Shunyata

[Gregory Goode]

At 01:45 PM 2/23/98 -0500, Chandran, Nanda (NBC) wrote:

>It's said that, in response to the Madhyamika Karikas by Nagarjuna,
>which preached the doctrine of the emptiness of theories, a Vedic
>propenent questioned that if all theories were empty, then wouldn't the
>theory which claimed thus, be empty in itself?

Good response by the Vedic proponent.  But it is no problem really, unless
one believes that at least one theory IS the TRUTH.  If one sees all
theories (even this one) at best as untrue pointers to the Truth (i.e., the
Self), then no problem.  BTW, Nagarjuna's Madhyamika Karikas are
fascinating reading, lucidly written, and clever.

--Greg

>From  Mon Feb 23 10:11:45 1998
Message-Id: <MON.23.FEB.1998.101145.0500.>
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 10:11:45 -0500
Reply-To: chandran at tidalwave.net
To: "Advaita (non-duality) with reverence" <ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU>
From: Ram Chandran <chandran at TIDALWAVE.NET>
Organization: Home Personal Account
Subject: Vedanta and Mathematics
Comments: To: Advaita List <Advaita-L at tamu.edu>
Comments: cc: "Chandran, Nanda (NBC)" <Nanda.Chandran at NBC.COM>
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Chandran, Nanda (NBC) <Nanda.Chandran at NBC.COM> writes:

> I'm not sure if the members are aware, not only are the concepts of
> zero and the decimal system of Indian origin, but so is our current
> numeric system itself, which are wrongly called Arabic Numerals. .....

Greetings Nanda:
You are absolutely. Arabs were great merchants who came to India for the
spices. Those who read the Aesop fables carefully, they can notice that
the animals Lion, etc. that are refered in those fables do not
correspond to Arabian countries. Those fables have more in common to the
Panchatantra stories and certainly should have come from India. The
arabian merchants were smart business people who took the spices, the
numerals and the stories from India.  They cherished the values of the
goods that they took from India and shared with the rest of the world.
The great Nalanda University situated near Patna was a World University
with students coming from all over Asia. The historical facts about
Nalanda was well documented by early chinese visitors.  We have to blame
ourselves for not keeping historical facts of ancient history in written
form.

Have a nice day!



--
Ram Chandran
9374 Peter Roy Ct.
Burke, VA 22015
Ph.703-912-5790