I will make an attempt to explain my relationship with Hindu and Buddhist concepts. There is a reason for me to do so.
During my Shamanistic times, I had an experience which I cannot interpret without those concepts (words and their definitions).
The experience is summarized in a story I wrote for a contest of 50 or fewer words.
Life in Those Yesterdays
In that instant time stretches.
Today relived then sloughed away.
Yesterday briefly remembered then gone.
All deeds done and lessons learned
peeled back to drop away
dead skin.
A center spark alone remains
then drifts away.
I suspect that spark is not me
nor is it mine
but rather another's.
Link
Some terms, Buddhist and/or Hindu:
Nirvana (blown out/gone/annihilated)
ahiṃsā (nonviolence toward all beings)
moksha (liberation/freedom from the passions and the cycle of death and rebirth)
karma (action, intent and consequences)
The big thing seems to be Atman. so I quote Wikipedia here:
Atman is a central concept in the various schools of Indian philosophy, which have different views on the relation between Atman, individual Self
(Jīvātman), supreme Self (Paramātmā) and, the Ultimate Reality (Brahman), stating that they are: completely identical (Advaita,
Non-Dualist),[2][3] completely different (Dvaita, Dualist), or simultaneously non-different and different (Bhedabheda, Non-Dualist + Dualist).
en.wikipedia.org...(Hinduism)
So beings as I am by no means non-dualist I distinguish Ahamkara(self/ego/I), Atman(a spark of Braman), and Braman (Ultimate Reality).
Karma is pretty big. I have hurt others. They will carry scars, be they physical, or emotional such as PTSD for life. No amount of remorse on my part
will change that. Forgiveness even, is a slight alleviation, it doesn't completely disappear.
This karma I carry for the rest of my life. It is not transferred to someone else to work out or suffer for. The one's I've hurt work out their pain
for life. I suffer guilt for life.
Even though the Atman is a piece of Braman, which returns to Braman, although never disconnected from Braman, each Atman is separate individually.
As for moksha, (liberation/freedom from the passions and the cycle of death and rebirth); that is the birthright of all living beings.
edit on
21-8-2023 by pthena because: (no reason given)