Laura/sattva

[Guest guest]

Dear Laura,

 

It might be pointed out that being, existence, reality are all mental

concepts, and are not the " highest reality. "

 

Brahman both is and is not. It exists and does not exist. It is both real

and unreal. It has no describable essence. It is not an " it. " " It " has

no character (or lack of such), no innate disposition (or lack of innate

disposition).

 

Ya see, all these concepts (being, existence, reality, essence, etc.) have

opposites. Nonduality is the transcendence or union of opposites.

Anything that can or does have an opposite (life---death,

truth---ignorance) exists only in the mind as a concept, and nothing more.

 

W/Love,

 

Tim

 

At 04:12 PM 2/12/2000 -0500, you wrote:

> " Laura Olshansky " <editor

>

>Dear Tim,

>

>Oh goody, this gives me an excuse to use the new Sanskrit dictionary

>that I finally broke down and bought. (Actually, I got a very clean used

copy

>of Macdonald's dictionary, which is pretty much the standard one, for

>$95 on http://dogbert.abebooks.com.)

>

>According to the dictionary, the Vedic meanings of " sattva " -- in other

words,

>the earliest known Hindu meanings -- are " being, existence, reality, " and

" essence,

>nature, innate disposition, character. "

>

>Later, in the post-Vedic period, the word gained the additional meaning

>you mention of one of the gunas.

>

>So the Buddhist usage here is actually the earlier meaning, consistent with

>the Vedas, not the later one.

>

>Love,

>

>Laura

>

>P.S. I can see why people study Sanskrit. It's spine-tingling

>to read these words and realize they come from the oldest known

>books in the world.

 

 

-----

Sum Ergo Sum

 

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