Guest guest Posted December 11, 2003 Report Share Posted December 11, 2003 Namaste, The following site called 'Awareness' has many pithy aphorisms which sound quite Advaitic to me. I have not read it all, but the first few links seem correct from an Advaitic point of view. The extensive excerpts from the Yoga Vasistha confirm this. I have become quite enthusiastic about the Yoga Vasistha lately; it is surely an idealist's dream scripture (pun intended). Please at least read those excerpts. http://www.awareness.com/ My only quibble so far is this author's claim that life has no purpose but is simply the play of consciousness. I know this is a traditional Indian concept, but I am rather inclined to think that Consciousness is gently leading all of us to Moksha, one way or another. I call that a purpose. Frederico, I am working on an answer to your question. Hari Om! Benjamin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 12, 2003 Report Share Posted December 12, 2003 Benjamin-ji, I again suggest 'The Supreme Yoga' (Yoga Vasishtha) written by Swami Venkateshananda. It is nicely organised for daily reading. The pages are numbered as dates from Jan 1st to Dec 31st. The recommendation is to read one page before meditating every day. So far it has been really interesting for me. -Rahul S. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 12, 2003 Report Share Posted December 12, 2003 Namaste Rahul-ji, >I again suggest 'The Supreme Yoga' (Yoga Vasishtha) >written by Swami Venkateshananda. It is nicely >organised for daily reading. The pages are numbered >as dates from Jan 1st to Dec 31st. The recommendation >is to read one page before meditating every day. So far >it has been really interesting for me. I have the longer Yoga Vasistha (768 pages), translated by Swami Venkatesananda, and am eagerly reading it at this very moment! That is why I referred to the excerpts in the previous message; I am encouraging people to buy it. It is a classic way up there with the Vivekachudamani, according to leading Advaitins such as Swami Sivananda. It is an amazing encyclopedic compendium of Advaitic wisdom, and it is written in an enjoyable and entertaining style. It is now one of my favorites. Note that it was only translated by Venkatesananda, not written as you said, since it is an ancient text. Does anybody know how ancient? Can anybody tell us something reliable about Sage Vasistha? As a personal aside, I have noticed that all the ideas I liked in Buddhism can be found here, as well as much more. I once had some discussions on this list about the relation of Buddhism (especially Mahayana) to Advaita. I now feel that Buddhism is a subset of the wisdom of the Yoga Vasistha. It took certain of the more abstract ideas and left out any notion of God, even Brahman. But in both cases, the aim is to rise to nondual consciousness, which is the true reality. Buddhism contains those ideas from the Yoga Vasistha which are accessible to skeptical intellectuals as well as non-Hindu foreigners. I think this is the proper perspective on the relationship of Buddhism to Hinduism, a topic which has long intrigued me. Hari Om! Benjamin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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