Harmandir Sahib, Amritsar · Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sikhism

Tradition·Founded 1499 CE·est. ~26 million worldwide

Sikhism → 1 branch

Branch
The Interior of Sikhism

When the I goes quiet.

The whole diagnosis is haumai — the self that will not stop announcing itself — so the goal is a person for whom that has simply stopped being interesting. Sikh vocabulary calls such a person gurmukh, facing the Guru, against the manmukh who is still taking orders from his own head.

Reached throughNam simran until the one doing it stops being the point
What it is likeThe commentary that narrates your own importance goes quiet
What it signifiesThe gurmukh — turned toward the Guru — as opposed to the manmukh, who is still taking instructions from himself
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

The whole diagnosis in Sikh psychology is haumai — literally I-me, the running assertion of a separate self — so the goal is not a special experience but a person for whom that assertion has stopped being interesting. The corpus uses a pair of terms constantly: the gurmukh, whose face is turned toward the Guru, and the manmukh, who is still taking instructions from his own head. Japji puts it in four words: conquer the mind and the world is conquered. What is notable is how unremarkable the resulting person is meant to look — the gurmukh keeps working, keeps a family, gives a tenth away, and is not described as acquiring powers. Sikh preaching is fairly hard-headed about this, and the standard warning is that a person who announces their own spiritual attainment has, definitionally, not achieved it.

From the sources — the passages this rests on; concise renderings, cited

Conquer the mind, and the world is conquered.

Guru Nanak, Japji Sahib pauri 28, Guru Granth Sahib Ang 6 (rendered)

The whole programme, in four words.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
The self is reborn until liberation. Hinduism · core tenet Go deeper →
Suffering has a cause, and therefore an end. Buddhism · core tenet Go deeper →
The soul is liberated by its own effort. Jainism · core tenet Go deeper →
The four who went into the orchard. Judaism · story Read it in full →
The kingdom has arrived and has not arrived. Christianity · core tenet Go deeper →
Ascetic discipline liberates. Shaivism · core tenet Go deeper →

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