Guest guest Posted August 8, 2006 Report Share Posted August 8, 2006 I hesitated to comment about buddhism but I see numerous posts here which seem to suggest somehow that the message of buddhism and vedanta are the same or what Adi Shankara preached was based or along the lines of Buddhis thought and philosophy. At the outset let me say that there is a tremendous amount of wonderful Buddhist teachings that we can learn from imbibe and be inspired from. One of my favorite books is Shantidevas Guide to the Boddhisattvas way of life and the eloquence and poetic beauty of that work in describing acquisition of sadhanacahtushtaya sampatti (viveka, vairagya, patience alertness effort, etc) is quite unparalelled. Similarly so many of Atishas books contain beautiful expositions of samsara etc. But this is true for all the religions of the world. Jaininsm is the mmost wonderful religion for learning tapas and austerity, The Psalms are wonderful poems of surrender to the Lord, the Adi Granth is exceptional in its devotional outpourings and in fact talks about a nondual truth in a multitude of ways. How immensely beautiful are these words "ik omkaar sat naam kartaa purakh nirbhao nirvair akaal moorat ajoonee saibhan gur parsaad. One Universal Creator God. The Name Is Truth. Creative Being Personified. No Fear. No Hatred. Image Of The Undying, Beyond Birth, Self-Existent. By Guru's Grace" !! Sufi mysticism, Kaballah, Zen buddhism with a multitude of sects, Tao- ism, etc - the list goes on and on. Varying portions of these religions may contain references to the truth, which once we understand advaita, we can interpret in a manner that is in keeping with this advaitic teaching. The point I would very humbly make is that nonduality is not a school of thought, much less a phiolosphy. It is the truth. It is something that needs to be understood,a dn understood clearly. Vedanta is the sourcebook or Mother Shruti of advaita, and even historians are united in their opinion that they are over at least 6000 years old (- for us of course they are eternal) Adi Shankara did not postulate advaita nor did he establish a school of thought or a separate philopsphy of advaita (perhaps being inspired by prevalent buddhist thought) as some posts here have erroneously suggested. He simply taught all of us how to interpret the shrutis in a way that would enable us to see for ourselves this simple Truth and that too in a very logical manner, and thereby attain Freedom - freedom from duality freedom from being incomplete. He never once at any point suggested this to be his philosophy. It is possible for highly evolved intellects such as JidduK, Kabir, Rumi, Khalil Gibran, even Einstein and others to almost intuitively "sense" this truth and hence their preachings and poems will also feel that they are somewhat talking about the same thing - I would say it is their purvajanma karma but that would be a matter of faith. Likewise for a Mahatma such as Ramana Maharshi who may not have received the traditional teaching at least in this janma as far as we know. If any individual talks about the Oneness of our self with the absolute then that is Advaita, and again the source for its valediction is the Shruti-vedanta. Why belabour to find traces or glimpses of thuis truth in philosophies expressed by individuals - however great they may be - when we have the truth as well as the means to the truth in plain black and white clearly expressed out for us in the Upanishads? Either we have shraddha in the Upanisshadic teachings or we don't. If we dont then let us develop shraddha in whatver teaching we follow for now and keep our efforts sincere. We cannot dismiss vedanta before understanding it and we cannot understanding it if we do not have shraddha in it. There is no way out of this. "Only the man of faith will attain this knowledge and the doubting individual will never find peace - neither here nor in the here-after" are Bhagwaan Krishna's unambiguous assertations - how true! On a personal not I myself did entertain a rather"secular" viewpoint that the same truth must be seen in all religions, until I came to understand very clearly, that vedanta and advaita are truly unique. And this is no fanatic faith but a mere statement of fact. The puzzle (of duality) and the keys to solve the puzzle (vedantic teachings) are both eternal - they have to be. From within this duality an intellect howsoever brilliant can never ever discern the keys to unlocking the duality the intellect itslef being a creation and part of this duality. The same of course hold true for the teachings that will emanate from this intellect as well. As regards to the preparation for gaining this knowledge every religion in the world if followed with faith and in keeping with its teachings will get you closer and closer by helping you develop chittashuddhi and chittanaischalyam - and if your desire for moksha as the only worthwhile purushartha