C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

     The following is another passage from the book "History of Mysticism" by Swami Abhayananda.  This one deals with the three "stages" of knowing God, the Absolute Reality—and then understanding It as your True Self in the end.  (By the way, there are so many "gems" in this book that I would recommend anyone who wants to truly understand mysticism to read the whole thing.) It has long been recognized as a fact of mystical psychology that, as a man comes to know God in the unitive vision, he knows in that some moment, his own true Self. This intriguing fact is expressed most succinctly in a passage from the ancient Indian epic, the Ramayana; in it, Rama, who represents the Godhead incarnate, asks his servant, Hanuman, “How do you regard me?” And Hanuman replies: dehabhavena daso’smi jivabhavena twadamshakah atmabhave twamevaham (When I identify with the body, I am Thy servant; When I identify with the soul, I am a part of Thee; But when I ident

     A writer on mysticism whose books have influenced me greatly is the modern day Vedanta master Swami Abhayananda.  His books "The Supreme Self" and "The Wisdom of Vedanta" are two of the clearest expositions on the philosophy of Vedanta that you will ever read.  A book of his that I read recently was "History of Mysticism."  It is exactly what its title implies: A history of mysticism down through the ages (with an always Vedantic slant, of course.)      Whether you agree (or not) with the conclusion that the Buddha was a Vedantic revisionist—as Abhayananda concludes—his brief summary of the Buddha's life and teachings is well worth the read.  The following is the section on "The Buddha" from the book  "History of Mysticism."  (If you want to read more from this yogic sage, visit his website at www.swami-abhyananda.com.) The Buddha In the 6th century B.C.E. the main center of Indian civilization was in the Ganges plain, or the