vasanas

March, 2016 by Marshall Govindan

Have you noticed that your mind often returns to particular memories or feelings? They might be related to individuals with whom you have unresolved issues, or they might be associated with very pleasurable past experiences, for example, related to food, sex, or winning in a competitive sport. Or they might be associated with difficult experiences that you fear repeating: a physical attack, a divorce, an embarrassing situation, rejection by someone you love or admire. Have you ever wondered why? read more

A Cognitive Science View of Abhinavagupta’s Understanding of Consciousness

March, 2016 by Loriliai Biernacki

I propose that the Hindu, nondual Śaivite system that Abhinavagupta lays out offers a framework that may be useful for our contemporary cognitive science and philosophy of mind precisely because Abhinavagupta offers a theory for connecting the material with the phenomenal. read more

A Hippie in Bhairava’s Clothing: the dangers of cultural appropriation

March, 2016 by Christopher Wallis

When spiritual practitioners who are not also trained intellectuals attempt any kind of translation or re-rendering of a foreign work (especially one from the ‘mystic East’), they often read into the text what they wish to find there, while being unable to see that they are doing so, because of lack of both linguistic competence and lack of historical awareness. read more

Ahimsa and Ecology

March, 2016 by Pankaj Jain

Several scientific studies have pointed out that every being in nature is intrinsically valuable because every other being is directly or indirectly dependent on each other's survival; this is the fundamental motivation of scientists and environmentalists to save the biodiversity in every part of our planet. Therefore, even a cobra has the right to survive. Moreover, other beings have an intrinsic duty to protect it as long as it is not a threat to them. read more

Consciousness is Everything

March, 2016 by Swami Khecaranatha

The purpose of spiritual practice is to understand and directly experience this ultimate truth, and furthermore, to discover that we are that Consciousness. In the nondual Kashmir Shaivite tradition of Anuttara Trika, this all-pervading Consciousness is called Śiva. read more

Gods In Time: SBMA Exhibition Preview

March, 2016 by Debashish Banerji

In Hindu traditions, the divine who is permanent, changeless, infinite and eternal in his/her/its transcendental form, also becomes the cosmos and its creatures and in these cosmic and individual forms, subjects himself/herself/itself to the processes of birth, growth and death. read more

History of Indian Art Through Five Masterpieces Part 3: Sultan of the Sublime

March, 2016 by William Dalrymple

Ibrahim Adil Shah II, who ruled the central Indian kingdom of Bijapur in modern Karnataka, was an erudite scholar, lute player, poet, singer, calligrapher, chess master and an aesthete. Since he came to the throne in 1580, he oversaw a remarkable explosion of artistic activity, attracting to his court the greatest painters and poets of his day, from as far afield as Abyssinia, Turkey and Central Asia. read more

In Search Of Durga

March, 2016 by Jawhar Sircar

The mother goddess was also quite visible in Europe and Africa since times immemorial, and we see her in plenty in the Indus Valley. But she appears less in the Vedic period, from which we get no figurines or material evidence. The Satapatha and Taittiriya Upanishads, however, refer to "Ambika" but it is only in the Sutras of Boudhayana and Sankhayana that the name 'Durga' appears, for the first time. read more

Lal-Ded: The Mystic of Kashmir

March, 2016 by M.H. Zaffar

Lal-Ded is a rebel saint, a revolutionary mystic of the 14th century Kashmir. We know her only through her verses called 'Vak'; that have come down to us through folk tradition of Kashmir. Lala-vak is not primarily poetry nor is it mere learned discourse. It is a discourse for the practical purpose of sanctifying and divinizing human nature. read more

Mark Baron on Collecting Early Lithograph Prints of Hindu Gods

March, 2016 by Vikram Zutshi

India’s Hindu god and goddess prints go back about a hundred and fifty years. Our collection focuses on the first fifty years, starting with mid-19th century woodblock prints from Calcutta. We have a large collection of 19th century lithographs, many hand-colored, from early Calcutta publishers/presses. read more

