language (Was Re: Quotations)

[Allan Curry]

Namaste

Jaldhar H. Vyas writes:

>The very essence of truth is it is objective and constant.  It cannot
>depend on any persons experience.  Experience can at best be supporting
>evidence for the truth or falsehood of a proposition.  It is _only_
>through language and logic we have a framework for independantly
>determining the truth.
>

This would be good if we could do it. Shall we try to reason together? :-)
I'll suggest the following (loosely borrowed from V.S.Iyer):

1.  A (is the supreme truth) iff (if and only if) B (some criterion).
2.  B.
3.  -->  (therefore)  A.

To be the supreme truth something would have to be unchanging in all
three states (waking, dreaming, deep sleep) and it would have to be
beyond contradiction, even beyond the possibility of contradiction.

Awareness alone is seen by its own self illuminating light to be
unchangingly omnipresent at all times in all three states (waking,
dreaming, deep sleep). Because nothing else remains constant, no
contradiction can actually be established.

Therefore awareness is the supreme truth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I would appreciate hearing how Advaita could be argued more convincingly.
In particular, the second point may seem pretty weak to those who have no
direct experience of witnessing (non-dual awareness) during the sleep
state. Is there really a way to demonstrate the truth of Advaita without
reference to the experience of human beings throughout the three states?

Namaste

-a.c.