Reality and the Truth: Pillar One

By Sensei Yula

The book begins with a description of the theory of reality and the truth. Simply put, reality encompasses all that is subject to change while the truth is that which is permanent and unchangeable. Both are an unavoidable part of our nature. This introductory chapter is followed by commentaries on seven Eastern philosophies: Vedanta, Samkhya, Yoga, Buddhism, Zen, Taoism and Sufism. Each philosophy adds insight into the application and usefulness of the theory of reality and the truth. The book concludes with a series of recommendations that, if applicable and if you choose, you can implement to benefit your overall health, well-being and happiness.

This book is the first of eight pillars. The other pillars will be available soon.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sensei Yula
• Release date: Mar 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9780986734335

Sensei Yula

Sensei Yula has been practicing and teaching yoga, martial arts and healing arts for over 36 years. In the late eighties, he founded Centre for the Ways in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Prior to that, he ran a successful business in Halifax, Nova Scotia that included a health food cafe, several health food retail outlets and martial arts classes.As an acupuncturist and traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, he successfully treats people with conditions including heart disease, digestive problems, lower back aches, headaches, insomnia, mental disorders, gynaecological problems, infertility, and many others.From this experience as well as his training in Shiatsu, he has developed a system called Zen Kiatsu-Tao TCM. It is very relaxing and effective for the prevention and cure of many disorders.After decades of practicing and teaching Karate-Do, yoga and Yang style Tai-Chi, he founded the Zenki-Do System of Martial Art, a Yang-Yu style of Tai Chi called Tai Chi Chuan-Tao, and Chi Kung-Yoga Energetics.To share this experience, he has co-authored The Eight Pillars of the Heaven (Volume One, 2010; Volume Two, 2013) as well as Chi Kung-Yoga Energetics for Health: A Manual for Daily Practice (2012). He is currently working on books related to his repertoire of experience in healing and martial arts.

Book preview

Reality and the Truth

Pillar One

Sensei Yula & Becca Mukti

Published by Centre for the Ways at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Sensei Yula and Becca Mukti

There are eight pillars in all and each is available in ebook format:

Reality and the Truth: Pillar One

The Path of Transformation: Pillar Two

Body Physio-Energetics: Pillar Three

Environmental Righteousness: Pillar Four

Tao Eating, Zen Digesting: Pillar Five

Yoga Energetics as an Alternative Medicine: Pillar Six

The Tao of Intimacy and the Ultimate Gynaecological Reality: Pillar Seven

Enlightenment: Pillar Eight

The first four pillars are available in print at Centre for the Ways.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is for your personal use only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. You may, however, encourage others to purchase a copy for themselves or purchase one for them as a gift. If you are reading this ebook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the authors.

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Dedicated to humanity and Mother Earth

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Table of Contents

A Philosophical Journey by Laypeople for Laypeople

The Theory of Reality and the Truth

What about Modern Science?

Vedanta

What is Puja? What is Mantra?

Vedanta’s Monistic View of the Universe

Samkhya

The Theory of Causation

Figure 1.1: The Stages of Chickenhood

The Theory of Evolution

Figure 1.2: The Categories of the Mind

Yoga

The Yogic View of the Mind

The Quality of the Mind

The Modifications of the Mind

Buddhism

The Theory of Dependent Origination

The Theory of Universal Change

The Theory of the Four Noble Truths

Figure 1.3: The Twelve Chain Link of Causation

The Eightfold Path for Liberation

Zen

Zen Philosophy, Zen Practice

How to Practice Zazen?

The Right Practice of Zazen

Taoism

Tao in Common Views

Tao and Taoism

The Theory of Yin and Yang

The Theory of Five Elements

The Baqua and Its Philosophy

Figure 1.4: The Baqua

Figure 1.5: States of Ho To and Lo Shu

The Mystique of Creation

Sufism

Fear and Hope (Khawf and Raja)

Contraction and Expansion (Qabz and Bast)

Gathering and Dispersing (Jam and Tafreqa)

Drunkenness and Sobriety (Masty and Hushiary)

Existence and Non-Existence (Baqa and Fana)

Poem: Who am I??

