This lecture was given on September 29, 2019, at the Vedanta Society of Northern California by Swami Tattwamayananda.

-The lecture begins with a quotation of two ancient verses written by Kshemendra, living in Kashmir, in the 11th century AD in his famous Avadānakalpalatā, a Sanskrit work depicting the previous life cycles of Gautama Buddha and his spiritual evolution.
-The first verse means if you think of Buddha, if you meditate on Buddha, even those who are in a state of spiritual darkness will have an inner spiritual ecstasy (निर्वृति). There is an indescribable peace on Buddha's face and that peace will be translated to Buddha when they contemplate the spiritual significance of his life and teachings.
-The second verse means the sweet and peaceful glance of the Buddha will give us a shower of immortality. It cools down our heart and mind, calms down our anxiety and even a person who is very primitive in his spiritual life will be liberated by contemplating on Buddha and his message.
-Buddha (6th century BC), Shankaracharya (6th century AD), Ramakrishna - Vivekanananda (19th Century)
-Buddha had to confront corrupted Vedic rituals. For example, he confronted a king who was practicing animal sacrifice by offering his own life in place of the limping lamb who was going to be sacrificed. The king repented and founded the first hospital for animals - the beginning of veterinary science.
-He preached in Prakrit, an unrefined form of Sanskrit. He spoke in the language of the common person.
-Buddha means the enlightened one, the awakened one. He didn't teach a particular dogma, he taught compassion, wisdom, and the art of living a spiritual life in this world. There is a degree of incompleteness in life when we do not have a higher transcendental goal. That is called "duhkha." Grief is a very imperfect translation, rather it is a feeling of spiritual imperfection despite having everything in the world - possible only for a very refined person.
-catvāri āryasatyāni - the four noble truths
-Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta – mindfulness - samyak - smrti is now known as mindfulness. Awareness minus entanglement is the 7th discipline, which leads to nirvana.
-Vivekananda defined Buddhism as the humanization of Vedantic principles. Buddha says there are three fires in our mind: desire, anger, and delusion. Fire can be used for cooking or it can consume the house.
-Parable 1: The Mustard Seed - A wealthy person hoarded his gold so it turned to ashes. A virtuous poor woman came one day and when she put her hand on the ashes it turned to gold because whatever she had, she was using it for good. Later, this woman who had lost her only son, was inconsolable. She went back to the rich man, who had now become spiritually evolved, and he told her to visit Buddha. When she reached Buddha, he asked only for a small quantity of mustard seed. She was happy, but as she left, he added that it had to be from a house that had not seen the death of a child, husband/wife, parent, or friend. She was not able to find any house. When she came back empty-handed Buddha instructed her that all things are transitory. These problems are not an individual problem; they are universal for all people. Buddha explained the 12-link chain of cause and effect.
-Story from Bhagavata Purana: Chitraketu - A king lost his son. Nobody could console him; Narada came and realized he could not be consoled. Buddha also could not console the woman in the previous parable in theory. The process of looking for a mustard seed made her ready to understand. Similarly, Narada had to bring the son back to life. He told that he could not recognize his parents because he had had so many parents in the past and his parents were once his own children. The king and queen were then consoled.
-Parable 2: The very interesting story of Buddhahood - Buddhahood is already in us but we delude our self into thinking that we are not already Buddhas. A young son ran away from his poor family. When he was older he came back to his home and could not recognize his own father who had become very rich. The father could recognize his own son. The servants dragged his poor son back home; the son was scared and ran away. He sent the servants disguised as beggars and brought him back to take a good job in the house. The son could understand this. Over time, the father showed his affection, reduced his duties, and when his father was about to die told him the truth: this poor man who was working as a servant in his own home was actually the inheritor of all of the wealth. In the same way after doing karma yoga, practicing spiritual disciplines, we are able to understand the real experience of Buddhahood.
-Parable 3: The White Elephant and the Blind Men - The owner brought the elephant to a land where all people were blind. Some blind men thought the elephant was a great snake, another like a small snake, others thought it was different because of all of the different parts they could feel. Only the owner knows the whole elephant. Like that, one who takes refuge in the Buddha, the enlightened one, will get the whole of truth; otherwise he may only realize one part of the truth. The aspirant should practice and realize the whole truth itself.
-Parable 4: Fire Worshiper and Orthodox Priest - A priest thought he was the greatest worshiper in the world. His sacred fire was guarded by a dragon. Buddha came and the priest was happy. Buddha insisted on staying in the same room with the fire, but the priest was afraid that the dragon would attack the Buddha. Instead, the dragon became pacified and lost all of its anger and hatred. The significance is that we should not think that rituals constitute the whole of spiritual life; they are stages through which we evolve to get to our higher spiritual ideal -Buddhahood.