When to Stop

Since we recorded that episode, I've thought about a definition for Vedanta.

In Zen, for listeners, you might have already heard this chronology.

You have these four Vedas, these textbooks that nearly all Eastern philosophy is built on, the Vedas.

The oldest one, I think in 2016, that we know of, the Rig Veda, a portion of the Rig Veda was dated to 6,000 from one of the finds of an ancient version of it to 6,000 B.C., 2016 so a few years ago i was like wow these are older than we thought and that's 8 000 years of this lineage within this philosophy but it's also been those four textbooks vedanta another word for uh or another definition of vedanta's end of the vedas because veda anta those are two sanskrit words that mean the end of the vedas so put together you have vedanta But this lineage, not only has it led to people teaching today, like any of the links in the show notes to this episode will take you to, but it's also been the foundation of which thousands of years into the Vedas existing, you have Hinduism and a whole Litany of rituals get built on top of this philosophy.

Then you have, as the adage goes, Buddhism, which is Hinduism made for export, simplified back to the philosophy as it leaves India and enters China.

And from China, you have a derivation like Zen that leaves China and enters Japan.

And you follow it all the way back to the Vedas.

Into the, of the Vedas, the reason it's called Vedanta into the Vedas is because the Vedas will include all kinds of different aspects to Buddhism.

living life but the end portion it's called the also called the upanishads sanskrit has like 12 words for everything the upanishads which means sit close below because you receive this predates the written word it was an oral tradition long before it was ever written down before the written word existed before um an alphabet system existed to write this down but this philosophical portion of the Vedas, the end of the Vedas.

That's where the worldview, the approach to life, the philosophy was.

They're close cousins.

The philosophies are such close cousins with each other.

Same thing with Jainism or Taoism, Buddhism, Zen, obviously a derivation of Buddhism.

It's going to be quite close to it.

Hinduism, Vedanta, the philosophy and the Upanishads.

But I felt like when Joseph said this, I was like, man, that's such a great definition for Vedanta as well.

Knowing when to stop.