Part VI

[Guest guest]

Namaste Chitteranjanji,

Your continued pressing of the

the Realist position as being entirely valid within the

domain of Advaita strikes a chord with me. Like you I

believe that this is a grossly neglected and moreover

ill understood aspect of the Advaitic intuition. I use

the word 'intuition' advisedly in that I hold that the

springs of a world view are out of the pre-conceptual

and chthonic.These waters bubble up East and West from

the same source. Now I fully accept that this is a

difficult thesis to uphold. In this sub-terra incognita

one goes by inklings and by the faith that after all

human nature is of the same timber all the world over.

Nothing fanciful there, but two elements give rise to

doubts. The problem fields are different which causes

subtle differences which make it seem as though the

streams, to keep the hydraulic metaphor, had different

sources.

 

You mentioned Spinoza in your essay and you have

convinced me that there is an unrecognised well of

Advaitic or non-dual intuitions which have of course

escapted Western commentators so far which is to be

expected as Eastern thought hardly appears in the

Philosophy department except perhaps for a multicultural

nod. Following your valued signpost I shall be reading

Spinoza when I get a chance.

 

Right now I am following a similar line in Aristotle's

De Anima on the subject of Substance, Matter & Form and

the Active and Passive Intellect. Such terminology

sounds alien to the the usages of Sankara's Advaita but

I believe that it is a sustainable thesis that they are

expressing a similar intuition in ways which are

conditioned by the problem fields and the terminology

that they are accustomed to.

 

Very stimulating post,

Best Wishes, Michael.