Release

What do we have to give up to be free, to be truly ourselves? 

Recently, my office mate and I were discussing the Hindu concepts of samsara and moksha, and I realized something that I hadn't thought of before.

In Hinduism, samsara is the cycle of death and rebirth that we are trapped in, potentially forever. Moksha is the release from samsara, which is the ultimate goal of all life. When one attains moksha, he is reunited forever with the eternal.

It's easy to think of moksha in terms of escaping, but I think it is better to think about it in terms of letting go.

Escaping the cycle of death and rebirth would be like trying to swim out of a whirlpool. The vortex is nothing of your own making, and all you can do is try your best to overcome the forces dragging you down.

In the Bhagavad Gita, however, Lord Krishna counsels that a person attains moksha after realizing his true self, which can only be done by letting go of all desire, ego, vanity, insecurity, doubt, ambition, and fear.

In my mind, this path to achieving moksha could be animated as an image of a hand opening and dropping the heavy weight it is carrying.

Not restricted to Hinduism, a similar idea is offered in the Tao Te Ching:

In pursuit of knowledge,

every day something is added.

In the practice of the Tao,

every day something is dropped.

In Islam, the Prophet Muhammad is quoted in the Hadith as encouraging believers to reject whatever binds them to the world just as a seasoned traveler would avoid packing a heavy suitcase:

“Be in the world like a traveler, or like a passer on, and reckon yourself as of the dead.”

Rather than being morbid, the injunction to be as the dead means to have no cares or burdens, which is a very zen way to travel through life...be it this one or the next!

Religion & the Marketplace

I've been thinking lately about religion and business, and a question came to mind:

What if the Buddha, Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad could have a dialogue about the relationship between commerce and the spiritual life?

That would be a pretty amazing conversation. I think the chips would really start flying over the issue of caravan trading.

The Buddha taught that there were certain professions that would not be suitable for a person genuinely seeking Enlightenment. One of those, he argued, was caravan trading.


Caravan traders, Egypt

If you know anything about the life of the Prophet Muhammad, he got his start -- thanks to his wife, Khadija -- in the carvan trading business. It allowed him to make important connections that he would later rely on in his spiritual ministry and political expansion, and allowed him to earn the title, "el-Amin," or, the one who is trustworthy. How would he react to the Buddha's condemnation of the profession?

Jesus's angriest moment occured in a marketplace, where he went on a destructive rampage against merchants who set up shop in the Temple in Jerusalem. He argued that making the Temple into a market desecrated the holy place:

"He found in the temple those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting. He made a whip of cords, and threw all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and he poured out the changers' money, and overthrew their tables. To those who sold the doves, he said, "Take these things out of here! Don't make my Father's house a marketplace!" (John 2: 14-16)

While Jesus may not have been against marketplaces in general, he was clearly against mixing business with the sacred.

In Hinduism, a more favorable approach to commerce is shown in the dharma literature (dharma means the order of things, or the 'proper' duties and obligations of individuals according to caste and gender), such as in the Laws of Manu. For the Vaishya, the merchant caste, buying and selling is a religious obligation. Included in that obligation is cutting deals in order to turn favorable profits. For this caste, there is no conflict in the duties to study the Vedas (sacred texts) and to lend money:

The Vaisya to tend cattle, to bestow gifts, to offer sacrifices, to study (the Veda), to trade, to lend money, and to cultivate land. (Chapter 1)

Vaishyas are also expected to derive benefit from other people:

Three suffer for the sake of others, witnesses, a surety, and judges; but four enrich themselves (through others), a Brahmana, a money-lender, a merchant, and a king. (Chapter 8)

I think it is really interesting to examine these examples beside each other, if possible. This kind of comparative activity could be between just a couple of examples initially, and then can be revisited later in the course as time and coverage permit.