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To: soc.religion.eastern From: Roger Adams (radams@cerritos.edu) Subj: Vedanta/Advaita (0000.vedanta.ra) Date: unknown Warning: This post has the approach that there is Truth and the various great religions have emphasized some portion of this Truth , and none of the great religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism have a monopoly on this Truth and none are without some portion of Truth. So what doctrine, dogma, and magnaminously pompous religiosity must I be following in order to have this viewpoint? Is it Undoism? Swami Satchidananda says that he is often asked "What religion are you? You talk about the Bible, Koran, Torah. Are you a Hindu?" and he replies "I am not a Catholic, a Buddhist, or a Hindu, but an Undo. My religion is Undoism. We have done enough damage. We have to stop doing any more and simply undo the damage we have already done" :-). Actually this view is from the point of view of Vedanta, a kind of universal religion in that all the various religions are taken to be various sects and not fully self-contained (ie. no monopoly on Truth). Speaking of the very ancient Vedanta philosophy which came from India, Swami Vivekananda said: "This Vedanta philosophy has certain peculiarities. In the first place, it is perfectly impersonal. It does not owe its origin to any person or prophet. It does not build itself around one man as a center. Yet it has nothing to say against philosophies which do build them- selves around certain persons. In later days in India, other philosophies and systems arose, built around certain persons - such as Buddhism, or many of our present sects. They each have a certain leader to whom they owe allegiance, just as the Christians and Mohammedans have. But the Vedanta philosophy stands at the background of all these various sects, and there is no fight and no antagonism between Vedanta and any other system in the world." Swami Vivekananda used terms "Advaita" and "Vedanta" interchangeably. He refers to Advaita as "nonduality, oneness, the idea of an Impersonal God". On the subject of the history of Vedanta in India and touching on Buddha and Buddhism, he said: "Advaita was never allowed to come to the people. At first some monks got hold of it and took it to the forests, and so it came to be called the 'forest philosophy.' By the mercy of the Lord, Buddha came and preached it to the masses, and the whole nation became Buddhists. Long after that, when atheists and agnostics had destroyed the nation again, it was found that Advaita was the only way to save India from materialism. Then Shankaracharya arose and once more revivified the Vedanta philosophy. He made it a rationalistic philosophy. In the Upanishads the arguments are often very obscure. Buddha laid stress upon the moral side of the philosophy, and Shankaracharya, upon the intellectual." [I quote this from _Vedanta Voice of Freedom_ Swami Vivekananda]. This last may cause some disagreement as Buddhists these days would not see atheism or agnosticism as an misconstruction of the teachings of Buddha but rather fully consistent with it. Whatever your opinion, Vedanta has no problem with it but I do feel that although Truth is beyond words, it is not beyond realizing and this Truth is God and nothing is apart from That. According to Swami Vivekananda who came to U.S. in late 1800's and early 1900's to preach Vedanta, the Buddhist concept of Nirvana is exactly the same as the Vedantist concept of Brahmin [from same source previously cited]. He was bold enough to make this claim from his own realization and not theory or just high philosophy as I might be correctly accused of if I made this claim. Take it any way you like but I prefer to see Buddha in the context NOT of "Hinduism" which seems to be rather confusing with all its sects but in the context of the pure Advaita Vedanta that Swami Vivekananda introduced to America at a time that one might consider to have not been a very receptive time :-). One can be a Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or whatever and still adhere to Vedanta philosophy but this might make you unorthodox especially in religions like Christianity but in no way any less a Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu etc. Roger Adams radams@cerritos.edu To those in whom love dwells, Cerritos College the whole world is one family. 11110 Alondra Blvd A Hindu Proverb Norwalk, California 90650 USA 292 Dwapara :-) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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