is both sincere and strong it is my firm conviction that Ishwara in the form of a Guru will reward you with this vedantic teaching in some way or the other, if not in this jnama maybe in the next one. My wellintended and humble advice to a person of any religious background be it Buddhism or Jainism or any other is to sincerely follow your religion - have immense faith in it - do not look for faults in other belief systems, develop all the wonderful virtues your own religion extols you to cultivate like self-control, purity of heart, surrendering the Ego to the Lords altar, etc etc (- these are basic tenets that are common to every religion of the world -old or new). If your faith is sincere, and your intellect mature to understand the problem of samsara, then Help will always be on its way. Never a doubter be. My most sincere apologies if anything I have said here seems hurtful or prejudicial to anyone. Such is not the intent. Hari Om Shyam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 8, 2006 Report Share Posted August 8, 2006 advaitin, "shyam_md" <shyam_md wrote: > >> The point I would very humbly make is that nonduality is not a school > of thought, much less a phiolosphy. It is the truth. It is something > that needs to be understood,a dn understood clearly. > Either we have > shraddha in the Upanisshadic teachings or we don't. If we dont then > let us develop shraddha in whatver teaching we follow for now and keep > our efforts sincere. We cannot dismiss vedanta before understanding it > and we cannot understanding it if we do not have shraddha in it. There > is no way out of this. "Only the man of faith will attain this > knowledge and the doubting individual will never find peace - neither > here nor in the here-after" are Bhagwaan Krishna's unambiguous > assertations - how true! > >> Hari Om > Shyam > Namaste, Shyam-ji "Daniel come to Judgement! Wonderful!" PraNAms to ShraddhA profvk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 9, 2006 Report Share Posted August 9, 2006 "shyam_md" <shyam_md wrote: Hi Shyam <....> > Similarly so many of > Atishas books contain beautiful expositions of samsara etc. > > But this is true for all the religions of the world. Jaininsm is the > mmost wonderful religion for learning tapas and austerity, The Psalms > are wonderful poems of surrender to the Lord, the Adi Granth is > exceptional in its devotional outpourings and in fact talks about a > nondual truth in a multitude of ways. --my backgound is santmat meditation and many masters of Sant Mat are shiks whose guru is the Adi Granth. Plese elaborate on "talks about a nondual truth" > How immensely beautiful are > these words > "ik omkaar sat naam kartaa purakh nirbhao nirvair akaal moorat ajoonee > saibhan gur parsaad. > One Universal Creator God. The Name Is Truth. Creative Being > Personified. No Fear. No Hatred. Image Of The Undying, Beyond Birth, > Self-Existent. By Guru's Grace" !! > Era Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 9, 2006 Report Share Posted August 9, 2006 Namaste Sri Era: The message of Guru Nanak through the Granth Sahib (Adi Granth) contains the Truth of non-duality in very subtle terms. As rightly pointed out by Sri Shyam, the very first poem known as Ek Omkaar Sat Naam explains why it is so. Let me provide you with little more details contained in the Granth Sahib on non-dual truth. Please note that my explanations after reviewing several web pages are specific with respect to the philosophy of Sikhism contained in the poem quoated by Sri Shyam. I am not providing all the religious aspects of Sikhism and what I am stating here is just to show some similarities with respect to the non-dual Vedantic philosophy. Ek Omkaar: The only one primodal sound representing the only one God (Self of the Vedantins). Sat Naam: The name is synonymous with the indivisible non-changeable Truth Karta Purukh: The cause of all causes or the creator Nir-bhav: Free from fear or fearless Nir-vair: One who has no enemies (with an attitude of equanimity). Akaal-moorat: One who is beyond time and space or beyond intellectual comprehension Ayooni-saibhan: Unborn and ever existent Gur-parsaad: One who is Self-effulgent or one who revels in Truth without ego Jap: Always chant the fearless, nameless, formless and intellectually non-comprehensible Lord's name Aadi-sach-Jugaadi-sach: He has been present even before any recording of time Hai-bhi-sach; He remains True at present Nanak hose bhee sach: Gurunanak claims that He will remain True in the future and for ever. Granth Sahib describes the nondual eternal Self with lots of attributes to help us to comprehend Him. Gurunanak injected the `Jnana' through Bhakti and most of the Sikh religious Satsanghs are mostly through nama Japam and singing the glory of the Lord through bhajans. Harih Om! Ram Chandran Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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