Meher Baba: Intoxicated By God

March, 2016 by Stuart Sovatsky

Contemporary issues of interest and concern to transpersonal psychology have antecedents in the 1920s–1940s in the work of Meher Baba in India. He helped inspire the work of R.D. Laing in the 1960s (1964 with Esterson, 1965, 1970), predates the work of Sannella (1977/1987), Perry (1974), and the Grofs (1989, 1990) on ‘‘spiritual emergence,’’ and foreshadowed Wilber’s ‘‘pre-trans fallacy’’ (Wilber, 1980a, 1980b, 1995). read more

Neither of the East nor of the West: The Journey of the Naqshbandiyya-Mujaddidiyya from India to America

March, 2016 by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

The true history of any Sufi order is the history of this transmission, which is the central core of the path, around which its practices and etiquette develop over time. The outer form of the path can change according to the time and the place and the people, but the inner essence must remain the same living substance of divine love. read more

Reflections on the Buddha: Historical and Philosophical - Part Two

March, 2016 by Jeffery D. Long

The question centers on that most distinctive of Buddhist teachings: the doctrine of No Self, or, in the Pāli language of the earliest Buddhist scriptures, anatta. In contrast with at least the mainstream of Upaniṣadic thought, as well as with Jainism, the Buddha does not emphasize the immortality of the Self, or ātman, nor does he point to the realization of this Self as the highest spiritual goal. In stark contrast to such affirmations, he teaches that no such thing as a self is anywhere to be found. read more

Robert Thurman on Buddhism in the West (Video)

March, 2016 by Bob Thurman

Bob Thurman reflects on Western society’s misunderstandings of Buddhism. A recognized worldwide authority on Religion and Spirituality, Asian history, world philosophy, Buddhist Science, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and his Holiness the Dalai Lama, Robert Thurman is an eloquent advocate of the relevance of Buddhist ideas in our daily lives. read more

The Asta Matrikas: Mandalic Mothers of Bhaktapur, Nepal - PART 2

March, 2016 by Laura Amazzone

Considering the ritual and spatial significance of ancient sites to goddesses who govern the realms of sex, birth, and death, illness and health, order and chaos within and around Bhaktapur, it seems the city’s geographical organization is rooted in primordial ideologies that conceive of women and earth as sacred. read more

The Dance of Time: Ancient Calendars

March, 2016 by Freedom Cole

The nature of reality is pulsing. Life is breathing; the heart is beating; the day and night are turning out our experience. Pulsation requires the interplay of two forces. Śiva and Śākti, the Mother and Father, the Sun and Moon, create the pulsation which is the basis of all manifest existence. read more

The Flowering of Freedom: The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Part Four

March, 2016 by Richard Miller

In this chapter, Richard Miller presents further six sutras from Patañjali's YS, which differentiate ever subtler states of meditation that enable us to go beyond what normally binds attention (prakṛti), in order to attain a glimpse of Essential Nature (puruṣa) and the flowering of freedom from suffering. read more

The Twenty-Five Tantric Views

March, 2016 by Erik Pema Kunsang

Every moment in your life is experience. This experience unfolds in infinite ways, as the natural mandala of life, and in this mandala the mind that experiences is the deity. Deity here means pure and perfect, worthy of respect and sublime in nature. Everyone else is like that too, every other person in your life, every cat, dog and insect, even the plants and the stones. read more

Conversation with Rabbi Rami Shapiro (Podcast)

March, 2016 by Philip Goldberg and Dennis Raimondi

Rabbi Rami is an ordained rabbi who describes himself as “a freelance theologian making my living writing and talking.” A boundary crosser, he draws from all the world’s spiritual traditions, and his path has gone through Zen and Vedanta Hinduism in addition to his ancestral Judaism. read more

dharma	yoga	tantra
ayruveda	meditation	buddha

March 2016 Issue of Sutra Journal

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