Reality Check and Recommendations

Appendix

Reasons for Writing this Series

About the Eight Pillars

Caveats

About the Authors

List of Publications by the Authors

About Centre for the Ways

Connect with Us

Support Us

~~~ The Beginning ~~~

A Philosophical Journey by Laypeople for Laypeople (return to Contents)

Philosophy is a Greek word which basically means love of knowledge and philosopher means the one who loves knowledge or wisdom. The Western philosophical history began in ancient Greece approximately 600 BC but a newer philosophical era which is more evident in today’s societies started with one of the most charismatic Greek fellows, Socrates (469 - 339 BC), who was followed by his student, Plato, then Aristotle and many others thereafter. The ancient Greek philosophy is not limited to Western countries as it has influenced many of the Eastern cultures, particularly in the countries wherever Alexander the Great or his warriors for that matter put his foot in. In the East, the Indian philosophy dates as far back as 4000 BC or more and is one of the oldest philosophies in the world. In Sanskrit, the noble ancient language of the sages from the Indian continent, the equivalent word for philosophy is darsana, pronounced darshana, which means true vision or wisdom. There is a world of difference, however, between Western and Eastern systems of philosophy.

The Western system relies mainly, if not entirely, on intellectual analysis and reasoning, whereas the Eastern system relies on true vision or direct vision of the truth. When dealing with human issues, the Western systems of philosophy and science, including medical science, tend to compartmentalize human mental and physical issues and study each compartment independently. Conversely, the Eastern philosophy recognizes the interdependency of different aspects of human life, including those of mental and physical issues. It approaches the emotional sufferings and physical diseases as one integrated whole making it more holistic and comprehensive.

Furthermore, the Western medical, political and social sciences are more surface-oriented and tend to focus mostly on the effect or symptoms whereas Eastern philosophies in all of these categories apply a cause and effect approach to deal with problems. For example, the focus of Western media and politicians is mainly on what is happening in the Middle East or Afghanistan at a given time and very little attention is paid to the cause of the problems which are mainly manufactured by Western imperialism of the past and present. Similarly, in the field of medical science, the focus of doctors (except at the time of outbreaks, pandemics or epidemics) is mainly on getting rid of symptoms and not so much, if at all, on the causes.

Another major difference between Eastern and Western systems of philosophies is that in the Eastern view, philosophy without practical discipline is nothing more than empty talk, and practical discipline without philosophy is nothing more than an unguided walk which brings only temporary satisfactions to the mind of the practitioner. If we look at today’s modern societies with all of their so-called accomplishments, particularly in the fields of science and technology which have developed the capability to travel into space, make atomic bombs, clone species and control the whole world with communication systems, the suffering experienced by the people of these nations far surpasses the benefits, in our view, of these accomplishments.

The citizens of these nations experience endless emotional and psychosomatic disturbances as well as inner conflicts and delusions. They are constantly running from doctor to doctor, from psychiatrist to psychiatrist, looking for help and comfort without even thinking that the doctors and psychiatrists are themselves also the sufferers of such chaos. From our view, all this suffering and outward accomplishments are mainly because the people of these nations have an absence of a philosophical backbone which is required to give them the ability to understand the true nature of their own lives and, consequently, the true nature of their work.

One may ask, Why is that? Our answer would be: this is because we humans are thinking beings and without disciplined minds, we have the tendency to cling onto the material world, so we think true happiness can be found through material objects. Consequently, we habitually measure our success and failure based on these material gains or losses. Since the very nature of the material world is impermanence and decay, our undisciplined mind unavoidably maintains itself to be like a roller-coaster, moving from one thing to the next and bringing with it constant sufferings. Since we do not realize that we are indeed caught in the vicious cycle of cause and effect, we look for a bandage to ease the effect without dealing with the cause or, alternatively, we give up trying altogether, thinking This is my destiny or There is nothing I can do about it. What we need to do is to look for the right solution to untangle ourselves.

The Theory of Reality and the Truth (return to Contents)

When we were looking in a dictionary searching for the words to explain our meanings of reality and the truth, we found that the two words have almost the same meaning. So, in order to make our analysis clear, we need to differentiate between the two. In our definition, reality is the process of life which is relative and impermanent and includes all of the nominal and phenomenal aspects of existence which are subject to change. The truth, on the other hand, is unchangeable, immortal and universal. While reality changes from moment to moment, from individual to individual, from place to place, from society to society and is influenced by external factors such as environmental, social and economic issues, the truth is impartial, untouchable and remains unaffected by all the nominal and phenomenal pressures.

Most often, however, most people all through the history of humanity have mistaken the reality as the truth and that has been what we call a big mistake. An unfortunate outcome of this big mistake is that when we see our reality as the truth, it is hard for us to recognize other people’s reality and it becomes a our way or no way kind of attitude. When this happens, we do not accept nor do we respect the reality of others in our hearts as we can only see them as being right or wrong. Religious conflicts are a good example of this mistake. Why? Because the followers of each religion happen to believe that their religion is the only truth, in their view everybody else is wrong, is an infidel, is untruthful and is subject to prosecution. This attitude serves no one except for a few selfish individuals for a very illusive and short-term basis. Furthermore, since the followers of every religion have been taught that their religion is the truth and nothing but the truth, the religions have become timeless and have remained unchanged.

Therefore, the big mistake is also why any change or modification of any religion creates conflicts between different factions of that religion, breaking apart communities with deadly results. The occurrence of thousands of religious wars throughout the history of humanity is also the result of this illusion. Another result is the rise of new religious extremism among Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus and so on which is causing so much destruction, fear and conflicts in the world. If the religions are realities then nobody is an infidel, and it means that religions are the reality of the time, space and people they emerged from. Therefore, as my religion is a reality of my time, space and people, and as your religion is different from mine and is the reality of your time, space and people, I will respect your reality as I want you to respect mine.

I confronted this reality in my early childhood when my religious teacher told me that my religion was the only truth and all other religions were wrong.

At the time, I remember feeling very sorry for the followers of the other religions because I couldn’t understand why they did not see the truth and join our religion.

But my thought did not stop