Guest guest Posted April 19, 2003 Report Share Posted April 19, 2003 Namaste! Some time back, I tried to argue a number of things in a long Consciousness thread. One thing I tried to argue is that the external, material world does not exist. By no means do I wish to revive that argument! However, recent web explorations have prompted me to take a closer look at some other Advaita webpages, notably, the excellent homepage of the Advaita-L List, which seems to be a kind of sister to this list. There is a subpage called 'Creation Theories in Advaita Vedanta' at http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/avhp/creation.html#ajati On that page, we can read: >In the state of non-duality, the One Atman itself is the >whole world; there is nothing other than this Atman, >so talk of a world external to this Atman does not even arise. That certainly seems like a denial of matter to me! I mention this, because such a view is essentially the same as something called 'subjective idealism' in Western philosophy. This view has been almost universally considered as too extreme in the West and even seems a bit suspect to many Advaitins. For example, Nanda Chandran (VPCNK) rejects it in his discussion of the Yogacara school of Buddhism on his erudite website at http://home.earthlink.net/~pushpasri/ This may seem like mere philosophy, or worse yet, mere ontology ... of no use to liberation. My humble view, for what it is worth, is that the appearance of a material world is the very superposition of ignorance on Brahman, the famous snake on the rope. On the contrary, seeing everything as Consciousness IS the nondual state and is the meaning of 'Atman is Brahman'. (Of course, 'seeing' here is intended as nondual and is only a word denoting that state of awareness.) One cannot separate ontology and salvation. Salvation produces a radical change in consciousness, which in turn 'changes' the entire reality which depends upon that consciousness, which in fact IS that consciousness. Likewise, I believe that contemplating the correct philosophical views can aid in bringing about the nondual consciousness, along with other aids such as meditation and proper living. Something to think about... I wonder if Nanda is listening? Om! Benjamin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 21, 2003 Report Share Posted April 21, 2003 --- Benjamin Root <orion777ben wrote: > > That certainly seems like a denial of matter to me! > > Om! > Benjamin Benjamin - it is not denial of matter but understanding matter. My self and Nanda had extensive discussions on this around last year or so or may be even before. They are three part response to Nanda's mail. Ram can help you to locate the files. My strong advice is for you to read that response and see the advaitic understanding of what perception is all about. Hari OM! Sadananda ===== What you have is His gift to you and what you do with what you have is your gift to Him - Swami Chinmayananda. The New Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo http://search. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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